A Close Look at The Fig Collection - White Adriatic

I have been planning to update each of my figs for a long time now, especially as I am beginning to see fruit off of many of my trees. Today I will start with one of my favourites; White Adriatic.

Summary

Description; A vigorous plant that produced a number of breba and main crop figs. Performed poorly in 5-1-1 and enjoyed coconut husk chips in a larger pot.

Breba Crop? Yes

Breba taste? Sweet honey-nut

Breba appearance? Mottled, areas of deep red to light pink to pale pink

Main crop taste? Rich, sweet, berry

Main crop appearance? Uniform deep dark red

Problems? Rust

The Plant

I purchased my White Adriatic from Daley's Online Nursery in January 2013, it came nicely boxed, and I can still remember that of the three fig trees I bought when I opened the White Adriatic box I was greeted with a wonderful figgy aroma of the leaves.

In March 2013, my plant looked like this, about a week after transplanting;

5th Feb 2013 White Adriatic

I originally potted my White Adriatic into 5-1-1 potting mix, and had great expectation for growth. Sadly, however, this was not to be, and 28 days later my plant had gone backwards slightly, losing some leaves and colour.

3rd March 2013 White Adriatic

By April that year it had begun to put out a small amount of new growth, but lost it all shortly thereafter with the first frost.

5th April 2013 White Adriatic

I suspected that the soil mix I had used was the cause of my lackluster growth, and took the opportunity to repot the plant into a larger pot, with a mix made primarily of coconut husk chips.

28 July 2013 White Adriatic in a new soil mix and larger pot

Shortly after repotting, the plant took off. Buds broke about 2 weeks later, one of the earliest figs in my collection to break.

15th September 2013 - White Adriatic bud break

After this, growth took off in my new container mix, and just 8 days later my White Adriatic already had more leaves than in the months preceding dormancy!

23rd September 2013 White Adriatic

Another two weeks, and growth was speeding along! In less than a month from breaking dormancy this plant had put off more growth in its new container mix than the 3 months prior to dormancy! I was amazed.

9th October 2013 White Adriatic

By December White Adriatic was producing its first figs.

12 December 2013 White Adriatic

Today, about a month before dormancy, my White Adriatic barely resembles the plant I purchased a year ago.

18 March 2014 White Adriatic 

The Fruit

My White Adriatic ripened its first two fruits at the end of January, these were breba figs.

31 January 2014 - First ripened fruit

The first fruits were small to medium in size, with a varied interior ranging from dark red to light pink.

1 February 2014 - White Adriatic breba crop fruit

 

1 February 2014 - White Adriatic breba crop interior

 The flavour was sweet, honey like and tasty. 

Later in the season my White Adriatic ripened some of its main crop, which had different colour and texture to the breba;

20th March 2014 - White Adriatic main crop

20th March 2014 - White Adriatic main crop interior

The main crop was much juicier than the breba with a uniform deep red colour. Its flavour was rich, sweet and berry-like. Far superior to the breba.

My White Adriatic still has a number of unripe fruit on its branches, however as the season draws to a close for the year I don't believe too many more will ripen, the plant is still young however,and I expect a much larger crop next year!

Problems

My White Adriatic has been moderately affected by rust in the last few weeks, likely a result of a larger amount of rain in the previous weeks. Rust begins as brown spots on the undersides of leaves, and can cause defoliation. Once rust appears it is difficult to deal with. Rust is fungus that spreads its spores from leaf to leaf through water droplets and can be treated in dormant phase with a copper based fungicide. All dropped leaves from rust infected plants should be destroyed.   

Rust on White Adriatic

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An update on my super-hot Chillies

Last year, I posted about some chilli seeds I bought, and then I germinated a bunch of them under grow lights for this season.

I also purchased some super-hot seedlings from a local store.

In the last few weeks these chillies have started to produce pods, ranging from sweet and mild to blistering hot!

Using some of my fataliis' I made a mango and peach chillie sauce yesterday, which I will put up in a separate post.

Here are some pics;

Fatalii

My fataliis', used in my container-mix experiment are producing heaps of beautiful bright yellow pods. I took a chance, and ate a whole fatalii and was greeted by the unmistakable smell of capsaicum, the compound that gives chillies their heat. As I chewed this chilli pepper, I did not taste the citrus flavour these chillies are meant to have, instead I was hit with an immediate, powerful heat. It was quite intense, and lasted about 10 minutes.

Moruga Scorpion

My moruga scorpion is producing a good number of pods. I have the plant in a large 50L pot, and it has become quite bushy and lush.

The pods on this plant look wicked and cruel. As of last year the moruga scorpion was the hottest chillie pepper in the world with measurements taken about 2 million scoville units, right about the strength of pepper spray. Hot.

I was silly enough to try a small slice of one of these peppers raw. It is so ridiculously hot, I am labeling one of the most painful experiences of my life. The searing heat lasted about 20 minutes, building hotter and hotter for the first 10 minutes before slowly tapering off. 

The small sliver of chillie I tried outdid the pain of an entire fatalii pepper by a good margin. After eating, I could feel the chillie sitting in my stomach and moving through my gut, a burning ember for the next 12 hours. It will a lot of convincing for me to ever consider eating one of these raw again!

My Moruga Scorpion Test Sample - HOT!

Chocolate Habanero 

My chocolate Hab is growing nicely, it is a small bush with a good number of growing pods. I actually have two of these.

