Thanks to the good advice gained here and some good luck, I have been eating Paradiso, Violetta and Kadota figsn off first-year trees every few days for a month now. It appears that I'll eat another handful at least before frost. Strangely, the big purple Paradiso figs are splitting--the early ones did not but these late ones are splitting. Not a single kadota or Violetta has split, but both of those are in pots whereas the Paradiso is in the ground.

A Celeste that grew from a one-foot potted fig to a four foot in-ground bush dropped some early figs and does not appear likely to ripen those out on the ends of the branches.

Yesterday I sent a 48-inch tall Sal's(with figs on it) to an old friend in Phoenix. This morning I am looking at a 49-inch Sal's and a 29 inch Chicago Hardy, from March cuttings, that have a half-dozen figs each despite my pinching and withholding fertilizer for the past month or so. Darned if it does not appear that the Chicago Hardy may ripen its figs. There is even a chance that if I bring them indoors both will mature their figs.

I thought that when I started pinching the figs they would stop growing, but they had other ideas. They bushed, then put on figs. Now they are hardened almost all the way to the tips (perhaps an inch, sometimes two, of green wood) and preparing for winter.

Definitely something different about this climate. The sun is hard on the young figs' leaves. Even a little dryness will cause leafe-edge curl, and some of the leaves get "burned". Here those in partial shade grew best. I expect figs next year.

Ox