Will you be living in a muggy, rainy, soupy area, such as Florida or Louisiana, where new crackers get stale when unopened? Or will you be in an arid environment?

It's in Southern California. The website I looked at listed 12.95 inches of rain a year. I know summers are quite dry, rain-wise, humidity is moderate.

you can get whatever kind you can find size and fruiting power is all based on you if you want small with lots of fruit a celeste or Brunswick type would do best but anything you can find is better than none, as far as rooting take the tree and turn it up side down and that is your root system but it will only be 1 ft deep so they are not to bad at land raising, or you can always grow in pot to keep.small and not worry about roots

In zone 9 you will have many varieties of figs to choose from. If you will be planting only one tree for eating fresh figs, I would suggest a Violet de Bordeaux or a LSU Purple. Both of these figs taste real good. The LSU Purple fig can produce three crop of figs per season in a zone 9 climate....i.e. it will produce figs all summer long.

Yes, looking for fresh figs.

Also, though, hoping for a dwarf variety. The LSU Purple entries seem all over the map on height.

You can prune a fig tree to the size that you want to keep it. Excellent productivity is what you will get with a LSU Purple fig tree. Its figs are rain tolerant, bug resistant, and will still be rich and sweet tasting during cooler weather. Now, Violet de Bordeaux does exhibit a dwarfing tendency and those figs are very good tasting too. VDB will naturally want to grow into a bush form.

Now I want both....

Thanks :)

I have Violet De Bordeaux up here and some extra wood is available but the postage would be a bit to the East Coast.

Hi

It looks as if we're going to be neighbors :)

I have a Black Jack in my backyard for 7 years now and it does very well -- without ever pruning, it stays under 8 feet. I don't have to water it now that it's established. The fruits taste like Black Missions, in fact, it might be a sport of Black Mission. I highly recommend this variety based on what you are saying -- I can send cuttings if you like.

Other figs that have done well in pots for me for a few years now are Violette De Bordeaux, Peter's Honey, Lattarulla. I like them all, esp. Peter's Honey. Violette De Bordeaux is a fine fig but it does have a different flavor, almost like raspberry jam when fully ripe. If that's what you're interested in, I could send a few cuttings of that as well.

Despite the predictions that the summers won't get hot enough here (I have a semi coastal influence), the Panache Tiger fig has thrived in my back yard for 3 years now and produced very nice figs. On the hotter summer of '10 they were better, but still good both years.

I am growing two Green Ischias from cuttings that I got last year, so they haven't fruited yet, but they are suppposed to be excellent flavored figs that have dwarfing tendencies. I will let you know how they are after I get my first harvest.

Small growing type is Negretta and produces well for its size with fruit exterior almost black with an amber and hint of red hue interior that is if you can find it. I had some at auction but that 1 type is gone for the season.
Violet de Bordeaux for me grows well and is not small like some nursery's may claim.

One of the better books on fig - history and culture was written by Gustav Eisen and can be read online in link below
and takes a minute to load the page on slow connection.
Martin
Chicago, Z-5
Ebay 1996 - Dieseler6z92
Member- Garden Web, Figs4Fun, Friends of The Fig Society

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.archive.org/stream/figitshistorycu00conggoog/figitshistorycu00conggoog_djvu.txt