The fig can be grown in a wide range of soils: light sand, rich loam, heavy clay, or limestone, provided that there is sufficient depth and good drainage. Highly acid soils are unsuitable.
I bought a "Chicago Hardy" in the spring of 2009. Although I've seen references to it dying to the ground in a cold winter and regrowing from its roots, after a very cold winter here in 6b/7a it wasn't even frostbitten.
Delicious fruit, yellow when ripe, that seems to take forever to ripen on the tree. It's necessary to keep the tree watered enough when the fruit is due to ripen as the figs plump up nearly double in size just a few days before ripening. All figs here in FL are prone to rust fungus that can cause all the leaves to drop, usually in late summer. If fruit is on the tree when this happens, it will not ripen.
This variety of fig is supposed to bear fruit repeatedly each year.
I have a 12 year old 'Kadota' that is 15'x15' and is presently loaded with green figs. It is a heavy producer that ripens a little later than other Louisiana-grown varieties. About the 4th of July, some start ripening for a month of harvesting. When ripe they are larger than a golf ball and green with a bronze blush or freckled with the "honey drop" at the eye. We cook them as sweet preserves to eat as jam and to use in cooking sweet desserts like Fig Cake and Italian Fig Cookies.
i am in zone 5b and a friend gave me a fig plant will it grow out doors here in my zone or leave in pot.
Marseilles is a great all-around fig, both sweet and productive. It's also a heirloom fig with not only a rich taste but also a rich history.
This fig is still somewhat rare, and difficult to get a hold of since Asiatica went out of business in 2011, though it is starting to become available. It bears an extended crop of large, dark purple figs. First year crops are not very impressive, but after a couple seasons the figs can be very sweet with moderate "fig" flavor, especially when allowed to fully ripen. The variegation is susceptible to burning in my hot dry climate under all-day sun, and the tree does not grow as aggressively as non-variegated types, but it is still robust and quick to mature. Like many figs it requires a very large pot or ground planting to grow and produce well, though I have also kept them small and ornamental in smaller containers for the last five years, as well. Branches and root suckers sometimes revert to all green or attempt to grow all white, so the tree requires a little bit of pruning to keep it variegated. Outside plantings here in zone 7 tend to winter kill to the ground without protection. Although none of my experimental unprotected trees have produced fruit in the year they died to the ground, they do get bigger each year and may eventually do so--I'm only going into the third year of this experiment.
