Anyone doing THIS -- HOW many varieties are U Weeding OUT for 2016 ?

[paully22]

I am. Over a dozen varieties already GONE. More to go in the sense I will use them as rootstock for grafting variants that are proven for my zone.
Primarily doing so to focus on the proven ones and save time and space. Last season, our harvest was in the thousands of ripe figs and we could
not cope with the volume even with friends/neighbours picking them daily. Fruit flies had a field day.

[WillsC]

Weeding out..novel concept but no

[Needaclone]

sigh...someday....

[COGardener]

Are you kidding, the adding phase which I thought I was out of seems to have accelerated. A day will come that I stream like, but that day is down the road.... way , way down the road. Plus I know a Chef that is chomping at the bit to buy some tree ripened figs from me, a friend of a friend.

[SarinaP]

I'm in the same boat! If anyone has extra fruit, check around with your local restaurants--my cousin works for a restaurant group and they're always looking for local produce that they can't order.

[DBJohnson]

Nope...not me...not yet. I'm less than a year in so I have far too many to grow and taste before I start whittling the list down.

[figgrower]

I can't imagine...

[kingoceanos]

I dream of the day, but no not for a long while. I am a newbie to figs so I will have to grow a lot before thinning the herd. If it's like my other fruit trees I will need at least ten to twelve proven types before I will be happy. That would be like four of each, ( early, mid, and late season) in their assorted types I.E. white, red, purple and?

[LouNeo]

I fully support weeding out in 2016, especially if you are in North Carolina or Northern South Carolina ... If you need help getting rid of some trees, im here to help

[COGardener]

Dang!!!! Why didn't I think of that!!! Anywhere near Colorado???

[Rewton]

Yes, I will weed out a handful but these are hard decisions because you never know how many years it takes a variety to come into its own.

[eboone]

I tossed 2 last fall - one was called Tricase Porto given to me by another grower, originally from Maggie (ItalianGirl on f4f), who admitted that after several yrs she had not gotten good figs yet. I did not get any figs on it. The other was a green unknown from another fig enthusiast which did not grow well and the figs were not great.

[Pino]

I have a 5 figs that I rescued that are growing well but the figs don't taste well or not producing at all.

Now am waiting for them to break dormancy so I can graft some nice varieties unto them.

[fitzski]

i hadn't thought of that, grafting new varieties on existing, well rooted/growing figs that have figs you do not like.

Hmmmmm .... thanks for the idea.

[F. Bennett]

I'm hanging around 20 potted trees. This is a nice balance of space, maintenance, soil supplies, watering, etc. I also have 9 in the ground, which are pretty much care-free.
It's very hard deciding what has to go. I'll sometimes just stare at my trees for 10 minutes debating on what to do. haha
With several new varieties I'm currently rooting, this will be extra challenging trying to figure out what to remove at the end of the year. First-world problems!

[jkuo]

I gave one away already, and I'm ready to give away another two. Six more are on the chopping block this season if they don't make the grade. It's really hard to thin the herd. I've been secretly (or not so secretly as the case may be) trying to gift figs to friends and neighbors so that the variety is still accessible but not necessarily stored and grown by me.

[Sarahkt]

It's way too soon to discard varieties for me, I've barely started ostensibly "trialing" the ones I have. The closest I've come to getting rid of varieties was grafting over most of a White Genoa and most of a large-ish but non-productive Black Mission. I've definitely been giving away spare trees to friends and family though, especially those who would then put it in the ground for visiting privileges around, say, August.

[cjmach1973]

I have only had 2 of my trees produce edible fruit so far, so still a few years to go.

[growcrazie]

Zero

[Posturedoc]

I'm at the same stage Paully is. I haven't counted yet, but I'd guess I'll end up grafting over 20 plus trees, though some of them will be duplicates in my current collection, so maybe a dozen varieties will get the axe. Ultimately, I want to get rid of at least 50 of my varieties, but that will take a couple more years at least and will also mean not collecting many or even any (gasp!) new varieties to replace those I cull. It's a process that causes a little emotional pain, but does get easier with repetition.

[Harborseal]

Just like exercise or going to the chiropractor, right?

[Posturedoc]

I happen to love both exercise and myself, with no emotional difficulties related to either, so I have no idea what you are referring to, Mr. Seal. My wife may have a different opinion on chiropractors, though she loves exercise as much as I do. Good thing I'm retiring soon, so the emotional conflict should resolve itself.

[cis4elk]

Lol!

[jmaler]

None here either. Some of the extras (Alma, Brandy, Adriatic JH, Smith, LSU Gold, LSU Purple, MBVS and Mission) from cuttings rooted last year will be used for rootstock.

[paully22]

I know what varieties works well for my zone and I am happy with them. Winterising and getting them ready for spring is no fun
as I get no help to move over 150 pots. Certainly getting friends to pick ripe figs is not a problem. Managing about 50 varieties would
be my goal and I would still have more figs than I can use especially from my in-ground trees.

[Posturedoc]

I have similar numbers on pots currently and a similar goal on total varieties I'd like to reduce my collection to within the next three or so years. The issue with cutting back from 100+ to 50 are the 10-15 new varieties for this year (last year delivered even more new varieties). The newest additions need at least three or four years for a decent evaluation of their potential, and if you collect that many new varieties each year, well, the math just doesn't add up even if you're cutting out more of the oldest varieties in your collection than new varieties you're adding. Good thing I believe I've got almost all of the fig varieties on my wish list covered this year. As long as none of you exotic fig collectors don't bring home 10 or 20 new somethings that approach Ponte Tresa, I should be able to avoid adding more than a two or three at the end of this year. (Ha!).

[Gina]

This is the first year no additions were made. I have about 50 in pots, significantly down from a couple years ago, due to a generous 'adoption' policy. I'm sure I had well over 100, but I really didn't want to know. If I thought a fig was really sub-standard, I destroyed it. 50 in pots is still too many, but there has not yet been too much fruit - in major part to the hungry night critters. Most of what I have left I consider 'really good', but some seem to lag in terms of being prolific. They may have to go next.

It's another summer without enough water I fear, so the figs might suffer (again) depending on how hard any new outdoor watering restrictions might be. It would be better if more were in the ground, but alas the gophers have chewed to the nub everyone I planted out thus far, so pots it is. In this prolonged drought, the critters just have nothing to eat - except what they have found in the garden buffet. Can't blame the poor things.

[cis4elk]

Gina, did you ever try the wire basket technique for your in-ground figs?

[cis4elk]

One 4yr old went to a new home recently, good tree but main crop was a little late for my season and it wasn't sensational enough to get a coveted spot for early start in the sun room. A 3yr old which turns out requires a wasp will get the axe as soon as I start the shuffle and can get to it, too bad though I really liked the way looked and grew, the looks of the fruit in Cali sure were nice. Another 3 yr old wasp requiring tree will be receiving a bunch of Black Mad T-bud or chip grafts and eventually totally converted; then I will give away my extra BM on it's own roots. I have given away five other 1-2 yr old duplicates recently as well.
This summer I have 2-3 which are on deck for the chopping block, we'll see how they do. Sometimes it seems that the trees know they are on their last chance before the block and then produce a delicious crop to save their..um..trunk.
I have a 3yr old RdB which will be going in the ground as a step-over experiment, so well see what happens there. It might be a death sentence. Either way, one less sizable pot to move around and store in the winter.
In the fall of 2017 I'll have some tough decisions to make, there will be about 4-5 up for judgement.

I would like to end up with 20, ish, but isn't it just plain crazy that 20 fig trees almost doesn't give you enough variety?