Fig tree, fig, fig, fig tree, Smyrna or wine berry - all these names belong to one subtropic plant losing winter foliage, whose homeland is the Mediterranean and Asia Minor.
general information
Figs have been known to man since ancient times and have been cultivated for about five thousand years. Under favorable conditions, this tree grows and bears fruit for more than three centuries. Fruits filled with juice and having excellent quality of taste were appreciated by gourmets very expensive.
There are more than a thousand varieties of this magnificent plant. Fruits have different sizes, shape, color, taste, ripening, yield (some bear fruit twice a year). Fig tree berries are widely used in the food industry. A variety of figs has been developed, which is used only for dried fruit, but is not used fresh. Fig tree to the conditions of growth is inaudible, steadily fruiting, not susceptible to diseases and pests.
Fig: description, varieties, photo
The most popular are the following:
- Crimean black. It has a European origin. When caring for the crop, it is imperative to trim and form a crown. Its high productivity and mid-term fruit ripening period allow them to feast on them twice a year - in July and September. The berries of the first harvest are large, purple, pear-shaped, asymmetric in shape, the mass of which reaches 80 g.At the second harvest, the fruits are half as much, they have an elongated shape in the form of a pear and a black color cast in violet. Raspberry juicy pulp has a slight acidity. In hot weather, the fruits of this kind of fig are dried in the sun.
- Dalmatian. One of the best early ripe table varieties. Two crops are harvested per year, the fruits of the first weighing 180 g, the second - 130 g. The shape is elongated, resembling a narrow pear, a yellowish-skinned skin with white spots. Sweet flesh melts in the mouth with a slight sourness of a reddish color.
- Abkhazian purple. Refers to figs, the variety of which has a medium-late ripening period. Fruits generously twice a year. The first crop ripens after mid-August, its fruits have a mass not exceeding 80 g. The berries of the second crop, whose mass is not more than 50 g, ripen in early November. Fruits of brownish-violet color with an elongated slightly ribbed shape, very pleasant to taste.
Frost resistant
Figs, the varieties of which can grow at temperatures up to -27 degrees, are grown in garden and home gardens as a decorating or fruit crop. Winter-hardy include:
- Brunswick. It is famous for the early ripening of very large fruits. Their mass reaches about 200 g. The shape of the berry is pear-shaped, the color is greenish with a purple tint. Juicy sugar pulp has wonderful taste qualities. Fruits twice a year. Multipurpose application.
- Kadota. Mid-term ripening, the crop is harvested twice a year. The mass of the fruit of the first crop is 70 g and 60 g of the second. The fruit is rounded in the form of a pear, a fairly dense peel of a yellowish tint with a green tint. Saturated, mouth-watering, pinkish-red flesh has an attractive taste. Kadota figs are not damaged during transportation. Applied in industrial and home conditions for the production of jams and preserves.
Self-fertile
Fig trees mainly have male and female flowers. Parthenocarpic are hybrid varieties whose fruits are formed without pollination. There are not so many of them, and the White Adriatic figs can be attributed to them. Description of the variety: fruits weighing up to 60 g with a greenish skin and reddish pulp. Ripen twice a year. Berries of pleasant sugar, almost without sour taste.
Large fruited
They have advantages over others due to the large and tasty fruits. The most large-fruited include:
- San Pedro is black. It was bred in Spain and has gained popularity all over the world, the fruits in shape resemble a beveled egg up to 10 cm in diameter, tasteful. Berries grow on long-growing fig trees, which require maintenance and good fertile soils. Under ideal conditions, the fig tree produces a rich crop twice a year. The fruits have a fragrant, sweet flesh of pink color and almost black skin. They are consumed fresh, dried or processed.
- Corderia. The berries of this sort of figs (photo below) are large, covered with a yellowish-green skin and contain a very sweet orange flesh of excellent taste.Corderia can withstand moisture deficiency in the soil, so they prefer to grow it in waterless areas.
- Sugar Celeste. Frost-resistant, with large berries and two crops during the season variety. The fruit is sweet and juicy, pear-shaped with a thin skin of greenish color with a purple tint.
The sweetest
Strawberry. The variety is distinguished by tall, strong trees and good cold resistance. Plants have good yields. Their pear-shaped fruits with a refined taste, sweet, fragrant flesh of medium size ripen after August 15. Used in fresh and processed form.
Honey. Mid-season, does not require pollination, trees are thermophilic, stunted, sprawling, do not need highly fertile soils. The fruits are light green in color, unusually sweet. The tree is adapted for growing at home.
Best early
Brogiotto Nero. Pear-shaped fruits grow on tall, strong trees, giving two constantly high yields per season. Berries weighing up to 90 g have a burgundy skin and excellent taste. As well as the most good varieties of early ripening are figs Dalmatian and Brunswick, the description of which was made above. For complete ripening, 80 days are enough for them.
Mid-late grades
Temri. Grows in the Caucasus, and Tunisia is the birthplace. The plant is self-fertile, very productive, the fruits begin to ripen in late August, fruiting ends in November. The berries are sweet, egg-shaped, slightly ribbed, covered with burgundy-purple skin, the mass reaches 75 g.
Date Neapolitan. Fruits in September once a season. The fruits are pear-shaped, have an average size and good taste, flesh of a raspberry hue, burgundy peel with a purple tint.
Pink fig tree
Variety of figs Sabrutia rosea bears fruit without pollination, is a winter-hardy tree, withstands frosts of -18 degrees, gives two crops per season. The first is called winter because the ovary forms in the fall and, with good shelter, is perfectly preserved until spring heat. In July, these fruits ripen. And at the very beginning of June, at the place of a new growth, a second crop is formed, the fruits of which ripen in September.
Large berries with a diameter of 5 to 6 cm and a length of 10 cm are pear-shaped and have excellent taste. The skin is a grayish-pink hue, and the flesh is the color of strawberries. The fully ripened fig fruit is sweet and aromatic. The tree should be grown in trenches and covered with winter insulation for winter harvest. For the autumn harvest, it is enough to spud the base with soil, pull and wrap the tree with material. Berries collected after withering have a rich aroma and very sweet, and peeled after yellowing peels are less fragrant and moderate sweetness, but they are stored longer.
Figs: description and reviews
Varieties relatively resistant to frost include:
- Sochi 7. Good yield, fruit weight reaches 50 g, berries have a pleasant slightly sour taste.
- Nikitsky. The plant is partially self-fertile, mid-ripening, the fruits are sweet-sour, large.
- Dalmatian. One of the best table varieties (description above).
Most of all there are problems when growing figs in the winter. The main task is to preserve the trees and prevent them from freezing, so amateur gardeners most often share their experience in preparing frost-resistant varieties of figs for winter. In their reviews, they recommend:
- plant a plant in places protected from the wind, and form it correctly;
- Before the onset of the winter period, the earth in the basal part of the plant should be dry, and the roots themselves should be moist;
- make the shelter breathable so that fungal diseases do not appear, and there was ventilation during thaws.
Conclusion
According to archaeological data, figs belong to one of the first cultures that people began to cultivate for eating. This happened a thousand years earlier than cultivated cereal plants appeared. Surprisingly, the pink fig variety is a tomato. The name was not chosen by chance. Tomatoes in appearance and taste are very similar to fig fruits. In our country, fig trees are grown in the Crimea, Krasnodar Territory. In a warm climate, it is not difficult to plant fig trees, and where the weather is cool, they get the crop in greenhouses or at home on window sills, using only self-fertile varieties.