Garden update: Spring Has Sprung, and the Fig Collection Updated

Plants waking up

Well it’s an exciting time of year right now, as the whole garden wakes up. Almost all my plants have broken dormancy and leafed out, except for a few who are hanging on for a little longer.

The black mulberry is showing the most growth, leafing out on almost every bud with leaves and berries, although the nectarine and peach are both furiously growing leaves too.
 

Leafing Out Nicely

Berries looking good!

The blueberries are all beginning to put out masses of flowers, and the rabbit eyes are putting on new growth as well, with the highbush types a couple of weeks behind. Interestingly this winter, all the highbush types defoliated with the cooler weather whilst the rabbiteyes held on to the majority of leaves. The little Sunshine Blue didn’t lose a single leaf and even started putting out flowers mid-winter, and is now absolutely covered in them. I haven’t seen any pollinators around just yet, so hopefully those flowers turn into berries and don’t just drop off!

Sunshine Blue Started Flowering Mid-Winter

Lots of New Growth on Misty

Flowers on Powder-Blue

New Flowers on Denise

It is my figs trees, however, that I am the most excited about. Many of my figs have had their buds begin to swell and a couple have begun leafing out, although no full leaves have yet emerged.

Since my last post on my fig collection I have added a bunch more varieties, bringing my total named count of fig varieties to 10.

These varieties are;
White Adriatic
White Niccolina
Black Genoa
Brown Turkey
Blue Provence
Yellow Excell
Pink Jerusalem
St Dominique’s Violette
Italian Honey
Preston’s Prolific

I will keep regular updates and photos of these plants throughout the year, to see the various traits and characteristics of each, and of course how tasty they turn out to be!

Out of all the figs, the white figs seem to be breaking dormancy the fastest, in particular the Excell, White Adriatic, Italian Honey and White Niccolina. The Black Genoa, and my little unnamed dark fig are not too far behind. It is probably no coincidence, but the figs that came to me topped (with their terminal buds removed) are the slowest of all my trees, and these plants are yet to show any signs of waking. My guess is that the smaller buds that grow along a stem take more time to develop to the stage where they can leaf out.

New Growth on White Adriatic

New Growth on Yellow Excell

I will be fertilising my figs today with a mixture from figtrees.net which calls for 1 part bonemeal (I’m using blood and bone), 1 part garden lime (I’m using dolomitic lime), and one part superphosphate. After mixing I will make a hole in 4-6 places at the edge of each pot, depending on the pot size, and give about a cup divided across the holes, per 30cm pot.

This recipe has been devised by a long time fig grower, who has a fair bit of experience growing figs in containers, and you can read his original instructions right at the bottom of his page here.

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The Fig Collection

I have always been a great fan of figs. Recently when overseas in France I would visit the market twice a week and proceed to eat two whole punnets of figs, in a single day.

It was great.

Once picked, figs do not ripen any more, and spoil very quickly. Figs when fully ripe are very soft and difficult to transport in-tact and this means that, sadly, figs are often picked a little too early for market, before they reach the maximum sweetness, and depth of flavour you can get leaving it on the tree until fully ripe.

I find fig trees themselves quite an attractive plant, with large lobed leaves, often with varied shapes. When disturbed or crushed, fig leaves also give off a beautiful aroma, sweet and figgy.

I grow the majority of my figs in a soil-less mix, and as of yet they are all quite young and unimpressive, but as they grow quite quickly they should begin to look more respectable as Spring rolls round again.


Brown Turkey

The Brown Turkey is common variety fig, not only in Australia but throughout the world. In most nurseries you come across in Australia this will be the variety stocked. Brown Turkey figs are hardy trees and form small to medium size figs that are rich and sweet. Brown Turkey figs produce a breba crop on last seasons wood in summer, and a main crop in Autumn on new growth.

My Brown Turkey has had very slow growth since re-potting in January. In the last two weeks it has begun to wake up a little, and I think I may have been under-watering.









White Adriatic

White Adriatic is a fig originally coming from the Mediterranean. White Adriatic figs form one or two crops and have pale green-yellow skin turning pale to almost white as they mature.

White Adriatic figs are meant to be particularly sweet and rich, good for jams and drying.

Like the Brown Turkey, my White Adriatic has had fairly slow growth, probably due to under-watering. In the last two weeks with extra water it has began to put out its first growth since I purchased it in January.





Black Genoa

The Black Genoa is a variety that is uncommon outside of Australia. It is a quick growing tree with medium sized sweet fruit. It is the second most common variety you will see in the average Australian nursery. It is often used as a commercial fruit here as it is prolific and easy growing with relatively hardy fruit.

My Black Genoa is the fastest growing of my container figs, putting out some sucker growth and several leaves. 




Yellow Excell

The Yellow Excell is the newest of my plants, and I stumbled upon it at Bunnings one afternoon. I have not previously seen this variety in nurseries. Excell figs ripen to a yellow colour, and are reportedly extremely sweet, rich and excellent for drying and making jams. I am looking forward to tasting this fig, probably next year.

This plant was hidden right up the back of the fruit trees at Bunnings, and was in fairly bad shape when I picked it up. Since purchasing from Bunnings two weeks ago, it has dropped a few leaves since being re-potted, and in the last week some of the buds have begun to swell, so I am hoping it will put out a little bit of growth before winter dormancy.






Mystery Figs

In previous posts you have met my latest fig cuttings, taken from a tree between Canberra and Orange, and today they sit, still looking fairly lifeless, with only a hint of a green flush in the buds waiting to put forward some leaves.

Back in December I took another random cutting from a large tree overhanging a fence in my suburb. It kind of sat there looking quite sad and unhappy with life all through January, and then in February it began to put out some leaves. Today I have great expectations for this plant, especially after re-visiting the donor fig and finding it covered in small dark figs, with a deep red interior.

Picture on the left taken at the end of Feb




Picture on the right taken mid-March

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