Herman those are beautiful and I must agree with your conclusion, you ARE a master gardener. I can hardly wait until I get my tree over this winter. You have me licking my chops.
"gene"

Thanks Gene:The ideea about a practical master gardener is to sugest and encourage all of us to take the time and grow a more difficult to succesfully ripe cultivar,that it will render a much more complette satisfaction,at the end,of the effort.
As for you in zone 9,I can see a sure success,with this cultivar.
H2

H2, I hope you're right about growing well in my area. Dan does well with his, we shared the same climate but our soil is completely different. I hope that doesn't make too much difference. Keep pushing the envelope on what can and cannot be grown in your area, it inspires all of us.
"gene"

Hi Herman,

I'm not looking for a Diploma, just reporting that Col de Dame did well here in very adverse conditions. Conditions pretty much like yours. Just about all the trees are finished for the year with an odd one or two. I wrote the following on Oct. 9th.

"Surprise, surprise! I found a ripe fig yesterday. A Col de Dame. Its a tiny plant but it did have some nice size figs. Its so long since I ate one I forgot what they tasted like but I remember they were good during the warm weather. Now the nights and mornings are cold. It tasted very good but not like a fig. It was very fruity and on the juicy side. If I was blindfolded I couldn't tell you what it was except that it was very, very good. LOL

So that is my tale. Col de Dame is good.

Peg

Herman, it seems you and Leon have tried the CdDs...

I a hoping that my small Col de Dame Gris, Noir and White give all this next year...

I was happy to have the cold weather coming in to give me a break now you have me counting down the days again until I can see my trees break buds!

Peg:You are in Conecticut!!!.
I consider it a very good achivement by you because your climate is a little colder than mine in my opinion.
Congratulation,and you are another person that can say,it did ripe in my yard.
It is a major satisfaction,more important than any Diploma,in my opinion.
If you go to any garden book,they will say,Col De Dame ripe only in Ideal hot long Sommers,so we are defying the nature,here.
Loslunas:I am sure you have a hot enough Sommer to get ripe fruits of Col de Dame in your place.
Just give it a little more protection during young years,and it will work for you.

Herman,
Thanks for your comments. This little darling, Col de Dame, is only 18 inches high. I just looked at it. It still has 2 figs. One is large and almost ripe. The other is smaller and probably won't ripen as it is getting quite cold, specially at night. It had a total of about a dozen or more figs. We had a record hot summer but NO rain. The lack of rain delayed the ripening of all the trees inspite of constant watering. They were really stressed for moisture.
Once it got cooler and we got some rain those that had figs on the branches for months finally started to ripen and they tasted better than those that did ripen earlier.

A young Beall was a great producer, those that ripened during late summer tasted awful. I picked a couple a few days ago and they were delicious. It still has 10 more good size ones starting to color. I also noticed the the figs that have ripened now in the cold have tough but very sweet skins.

It will be fun to see what the weather brings us next year.

Peg

Herman,

You are the FIG WISPERER for sure!!!! You got a way with figs........congratulations for your achievements and your encouragement & information sharing with others.

My Col De Dame tree has dropped all of its leaves and the fruit that are ripening now are not nearly as good tasting as they were the last two years. I will never give up on this cultivar because I KNOW what excellent fruit it can produce even under adverse conditions.

Dan