Smith 2021

[JoePAFig]

Finally. Waited a long year for this one, last year this tree set no figs. In this second year, the tree is loaded. 87 days to ripen from fruit set for this nice, chunky 44 gram fruit. The flavor was sweet with a nice berry taste. No vanilla for us, but we will see as there will be many more to come. Very happy to have finally ripened one.

[JMF75]

Congrats on that beautiful Smith . My first year Smith still no signs of fruiting. Glad to see theres hope.

[BlueEagle1967]

From what I've seen, it takes a couple of years to get the tree to reliably fruit. But it's worth the wait.

[Halligan-]

Gorgeous fig! Love that skin!

[MJFIGS]

Congrats. This is an amazing fig

[AlexInCT]

Congrats! I had my first Smith this year after starting from a cutting last season and after tasting it I wish I had rooted more of them. I overwatered the other cuttings I had I may just buy a few small trees since I don’t want to wait!

[blaze]

I have 5 smith if you count my Texas BA-1. They are great

[BlueEagle1967]

Nice job Joe. I've been eating Smith for about 10 days now...maybe more. Top quality fig for our zone and it doesn't lose too much taste with heavy rains and humidity which I've noticed with pretty much every other variety that has been fruiting for me.

[JoePAFig]

Thanks. I like that because of all the rain and humidity we get can be rough on some varieties. We'll see what happens in the next few days here, looks like a couple of inches of rain due here.

[BlueEagle1967]

It seems like we get heavy rains this time of year for the last couple of years. The figs get watered down and any ripe fruit attracts ants, bees and wasps. I'm picking everything ripe today.

[JoePAFig]

Me too, and I'm putting down borax/sugar solution in cottonballs wrapped in aluminum foil. I've very recently discovered that it works wonders on the ants.

[T.Frank228]

Is your smith in ground? I have 4 Smith trees in containers. All 4 are 2nd year, and although they all set fruit, they only set a few figs each.

[JoePAFig]

No, both are second year in 10 gallon pots. I was going to put it in ground but decided 14 created enough work for winter protection, so it's going to stay in this pot.

[Pdiscool]

Picture perfect! Two years to fruit is not bad I would say. 87 ripening days isn’t too shabby neither! Congrats and cheers!

[ZingsFigs]

They look great, is the tree in ground or in pot.

[JoePAFig]

It's in a 10 gallon pot.

[JoePAFig]

[jrdewhirst]

Great looking tree. FWIW, I picked my 1st of the season today. Awesome.

[JoePAFig]

Thanks, Joe. I am impressed with this one so far.

[Sod]

My third year Smith has one fig. This latest (final) flush of growth is setting a few double bumps. For two years in a row now this tree has stalled hard from July through August. The air layer I took off last year has out grown my mother tree this year, but set no figs. I know mine traces back and is the Becnel version, and I think I’ve heard from others that it takes time. Are there really two versions of Smith out there?

[JoePAFig]

Not sure if there are two versions, but here's my experience, I received this tree as a rooted cutting in May 2020. It grew well, set no fruit last year and I airlayered a daughter off in August 2020, so both are in their second leaf. This one is loaded and the daughter has 4 figs on it. I also took two cuttings from the mother tree while dormant and rooted them over the winter. Both are growing well, over 6 ft tall, but not a single fig set.

[Sod]

Huh. Maybe my mother tree needs a rejuvenation prune. I’ll give it one more year and then it may get a buzz cut

[Clarktj2]

Mine started setting figs immediately after I pruned it in early july. I don’t think it was a coincidence

[Nick Costanza]

those leaves look different to the smith trees i have. I wonder if 2 different smith varities are in circulation

[JoePAFig]

It has quite a few different leaves on it, maybe that one is not representative. More below.

[JoePAFig]

All from the same Smith, I guess one of the takeaways for sure is you can't necessarily ID a tree from it's leaves, maybe you can eliminate what it's not. They seem to throw out lots of variations.

[JoePAFig]

jessup42, It's actually known from an impeccable source 😉

[Nick Costanza]

the third photo looks more like the leaves on my smith tree

[jessup42]

@JoePAFig
Just saw a TX-BA1 listing. You were leaves looked exactly like that listing from peaceful heritage. I wonder if somehow there is a mixup somewhere because that FIG is supposed to be a synonym for a Smith. Or Smith can throw odd leaves & variations like many others

[Clarktj2]

My smith from just fruits and exotics has zero spade leaves. They are mostly 5 long fingered leaves.

[blaze]

I sent in some pictures when ross wanted photos of productive smiths.