Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
recarica

Fig fever in Europe

recarica
13 years ago

Hi, I live about 70 miles from Brussels in Belgium.

Many of you will recognize this story. It started with one fig tree. Then I got fig fever

First of all, I hope I donÂt make to many English Language mistakesÂ

I try to grow several kinds of fruits in our garden, apples, pears, plums, almonds, cherryÂs, nuts, currants, grapes but became addicted on growing figs.

It became worse when I met my wife whoÂs parents are Greek. Each year in august we go to her family over there fruit and fig heaven.

I grow figs in pots and have some planted in garden, some in soil, some in pots in soil, some in self-made earth boxes. I like to do some experimentingÂ

In the neighbourhood there are e few bigger fig trees, in a wall-protected garden. With climate heating up more people try to grow them.

Last 20 years temperature didnÂt go below 10° Fahrenheit. Last year they dropped  0° Fahrenheit and most of imported olive or fig trees from the mediteranean area died. I donÂt know precisely which climate zone it is over here, winter protection is certainly necessary. ThatÂs why I grow most my figs in pots which in winter I put in my garden house.

I try to grow figs that are a bit cold hardy + out of cuttings from France, Italy and Greece.

A few pictures

This is our backgarden.

A few of the fig trees, i hope you enjoy Â

Brunswick with brebaÂs

Doree

Del Portogallo



Cerreto

Madeleine de deux saisons

Alicon

Negronne

Brown Turkey & Hardy Chicago (froze down last year)

Galbun in self watering container

Newly planted Sultane with root restriction

Comments (96)

  • lukeott
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello Ninovarga, Could you please email me. lukeott@comcast.net

  • stefanos689
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Nino,

    How can i contact u? I live in Czech republic and grow some figs in my garden. I would like to visit u and see your orchard. If it is possible of course.

    Stepan

  • stefanos689
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My email is stefanos689@hotmail.com, i can also exchange some local varieties with u if interested. 100 km from Hungarian border, so no problem for me to come.

    Stepan

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Stepan,

    I sent you an email.

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Autumn in the fig orchard

  • evladi7654
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi to everybody ! Though I live in the USA I am looking for the Fig cuttings exchange !! email me at evladi7654@aol.com if interested !
    Eugene

  • evladi7654
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi ! 'ninovarga ' I love your pictures and fruit ! Do you cover your rows of Fig cuttings for the winter? When do you plant them in the picture? Email me at evladi7654@aol.com
    Eugene

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Eugene,

    the cuttings are excavated late autumn and planted in their definite places.
    I'll write you an email.

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Enjoy your meal!

  • hoosierquilt USDA 10A Sunset 23 Vista CA
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, Nino, Come e bella la tua fattoria e terre sono! (Forgive me, my Italian is pretty poor, no one to speak with anymore, grandparents and parents have all passed on.) I especially love your "Winter" photo, hah! Do you have a web site? I would love to find a way to perhaps purchase some fig cuttings from you, especially any beloved Italian fig varieties. And, I would LOVE to have your fig preserve recipe, yum!

    Patty (Marconi) S.

  • sergius
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nino, bellissimo, vuoi sapere il nome che noi usiamo per i fioroni qui in America, e' breba. La parola e' Spagnola che descrive a come i fioroni non durano come il tempo dei fichi,(breva in Italiano),ciao, Sergio, New Jersey, nel Sud.

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Patty,
    I sent you an e-mail.
    Comunque grazie per i complimenti!

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Ciao Sergio,

    grazie per la tua gentile spiegazione. Nel frattempo, leggendo diversi topic del "Fig forum" ho fatto progressi nell' inglese e ho capito che il fiorone si chiama 'breba' e i fichi si chiamano 'main crop', praticamente "produzione principale". L'etimologia (origine) della "breba" invece non la sapevo.
    Grazie di nuovo!

  • sergius
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Prego, Nino.

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Autumn color-parade in the fig orchard

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Golden leaves

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Fig season is over

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Imminent leaves-falling of the earliest variety

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ... but the latest one is green

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ... and full with tasty fruits

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Different varieties are distinguishable by different colors

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Fig and pomegranate

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Fig-view

  • rafed
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello Nino,

    How can I get a hold of you?

