Herman,

The weather is the same here in San Francisco this year.
I've seen so many cold and cloudy days this August,
and during Sept also. No rain either. Just fog, and chill.

We got weather in the 50s to low 60s for a long time.
And through it all, Desert King and Osbourne Prolific is doing fine. In fact, today, I got a very juicy and sweet Osbourne.

jonathan:I would like to know what color your Osbourne is.
I have one that had 7 breba and kept them all.and About five main crop,ripe to now.This one is from Oregon and has beautiful bartlet pear shape and color about 40 gram each.
I also have a young Archipel,wich is also colled Osborn prolific in the literature and the fruits were chestnuts yellow ,Turbinate in shape about the same size.
There is another Osborn Prolific wich is Dark brown in color,when ripe.Wich one you have??????
Also have a young Desert King rooted this sommer but did not fruit yet.

Greenhouse is the way to go. I have a fig in a pot, but the roots went into the soil, so I couldn't take it out of the greenhouse. I've been harvesting around 5 figs a day for the past 2 weeks, and still have lots of figs. They are very sweet, and not spoiled with the rain. I'm usually picking figs until december.

Bass

Bass,

Which variety do you have in the GH. I may experiment with
one or two next year.

Also I may soon bring in a smaller one or two (not much
space!) that have figs and may not mature by the end of
this summer...

George (NJ).

Thank you for the information on greenhouse. That makes me so happy. It sounds like a cool greenhouse would be ideal, it would give a cooling off period but not freeze. I read somewhere that the gardeners of kings were able to provide figs for 6 months using protective glass cold frames and composting manure for heat. The place I . I have thought of moving my greenhouse here (it is still set up at my parents) or of building an addon to house my plants. I can't wait to see how they do here :).
3jsmom31

Herman, I got the purple colored Osbourne Prolific. I always thought they only came in a purple variety. I have had no trouble ripening this one even without much heat, and it has been a terrible year on the west coast as well. What is up with the weather?

The last couple of Osbournes I tasted was very soft and juicy with high water content. It had very good sweetness. Yummy. This is the first season that I had this fig tree. I bought it in a 15 gallon, and it already gave me great figs.

For me, I consider this a big deal, that I can get good figs despite where I live. San Francisco is known for very mild spring, summer, and fall weather. We're in the 60s to lower 70s during summer most of the time. Sometimes fog blocks out the sun. The only good thing is that we don't have freezing winters. Winters are also mild, so we get very few chill hours. Unlike people who have to lug their figs inside every winter, I can just leave them outside because its rare to see it go below 30s. However, the low summer heat causes figs here to ripen later than in hotter regions. The lack of heat also means that rarely can I ever have my figs compete in a taste test against others grown in hotter areas. Never the less, the figs that I have had so far were still yummy.

The trouble I had with the Osbourne is that the purplish fig color seems to attract birds who peck at it. I easily solved that problem with a zip-lock bag with a couple hundred holes poked through it everywhere. If you don't poke enough holes, the condensation will rot your figs.

I have yet to see my Desert King or Excell figs get attacked by birds. Its like they don't even notice it. Lucky me.

By the way, I have tasted some Brown Turkey Figs in the market, and they were very bland. I have an improved brown turkey as well. I sure hope mines don't end up tasting like the stores.

Do you know when Improved Brown Turkey is suppose to ripen?
The figs look like it is just starting to swell right now, and is about the size of a large date.

Soon

Herman, sorry to hear that the weather has been so challenging for your grapes and figs.

Since I am still a novice, I dont have a lot of years to go on, but the weather in the Northwest this year was very good for grapes and OK for figs. Only a few Brebea, but these were the first ones for me ever. They were very sweet on my unknown variety and on the petite negri. Now the Main crop is starting. They are not as sweet as the brebas but still good.

Wish I could share some grapes with you - this was a good year for them too!

Daniel

Well Daniel ,Thanks .I am not complaining i do not have any,because i have the most deasese resistant grapes and they grew well even in this bad weather.But the taste was second grade.Regards

This has also been my worst year(only my 3rd) for the garden. The tomatoes did horrible, and the figs trees are loaded with unripe figs. Miraculously, they have taken a turn for the better. At the begining of this week, the figs that were stunted for half of the summer started growing again. The blew up, fast! I ate 5 figs yesterday, and even though the were rain logged, they were excellent! Whats strange is that in a matter of hours, my green figs are turning brown on the outside(rotting, or shock to the chilly nights?) but the inside is sooooooooo damn good. they were dripping honeydew, like a drip feeder! I had to fight with bees over who was going to eat them. I was certain that it was the end for the figs this year, but by some grace of God, he blessed me. Something else could have stunted them, as I was in Greece for a month, and left the watering to family. THEY KNOW IM CRAZY WITH THOSE TREES THOUGH!

My first year grapevines grew perfectly, I focused on training them into a cordon system, and will focus on fruit next year. 10 vines, and theyre gorgeous on the trellis i put in front of the house.

Out of 20 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, I only ate about 8 types. Terrible terrible year.

My roses were a spraying battle! This was the first year for them, 8 types, and it was certainly a wet start for them. I had a nice spray cyclye, with serenade organinc spray, and they exploded! Theyre all so beautiful.

I have enough herbs in the freeezer to last the year, plus tons for my restaurant, friends restaurants, and family!

Im just not looking forward to bringing the trees inside, and all the other flowers, and mumbo jumbo!

ciao,
Anton

Well Anton You are right ,It is turning better ,and if nice weather help us we will have more fruits.I also had a very good year with my tomatoes,just look at this picture:ALL HAIRLOOM TOMATOES!!!!!

Herman, most of my grapes ripened before the rains hit so I got some great tasting grapes in August. The ones ripening now are rotting, its horrible. The tomatoes also split and rotted, only a couple were salvageable this weekend. Figs were not many and rotted or got stolen. The only winner this week was the Indian Free peaches, they are in perfect shape and are very tasty.

Scott

O yes,Scot you are right:This Tom.are taken before the raining days ,in August,now whatever is left is in bad shape.
I am so thankful to you ,that you pointed to a peach that will produce in our climate and not go bad fast.I had Elberta ,Red haven,Georgia,and they go rotten before they ripe in my backyard,due to brown rot.I cut them out.I wonder where you found to buy this tree?

My grapes which were doing best were:Jupiter Alwood Steuben,Niagara.
____Concord,Cayuga,Sheridan,Canadice,were cracking and splitting very bad,so no good in our climate.

Herman, I had other peaches also do well that I harvested earlier so I'm not sure that it was the Indian Free in particular that was good. But, Indian Free is a classic American peach and I wouldn't be surprised if it were somewhat more resistant to rot - it is one of the few peaches highly resistant to peach leaf curl for example. It is an unusual peach with red flesh and a somewhat more acidic taste. It is also very late, ripening now for me. I think it is a wonderful peach but it is small in size and not tasting like your ordinary peach so I am sure some people would not like it. It comes true from seed so if you want some seeds I can send you some. It was commonly grown from seed by Indians in colonial America, thus the name. I got my tree from Bay Laurel nursery.

All my pre-rain grapes did well: Swenson Red, Edelweiss, Canadice, Worden, Steuben for example. Well the Cayuga Whites had some kind of sooty blotch stuff on them, but at least they didn't crack. Your season sounds like it is a bit behind mine since those grapes just missed the rains for me. The only problem I had on the early grapes was first birds and then wasps - I may try bagging the grapes next year as they get close to ripening.

Scott