how to tell when a fig is ripe?

38bonsais_and counting · Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:51 am

My fig tree is fruiting for the first time since purchase (2006). The fruit has been on the tree since June, 2008. When will it be ready to harvest?

Jess · Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:51 pm

From my book...

[The figs are ready to pick when the fruit droops on its stalk and the skin is well coloured. If the skin cracks open it is fully ripe and you may notice a drop of nectar.]
Very jealous. Wish I had room to grow one.

Sienna Dawn · Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:02 pm

OMG, you'll LOVE fresh figs off the tree!!! We've got 5 Turkey Fig trees that are.. oh gosh... over 50 years old that my Grandmother planted. There is nothing like fresh, fresh figs. Jess, you're book is exactly correct about how to tell when they are ripe. Also, be warned that the birds can tell when they are ripe too... so be prepared to share!!

Jess · Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:08 pm

5! Thats just plain greedy.

I wish I had a bigger garden. I wish I didn't have patio going all the way around my house. I would love to grow climbers (especially edible ones) up the walls. Being brick it just looks so stark as it is.
I think I might ask a question about lifting pavers and planting...it must be possible.

Sienna apart from eating them straight off the tree do you make anything with them?

cynthia_h · Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:19 pm

Once upon a time, I had a friend with a very large, out-of-control fig tree.

I could go to his house in late August and September and pick a couple of buckets' worth of figs.

I made a pretty incredible fig jam. Of course, that was after eating myself silly on fresh figs.

Then he hired a landscaper who cut most of the fig down and paved over the remaining roots...

*sigh*

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

Sienna Dawn · Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:45 pm

Jess wrote:5! Thats just plain greedy.
I wish I had a bigger garden. I wish I didn't have patio going all the way around my house. I would love to grow climbers (especially edible ones) up the walls. Being brick it just looks so stark as it is.
I think I might ask a question about lifting pavers and planting...it must be possible.
Sienna apart from eating them straight off the tree do you make anything with them?

My Grandmother did. She made fig preserves, but put strawberry jello powder into the process somehow. Viola! Stawberry Preserves... sort of. We were 'dirt floor poor', and it was something good for very little money.

I, on the other hand, don't care for them cooked and so don't make a thing with 'em. I pick 'em, wash 'em and gobble 'em!