    Rafed

  • newtoucan
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Beautiful fig garden in Belgium. That's one country I've always wanted to visit. Gorgeous fig landscape in Hungary. I'm just curious if there are fig forums like this for Europeans? You have better English writing skills than many in the States. Interesting to know the fever is a worldwide phenomenon. I know of tulip and orchid obsession but have not heard of any other fruit that people are so obsessed with.

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dear Toucan,
    the psychology of the "fig fever" lies in the charm of the rarities.
    I was to visit a fig gatherer-trader in Tuscany and he said that his buyers are not Italians but mainly foreigners from countries where growing figs is a challenge, in defiance of the climate.
    In Italy and generally in the Mediterranean area figs are very common, you can find them everywhere, on fields, on dykes, and what is more in rock-cracks.
    There are other fruit species too that people are obsessed with in in Europe: for example persimmon and paw-paw and these on the same psichological base like fig.
    Obviously there cannot be any "European joint fig forum" like this American, partly because European Union is not united in the sense like the States in America, partly because it's to be confronted as a veritable Babel in linguistic sense.
    However there are different gardening forums in each State where fig and other fruits form subjects.
    In Hungary for example we have a forum which deals "limited hardy fruits" among them fig too.

  • alb419_ny
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello Nino,
    my name is Giuseppe and I have many varieties of figs,sono italiano and would love to trade fig cuttings with you if it is possible.Ciao,
    giuseppe
    this is my email joetozzi91@yahoo.com

  • ninovarga
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Early winter attack in Europe: first snow on hill-level

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi All,

    I'm Ninovarga's friend and colleague. I'd like to exchange fig cuttings and join the Gardenweb fig community. We can offer all the varieties mentioned/photographed above (and in "fig orchard") by Nino, I think that in almost unlimited quantity. Personally I like an early purple one the most. Its breba crop starts to ripen in the middle of June. It has a delicious strawberry-like taste and deep red color of pulp.

    To be punctual, I'm listing the other cultivars of him as well WE OFFER:

    -dark plate
    -brown plate (hardy, first crop is not plate)
    -most common cultivar of our region
    -yellow round giant, fruits sometimes about 200 grams
    -yellow round small, probably of dalmatian (Croatia) origin, few or no breba crop, but main crop is among the best
    -dark skinned, probably of Dalmatian origin, late ripening, second crop in end of October here
    -black round from the village of Kutfej, strawberry pulp
    -drying on tree, green
    -dark elongated
    -another traditional hungarian variety, main crop quite late, brown, very abundant, breba crop also
    -Italian brown, bit similar to the Hungarian brown above.

    Further to these cultivars I have the following ones, but they are 1 or 2 years-old trees, so cuttings are limited to 1-3 piece per tree (it means practically that I cannot send cuttings from these to more than 1-2 exchange partners):

    -panachee
    -parisienne
    -ronde de Bordeaux
    -yellow hard skinned from the Hungarian city of Zalaegerszeg, hardy, strawberry pulp
    -portogallo
    -sucrette
    -salato
    -col de dame (cuello de dama) black and white
    napolitana (don't know dark or light, haven't fruited yet)
    -big brownish-purple from Hungarian city of P�cs, hardy
    -brogiotto nero
    -albo
    -dattero
    -new bianco
    -dauphine
    -corso
    -nero roco
    -dottato
    -sementino
    -corvo siculo
    -piazzetta (good for drying)
    -luzzano (amber pulp)
    -bianco gigante
    -montesano
    -bottaccio o.
    -brown turkey (don't know which tipe)
    -raffaone (or possibly a missplelled faraone?)
    -San Piero Na.
    -verdino Giacomo (one of my personal favorite, green skin, deep red inside, very good for drying)
    -montalcino rosa (pink skin)
    -Madeleine des 2 saisons
    -seedless cultivar from the collection of prof. G. Zuccherelli

    After all, I'm LOOKING FOR the following:

    -As all our fig cultivars are parthenocarpic and the fig wasp is not present here, I want to collect caprifig trees and wasps or larvae inside to settle down a fig wasp colony here. I'm also looking for female cultivars requiring pollination eg. Smyrna, Calimyrna, Lop Incir, or any.

