This little figgy!
Somewhere around 1995, a friend handed me a twig. It was a fig cutting from a tree that was growing wild in a forest here in Georgia, of a totally unknown variety. I planted it in a pot, and then, when I bought a house, in the yard. We got delicious figs for years from that little twig, and it grew into a climbing tree for the kids.
When we were moving, we took cuttings with us from the now massive fig tree/bush. We potted them after they sprouted roots, and then planted those six cuttings in pots. In 2017, we planted them at our farm in Good Hope, and those were our first six figs, and the beginning of our farm.
We have planted more every year since, of varying varieties. We now think our original fig, which we call “home fig,” is probably a Celeste. In addition, we have added two or more of each of the following over the years since: LSU purple, LSU gold, Celeste, Italian Honey, Brown Turkey, Kadota, Magnolia, Chicago Hardy, Black Mission, Jack’s Black, Nero’s Caesar, Peter’s Honey, Tennessee Mountain, Violette di Bordeaux, Strawberry Verte, Sucrette, and Green Ischia. We also have several unknown label fails. Did you know sharpies are far from permanent when it rains? We’re hoping some of these unknowns can become known once they start bearing fruit. We now have 95fig trees, between the orchard and the high tunnel. Most are 2-5 year olds.
Our figs get compost and organic fertilizers, and in addition, we run our chickens, ducks, and geese through the orchard during the fall and winter. They scratch up overwintering pests, and do their own direct fertilization treatment.
Some figs start producing right away, but typically only give a handful of figs or so in the first couple of years. It’s generally 3-5 years before you get a decent harvest. So, we now have some three and four year old trees, and 2022 was looking optimistic. Every year since has seen an increased crop, with 2024 being an amazing surprise harvest from our 2 year old high tunnel trees.
Spring came early in 2020-2022. Each year, after a long enough spring that the figs were thriving with tender new growth, we had a crazy late freeze, which killed back the green new growth, but didn’t kill the trees themselves. This didn’t leave our figs thriving, and year after year of this was getting old.
Well, if there was no risk, it would be a grocery store, not a farm. And, who wants grocery store figs, right?
We decided in October of 2022 that we would plant our least thriving figs in the high tunnel. We planted 23 tiny, scrawny figs in there. In addition, we purchased 23 more new starts. This was a Hail Mary- are we still going to be able to grow figs as a commercial crop? The answer was a resounding yes. In 2023, we had a harsh winter, down to 8 degrees Fahrenheit. We lost some of our outside figs, but we were able to keep our high tunnel figs warm enough with propane heaters. In the spring, when we had yet another late freeze, we were able to keep the high tunnel figs from freezing back. 2024 gave us a mature fig crop from our 2 year old trees.
Why do we keep figs in the high tunnel? Because it enables us to control the quality by keeping the irrigation even. In addition, we can control the weather to help the plants thrive. We have fig varieties that don’t grow well here in our high tunnel, and they are thriving and producing well. In addition, bird netting keeps the birds out much more effectively than in the open. All of this gives you, our customer, a gourmet fig experience of delicious, full flavored, ripe figs.