Black Mission Fig
2001: Planted in late summer. Had much fruit on it even before
it was planted.
2002: New growth was minimal, just a couple of inches at most. Fruit finally began to color by end of June. Early crop is very thin. As of July 3 we find that 3 figs are suddenly nearly ripe, being slightly soft to the touch and fully colored. Fruit flavor is good, but not excellent. Second crop began ripening in mid- September, but it is disappointingly small and the fruit is unattractive as figs go. No fruit ripening after end of October, apparently due to lack of sunshine and cooler weather.
2003: By later March/early April we have what appears to be the beginning of a good early crop. 6/1/03: The early crop is still not ripe, and I have no idea if the figs will be edible. 7/2/03: One fig firmed up and darkened rapidly about a week ago. Picked it today, and it was edible, though not excellent. 8/2/03: The last figs were picked a few weeks ago, and they were very good. I can't wait for the new crop to ripen. 9/16/03: As I waited for the figs to get large I found that the birds were stealing them. Not just pecking at them, but completely removing them. I grabbed one before it got demolished and it tasted excellent. But why is the second crop so small?
2004: 3/10/04: I see new growth and small figs beginning to grow. The early crop should be satisfactory. 4/11/04: We have seen some fruit drop due, apparently, to under-watering. This is a disappointment. 7/11/04: About a week ago we picked the last of some 7 or so early-crop figs. They were all delicious, and reasonably plump. This is one tree that I want to see grow and grow. 9/5/04: We need to water this tree twice weekly in order to get decent-sized figs. They taste good, but so far have been small. I think the height of the season will be over the next 2-3 weeks.
2005: 2/27/05: The tree was pruned in early February. 4/21/05: We'll have a small early crop of some 5-6 figs, I hope. I sure wish that our early figs would be more bountiful. 6/26/05: We picked the first ripe fig of the season today, which turned out to taste OK, though not great by any means. I see 2 or 3 other early-crop figs, but they haven't turned color yet. 7/10/05: Two days ago we found another very ripe fig on the tree. It caught us by surprise, but was still good. 7/21/05: The few early crop figs are nearly gone. I guess we can expect the next crop around mid-September. 8/30/05: Picked the first late-crop fig today. It looks good. 9/6/05: Picked the second fig two days ago, and now I see more coming slowly. 10/6/05: We've been grabbing a handful of figs every few days. The taste is OK, sometimes good, but rarely excellent. Maybe this is due to the weather? 10/20/05: We've been watering twice per week for a month or more, and it makes quite a difference in the quality of the fruit. We've had a couple of days recently when we were able to pick 10-15 ripe fruits. We baked some fig bread, which turned out quite well.
2007: 3/25/07: New leaves and tiny figs appeared within the last week. 5/13/07: The leaves took awhile to become established. The early crop will be essentially non-existent, so we have only the primary crop to look forward to. 6/9/07: The new branches have put on 1-2 feet by now. The main crop of figs are just beginning to appear. 8/11/07: We had 2 early-crop figs, both of which tasted good, about 10 days ago.
2008: 3/23/08: We have new leaves coming out, and a number of early-crop figs in formation. 6/7/08: Most of the early-crop figs fell off. Leaf growth is very good, though the leaves look somewhat mottled. Mottling could be from an incorrect watering regimen, or a fungus of some sort. I've seen this before, so I'm not terribly concerned. 7/5/08: Picked the first ripe fig just two days ago. We may get half a dozen more from the early crop. 9/12/08: Picked the first fig from the late crop. I think the early crop produced about a dozen figs up until early or mid August.
2009: 3/26/09: The new fruits have formed even before the new leaves come out. 5/7/09: If things hold up we'll have the finest early crop that we've ever had. 6/11/09: One fig has darkened and should be ripe soon. 6/12/09: The fig fell into my hand when I touched it. Upon cutting it open it was immediately clear that it was not worth tasting. It was under-developed and dry. 6/25/09: Picked another fig, and this time it tasted good, though not as good as we expect the later figs to be. 8/1/09: Picked the last of the early crop figs yesterday. My, we had such a good crop, in quantity as well as quality, that we nearly chose to bake some fig cakes. The drawback is that it appears that the normally abundant second crop will be lacking. 11/29/09: I"ve been remiss in my updates. We had the biggest and best crop of figs from this tree that we have seen to day. They were good until as recently as 2 weeks ago. We made lots of fig bread this year.
2010: 6/29/10: Picked the first figs last Sunday, 6/27/10. Thanks to the abundant rainfall this Spring we should have a significant early crop of black figs.