I haven't tasted the habanero raw, but used half of it to flavour a dish, where it imparted a nice mild level of heat to 1kg of mince.

 

Peter's Pepper

I have not yet had any ripe chillies from my Peter's Pepper, named after the unique manly shape the chillies grow. I intend to overwinter this plant, and have it in a large pot where it has grown bushy and lush.

Bhut Jolokia

I have both a red and yellow Bhut Jolokia in containers. The yellow has begun to ripen some pods, however I am still waiting on the red.

Unripe Red Bhut Jolokia

Jalapeno 

My Jalapeno is a bit of a let-down. It is from the nursery, and whilst it is growing well, it has no heat whatsoever. 

Yellow 7 Pot

I haven't yet tasted my 7 pot, which is just now ripening its pods.

 

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Some garden updates

Garlic

Way back in December I harvested my garlic. An afternoon of digging and tying yielded a good number of bulbs, and after giving some away and using a bunch, I still have a whole lot available today which I use almost every night.

Garlic after harvest

The garlic is sharp and flavourful and exceeds the garlic bought at the shops or markets by a long margin. I divided the garlic into bunches and store in my shed, hanging a bunch in the cupboard until ready for use.

About half of my garlic, bunched and ready to go

Close up of a fresh bulb

Four months later, the bulbs store nicely, ready to be cooked!

Vegetables

After planting up my veggies in Oct/Nov after out frosts, I have unfortunately let things lapse in the commotion around the twins birth. Regardless of this, I still manage to haul a good number of vegetables every week.

Here is today's haul, capsicums, tomatoes, beetroot, chillies, tomato, squash and eggplant.

Todays haul

Tomatoes

My tomato vines were ravaged by the heat this year. Tomatoes literally cooked themselves on the vines, and my inattention caused the vines to sag and drop.

Luckily for me the plants still produced nicely. Two weeks ago we pulled this massive lot from the garden.

Periform Abruzzi

Golden Grape

Tommy Toes

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The Great Container Mix Experiment Week 19

Well, it's been a fair few weeks and I have been very slack updating this. Well, mostly slack. Three weeks ago my wife and I welcomed into the world a boy and girl, twins, and I have been quite consumed by this over the last few months! I will endeavor to update this more frequently, before the cold hits in about 6 weeks.

Week 19 - Summary of results

In a nutshell, my chilis are doing great, and my okra are doing, well, not so great. I think the early cool that hit all my seedlings severely ruined their potential for growth, as my okra in pots, and in the ground are all fairing quite poorly, and are looking scrawny and unwell. They have put on some growth however, and out of all my soil mixes the plain potting mix stands out as the winner to date, with the highest percentage change in growth since the experiment began, followed closely by the 5-1-1. My stunted okra in coconut husks is really having a sad time, although it appears to be doing ok, when judged solely on height.

My fatalii peppers are growing great, putting off a great number of bright yellow pods. These little beasts pack quite a punch, and I foolishly downed a whole one a little while back, and was quite severely punished. The plain potting mix has given the largest growth in cms, however in total percentage change growth the 5-1-1 and coconut husk chips are tied.

Similarly, the plain potting mix has given the best growth in cms for my banana chillies, in total percent change growth however the coconut husks far exceed the other mixes. The coconut husk chips also produce many more pods than the other two mixes, with the weight of the chillies dragging the plant towards Earth.

Banana Chilis, the coconut husk chips (right) produce many more chillies

Fatalli pods

Percentage change, all soil mixes week 1 to 19

Okra

My Okra are doing pitifully. The leaves are looking thin, and the leaves are fairly sparse. The plants do put out a number of pods, and the need to be picked constantly or they grow long and hard and inedible.

The okra put off beautiful flowers reminiscent of hibiscus, to which family they belong. The bees are quite fond of these flowers. The okra flowers do not even last a full day, having wilted and dropped by late afternoon,to be followed by extremely quick growing pods.

In terms of growth, there is little difference in height between all soil mixes, with 5-1-1 putting on the most growth in total height, and the plain potting mix having the highest percent change in growth. The coconut husk mix plant is very sad, scrawny, sick but is still putting on height.

An okra flower

Onto the numbers!

Okra growth in cms

Okra percentage change in growth since week 1

Fatalii Chillies

My fataliis are doing very well. They are all producing pods, and are getting even more tall and bushy. The plain potting mix performs on par with both 5-1-1 and coconut husk chips. In total cm growth the plain potting mix outperforms both other mixes, while percentage-wise 5-1-1 and coconut husk chip growth are identical.

5-1-1 left, plain potting mix center, coconut husk chips right

Fatalii growth in cms

Fatalii total percent change in growth

Banana chillies

The banana chillies are doing well, although don't put off as many chillies as I would like. I think they are limited by the smaller size of the pot.

The coconut husk chips put off many more pods than the other two plants, and the weight of the pods have caused it to lose a branch, and have others dragged right down, requiring staking.

Banana Chillies growth in cms

Banana chillies total percentage growth

Photos of measurements week 19

'Fine' 5-1-1

Plain potting mix

Coconut husk chips

Fatalii in 'coarse' 5-1-1

Fatalii plain potting mix

Coconut husk chips

Banana chilli 'coarse' 5-1-1

Banana Chilli plain potting mix

Banana chilli coconut husk chips

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