Telling fig crops apart

[BeatriceCallan]

I think that it's too early to make any conclusion. You should wait a few weeks, give them lots of water. Don't tear them yet, it's too early anyway. I am sure It will get ripen to August-September.

[ameno]

An update on the figs. One of them is twice the size of the others are almost ripe. All of the others are still hard and green and about walnut size. It may well be too late for them to ripen at this point, but I'll leave them for now and see how they do. Any which are still green come the end of October will be removed.

[Snoop Puss]

Sorry you haven't had more luck, Ameno. Birds might be glad of the leftover ones, even if they're only partially ripe.

[ameno]

Sorry you haven't had more luck, Ameno. Birds might be glad of the leftover ones, even if they're only partially ripe.

They're not at all ripe.
I did some reading after I first made this topic, and apparently main crop figs (which is what these, grown on current year wood, would be) always grow to a certain size, around walnut size, then sit for ages (often 2 months or more), then start growing again and very quickly bulk up and ripen.
It seems most of mine are still stuck in that stalled stage. I guess the summer wasn't warm or long enough. I suspect we won't get enough warmth for them to mature now, sadly. The first frost is likely to still be a good 6 week away even in open ground, and on my patio where the fig tree is, I imagine we won't get one until December, but although it won't be frosty it will still be fairly cold.

[Snoop Puss]

Well, you could try leaving them on the tree just in case they ripen next summer. Supposedly this does happen. I've never seen it as we get heavy frosts here (down as far as minus 17 ºC some winters). Fig trees are surprisingly hardy, but for the sake of this fruit might it be worth covering with a fleece?

[ameno]

I picked the one ripe-looking one today, as it was starting to split.
I don't think it was actually quite ripe, as it was still fairly pale inside, but it had purple skin and was soft, and it tasted sweet and juicy, if slightly less fruity than I might have hoped, so it was at least mostly ripe.

[ameno]

I think some of my green ones are starting to grow again, actually.
About a third of them are turning yellow and shrivelling, but the other two-thirds are definitely larger than they were a week ago.

Also, the recipe for green figs is strictly for figs which have already started ripening but are not fully ripe. If you want to cook with with fully unripe figs then you need to do the boil stage about three times in order to extract all of the latex. Unripe figs are full of latex sap, just like the main fig tree is, and that sap is both poisonous and a skin irritant.

[ameno]

Some of my green figs are definitely growing again. Half a dozen of them have doubled in size in the last week. So with any luck, I should get a few more figs off it.

[Snoop Puss]

Good news, Ameno.

[ameno]

Picked one more today, as it was splitting like the first one. It was sweet and juicy, but rather pale inside and a but less fruity than I expected, so I think it may have been slightly underripe again.

The plant currently has 11 ripening figs on it, and 11 more that can't seem to decide what they want to do (they are still green and walnut sized, having not started swelling, nor started turning yellow and shrivelling yet).