    -Any other good cultivars, for example:

    -A sangu, bursa siyahi, rigata rossa from the page ficuscarica.com

    -Ull de perdiu, verdal from galgoni.com

    -Any best US cultivar, you've talked about so many in this forum

    -Marseillaise, negronne, noire de Caromb, noire de Barbentane, sultane, tena, nefiach, grise Saint-Jean, becane or any other good, interesting French cultivar i don't have yet.

    Some people have contacted Ninovarga already but I'd kindly accept any help or offer especially about the caprifig-wasp-smyrna fig staff. We also possess 14 asian persimmon (Diospyros kaki) cultivars, so we are interested in scion wood exchange of persimmon. We are interested in non-astringent japanese cultivars although we have some already.

    Thank you all and sorry for my long post.

  • lukeott
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello figfan hungary, please email me. lukeott@comcast.net thank you

    luke

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Luke, I sent an email.

    Some pictures from our assortment:

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "korai lila" ="early purple" is one of my favorite, first mentioned.

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    "szivarfuge" is the elongated dark, "vorcsoki dalmat" is the Dalmatian yellow round, "kutfeji lila" is the "purple of Kutfej village"

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A harvest in September

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    ...and making some fig preserve:

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The new cultivars for us are still rather small, so only a few cuttings are available for exchange. We don't sell and preferably don't buy fig cuttings, we prefer the exchange method.

  • yg_zh
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    hi,figfan_hungary,i live in china,i want to exchange fig cuttings or other fruit cuttings with you,please email me,43337013@qq.com,thanks!

  • stefanos689
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Figfan,

    Pls send me an email to stefanos689@hotmail.com, I am interested in exchange

  • pako
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Salve figfan,io sono curioso a sapere se il fico Col de Dame Blanch che posiedi si trova in terra oppure in vaso.Io avrei pratticamente lo stesso clima come il tuo,ma trovo dificolta a far'maturare questa specie.Grazie se trovi 2 minuti per rispondere.
    pako

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Salve Pako, si trovano in terra, anche il Col de Dame nero e bianco. Quest'anno hanno maturati da settembre fino ad ottobre. L'estate era molto caldo in Europa quindi non posso conclurede come comportarebbero in un anno normale. Questi sono delle nuove varieta per noi.

  • figfan_hungary
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    bianco (col de dame blanche)

  • pako
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Grazzie figfan.Era importante per me saperlo.Forse non hai fatto caso,ma io sto in Bulgaria.Se queste varieta hanno matturato da voi,alora sono ottimista.Dopo tutto,la mia pianta e ancora giovane e questo e il suo primo anno in terra.Estate era veramente caldissimo anche da noi...eppure settembre ed ottobre alcuni gradi sopra la media.Speriamo bene per l'inverno che viene...Grazie ancora ed "in boca al lupo"...
    pako

  • thearabicstudent
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is the best post I've seen. It makes me want to get some land out in the countryside and just grow a ton of figs and other fruit. Maybe once I retire :). That countryside is just amazing looking!

  • mikeleti
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Where did everyone go??
    All the pleasent conversation and beautiful pictures.
    Don't let it stop.

  • Rita1984
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm new to the forum and figs (in fact, this is my very first post) and this post and the pictures are amazing! Thanks for sharing them! I grew up in the city but I love the country and figs! I hope to visit Europe one day and experience all these beautiful places in person.

  • Macimus
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    hi every one i'm new on this forum and love the pictures you posted here.

    magyar figfan wich fig would be the best to start out with in south hungary?

    i'm looking for some cuttings but don't have annything in return
    so i can pay for it :)

    greets maci

  • magnificco
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hey hungarian boys!

    My figs are growing near Munich, Germany.
    Got friends working there, too?

  • valquisser
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi,

    I'm from Malaysia and new here.

    Anyone mind to send figs cuttings but i dont have any in return because i'm just newborn to know fig.

    I really love to grow this plant. Hope there is kindly people able to help me.

    My email: valquisser@gmail.com

  • Elizabeth.1
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just wanted to know if anyone is selling small plants at the moment please?

    I am based in London, UK.

    My email is lizamallah@hotmail.co.uk

    Hoping some out there can help.

Sponsored
Landscape Concepts of Fairfax, Inc.
Average rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars17 Reviews
Northern VA's Creative Team of Landscape Designers & Horticulturists