Saturday, February 11, 2012

Meet "Mr. Figgly" the Negronne Fig Tree

Last year I tasted fresh figs for the first time and loved them. It surprised me because up until then I had only had figs in Fig Newtons (which I don't care for). I love them fresh or bacon wrapped. I also made some into fig preserves that are delicious with brie and other cheeses.

I knew that I wanted to grow one in a container this year. Yesterday my local garden center announced online that they just got fruit trees in stock. So today I went over in search of my fig tree.

They had 3 varieties in stock. I chose Negronne because its a dwarf variety. Brown turkey is more frequently grown here, but the salesman said that the flavor of Negronne is better and it would be better suited for a container. The only drawback is it is less cold hardy (zone 7).


According to the recent zone reassignment we are now zone 7. But for now I'd rather not risk losing the tree, so it will overwinter on the back porch. Maybe in the future we will find a permanent home for it in the yard.  Negronne Fig trees are self pollinators, which means I only need 1 tree for it to bear fruit. I've named the tree Mr. Figgly...so from now on he'll be referred to as a "he".

The other nice thing about this variety is that it often produces 2 crops in a season: a heavier crop in July and then a lighter crop in September.

Meet Mr. Figgly:

Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and I can transplant him into his new pot. I'm really hoping this tree will be a great producer!



2 comments:

  1. I also love figs and ordered one but not sure how well it will grow since it does gets pretty cold at winter. Hopefully it will survive and I will try my own figs.

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    1. I'm a little concerned about this tree surviving the cold winter as well. Hopefully putting onto our unheated back porch or the garage during the winter will help. Good luck with your tree, the fruit is delicious!

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