Welcome to Fig Watch 2018.
That’s right! Figs! On the edge of their hardiness zones.
Lots of them, too. I didn’t count them but I think there are about 56 figs out there. Because maybe I did count them!
The big question is whether or not the figs will ripen before the first frost, which on average is around October 11th. But we’ve had frost as early as September 23rd and as late as November 10th.
The answer will come in a few months, perhaps sooner!
This is the first season since I planted the figs a few falls ago that I’ve actually had figs. The figs pictured are on the variety ‘Chicago Hardy’.
I also have figs on another variety, ‘Brown Turkey’.
When I saw the figs, I realized that I had no idea when they would be ready to pick so I had to look it up. They should be ready when they turn brown and fall off in my hand. My bet is on the one pictured above will be the first fig to ripen.
And with 56 figs, or thereabouts, even if the squirrels or chipmunks or raccoons eat a few, there will surely be a some left for me. But wait a minutes. Figs aren’t from around here. Will those squirrels or chipmunks or raccoons even know what they are and know to eat them?
I’m hoping they don’t know a thing about figs, but I might net these just in case.
“Fig Watch 2018” also includes watching some pawpaws ripen.
Pawpaws are native to this area so will ripen by mid-September, well before frost hits them. And like figs, they will be ripe and ready to pick and eat once you can easily pull them off the tree.
I know from experience that raccoons know exactly what pawpaws are and how to steal them and eat them. I will be figuring out some way, some how, to keep them from getting these five pawpaws, to avoid the tragedy of them swiping all of last year’s pawpaw crop.
Stay tuned for the first fig tasting and the first pawpaw tasting here at May Dreams Gardens!
I hope you're lucky with the fruit! My poor fig tree struggles to survive in one of the driest areas of my drought-stricken garden. It has nonetheless continued to produce a handful of fruit each year but the blasted squirrels take them long before they ripen.
Knee deep in Brown Turkey figs here! I hope you get to taste yours Carol, they're delicious 🙂
How exciting! I hope you get to eat your figs. We planted a Celeste fig tree a few weeks ago. It's the extreme heat of summer here in Texas so the leaves all fell off but it has since grown a fig! I'm sure we will not eat it but that's ok. We are babying the heck out of that tree with great hopes! 🙂