Tasting Vern's Brown Turkey, Chicago hardy, Red Sicilian, and Ronde De Bordeaux

The latest fig tasting video.

Tasting the Green Greek fig & Smith Fig

I love this time of year. I get to eat all sorts of figs.

I tried a new one from my brothers collection called the Green Greek fig and it was spectacular!

Black Portugal Unknown and Red Sicilian

A quick tasting video on 2 new figs for me.

Black Portugal Unknown and Red Sicilian

Unknown Brandon Fig - 2016 Tasting

I finally got a properly ripe Brandon St. Unknown fig recently and it's a real winner. Better tasting than VDB or RDB. The taste ranks up there.  It produces 2 crops here successfully here in Seattle. Judging from the looks of this fig. My guess is that it is a sport from the Celeste Family. A sugar fig of some sort.

What makes it stand out in this area is that it holds it's brebas unlike most Celeste and it ripens the main crop as well which is extremely rich and sweet!

The Breba crop is super early and probably will be the first ripe breba you'll pick from your collection.

I have a few cuttings available from the main tree and is for sale on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201670412314?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Peruvian Apple Cactus: The alternative to the dragon fruit

Peruvian Apple Cactus: The alternative to the dragon gangly fruit. Cereus Repandus .

The Peruvian Apple Cactus, Cereus repandus, is a large, erect, thorny columnar cactus found in South America. It is also known as Giant Club Cactus, Hedge Cactus, cadushi, kayush...
With an often tree-like appearance, the Peruvian Apple Cactus' cylindrical gray-green to blue stems can reach 10 meters (33 ft) in height and 10-20 cm in diameter. The nocturnal flowers remain open for only one night. The fruits, known locally as "pitaya" or Peruvian Apple, are thornless and vary in skin color from violet-red to yellow. The edible flesh is white and contains small, edible, crunchy seeds, the flesh sweetens as the fruit opens out fully.

Cereus repandus is an unresearched, under-utilized cactus, grown mostly as an ornamental plant. As noted above, it has some local culinary importance. The Wayuu from the La Guajira Peninsula of Colombia and Venezuela use the inner cane-like wood of kayush in wattle and daub construction.

It's no secret I love tropical fruit. Especially dragon fruit. The problem is it grows as a viney cactus and can be unsightly and mangy.

Previous Post:
http://seattlegardenfruit.blogspot.com/2016/03/new-arrivals-32116.html


The Peruvian Apple cactus has the same taste and consistency as the Dragon fruit but it grows as a column and can be grown indoors or in a green house in the colder areas. It's also more ideal in smaller spaces and doesn't look as scraggly as the dragon fruit plant.


Epiphyllums are great house plants they are small and prolific, the fruit is small but not bad at all, you just need two strains to cross pollinate.

The second strain I'll get will be a
Cereus hildmannianus.

Update on Grafted Fig Plants

Back February I grafted a bunch of Black Madeira cuttings from various sources onto Desert King and Gillette roots stock. About 40% of them took.

This was the original Video.

Here's an update on them 7 months later.

How to reinvigorate a stagnant fig plant

Sometimes when we purchase a new fig plant, it's hard to know how long it's been stuck in that same pot. The tale tell sign would be if it doesn't push out any new growth for months and it reminds you of Charlie Browns Christmas tree.

This was the case with my Hardy Hartford from Sky Nursery. It did little to no growth since I purchased it. Watch the video to see the process.

September fig tasting: Smith fig, Black Madeira, Cordi Stell and VBD

I love September.  It's when most of my figs ripen. This week I got to eat my very first Black Madeira! And boy was it amazing! Now I want even more of them.

Cordi Stella

Smith Fig

Black Madeira 

Unfortunately, I have a fig bandit and they've been stealing my ripe figs. Which caused me to pick them a bit early for fear of losing my figs.
 
 Check out the video below.

How to get some major growth on your figs

I've tried many various methods of pots, from regular black pots, air pruning pots, home made pots, self watering pots, etc.

http://seattlegardenfruit.blogspot.com/2015/07/air-pruning-pot-update-72615.html

Here are some results from my experiment this year below.

Beni Shogun Apple - The early Fuji that you can grow well here in Washington

Living in Washington State we have the luxury of growing some of the best apple varieties.

I love fujis but from most of what I've read they don't ripen will here in Washington. So I found the Beni Shogun apple which is an early Fuji variety and boy it does not disappoint. This is a very tasty apple. Even off of a very small tree it has produced a very large flavorful fruit. Extremely crispy and sweet with floral aromatics.

Beni Shogun

It's also disease and bug resistant. A real winner to grow here in Seattle.

I purchased mine from Raintree Nursery.