St. Martin Fig | One of the Hardiest Figs & A Little on the Importance of Sunlight

All right everybody this is Ross the Fig Boss. Today we're going to talk about a very special fig. It's a very highly anticipated fig that I've been wanting to talk about for a while and I've had a lot of high hopes for this particular fig because it's supposed to be one of the hardiest figs in existence actually. I would love to plant this one out front in my hardiness experiment. I think I just might after this video perhaps after we observe this variety a bit more this season. It's called Saint Martin by the way and so that's kind of the story behind this at least in that there's a well-respected grower that says at least the information behind this is that it can survive below zero degrees Fahrenheit. I don't remember exactly what the temperature is but it's something ridiculous. This would be something that if it were true could do well unprotected actually in like a 6b which is unheard of. Really hardy Chicago for the most part is really the only fig that in my mind so far can do well in a 7a unprotected. We have had this year a lot of figs unprotected this season in the ground. We did a giant hardiness experiment of like 100 plus varieties and quite a few actually were rather hardy but we had only a low this year of six degrees Fahrenheit and so while a lot of them did survive six, six is rather different than zero and certainly zero is rather different than negative five degrees Fahrenheit which I think this one is boasted to at least be able to be hardy to that. I think Campanieri is boasted to be able to survive negative four degrees Fahrenheit which I have not seen any indications of that just yet from anybody other than the person who found the variety but nonetheless this definitely has got good a good chance. I don't see why someone would kind of lie about that regardless I think even if it doesn't survive those super low temperatures it's got to be a very hardy fig and so well worth trialing this in a colder place. This is an air layer that I had removed from my mother St Martin tree and it's grown rather nicely. It took a while early in the season actually to set fruits because it was just digging itself in as an air layer does after you remove it from the mother tree which I did at the at dormancy last year and then overwintered it in this five gallon pot and then now the beginning of this season it just took a while to get going but after it did it really took off and it's really now quite productive as this variety typically is just insanely productive I have noted but here's the caveat in that I don't think this variety really requires a ton of light to actually set those fruit buds hopefully you guys can still hear me let me just do a check yeah you guys can hear me okay good so that's a weird little thing here in that if the variety requires a lot less light to set those fruit buds you would imagine well it's going to be very productive that's that's my indicator personally of determining of whether or not a fig is productive or is more productive than another just based on that simple fact and it's got some pretty good basis behind it but what I also find with this particular fig that we mentioned actually only five days ago in a video that we did which I think is about how long it took for this to ripen the hang time is only about five days maybe the susceptibility window is even shorter than that so this has got a nice hang time to it but what we mentioned five days ago in our video about light and fruit drop we said that some varieties like this Saint Martin here like Celeste and also Pastelier they have a pretty good history of dropping figs for people and I my theory for that fruit drop that people see is just a lack of light and so when I have my Saint Martin over here in the ground with the rest of my trees planted so densely and so close together and they grow so vigorously they'll set a lot of fruit as Saint Martin does every year always sets a huge amount of main crop and because it doesn't need a lot of light to set those fruit buds but as it continues to grow and because everything's so densely packed in there the amount of light reaching the fruits down lower on the canopy where all those fruits were were to begin with is non-existent there is just almost total shade and so when you have a lot of shade on these fruits like often happens with Celeste and Pastelier and this variety as well the fruits will just drop so when the fruits drop like that you know you have to wonder well is there something else going on is it is it a Smyrna is it not common is it partially parthenocarpic and I just don't think those theories have any clout to them at all there was a thread on our figs a few years ago about my Saint Martin and people my friend Rafael who's really one of the best fig growers there is seriously I trust him and his taste buds more than probably anybody else and so Rafael told me that this variety is not supposed to produce Brava so there was a big controversy because my variety did produce Brava it was dropping main crop for many years and people thought it just wasn't the real Saint Martin and I said no it produced Brava it is the real deal you know I don't know how it could be the wrong thing you know I actually got my cuttings from Rafael if I'm not mistaken so no I didn't actually I got it I got my cuttings from Brian Brian Melton and then Brian actually contacted me after that and tried to make it up to me but I was still convinced even though Brian thought he messed up I was still convinced that this was totally fine that there was no issue and but Brian went out of his way anyway to actually replace the tree and I have one of them in the ground in the front I forgot about that I do have one in the ground in the front so it is part of the hardiness experiment that we're doing up there and that one did survive the winter time I forgot about that unprotected six degree Fahrenheit low but the point is though is that this thing is it is the real deal this is the real Saint Martin and the only reason it was dropping fruits is because of a lack of light so I'm glad we got to clear that up in that video five or so days ago at least at the time of filming it was five days ago and then of course the whole debate about the Brava thing is also just really a weak argument because you know the whole debate between a Unifera variety and a Bifera variety is just wrong like Smith's supposed to be Unifera but my Smith trees produced 20 Brava this year you know some people have ripened plenty of Brava on varieties that are really not supposed to produce Brava but they do anyway and so there's something else going on there biologically there's just something that's not really right when it comes to you know that whole argument and so as a result not only myself but also another grower that received cuttings from a different source also produced Brava on his Saint Martin and so the variety can produce Brava is it supposed to it's not supposed to but it does and you know it also here in my in my yard is ripening figs without any pollination so there's the whole big history of this fig and the only thing I'm kind of concerned with now at this point because we've recognized a lot of other things about this fig over the years we also just now realize that the hang time is rather good we realize that the shape of the fig is great it's hanging down it's got a nice oval slender shape the stem length is rather long it's a winner man we have to taste it this is the first one I'm going to taste off of my main crop and then this is also we have to observe it by the way in terms of the rain how is the skin going to behave in terms of the rain so I'm very very confident in this variety but let's see it it definitely could use more time oh but that looks great maybe I should have let it ripen a little bit longer this is exactly what Saint Martin should look like you can see that on the inside the acnes are a bit interesting on this variety they have weird long oddly shaped female flower parts in there so you can kind of see that it's almost like all the little female flower parts are kind of like these little dots little dimples and you can see those white flower parts in there obviously but very different than other varieties I've noted so anyway let me try this now I've been a bit under the weather here with some sinus problems but uh let's taste it there's a little bit of sap at the top so definitely not perfectly ripe that's a shame huh needs more time but it to me it seems like it's gonna have a great berry flavor rather than just being a figgier fig this to me seems like it actually has a nicer berry flavor to it but we have to wait and see unfortunately I don't have all the details I think we have to really wait oh man that really stinks because I was very much so looking forward to eating this but we got plenty of more fruits here that will ripen at least two more will ripen before frost three more will ripen and these up here I'm not sure when they formed so I don't know if they'll ripen in time but at least three of them I imagine will ripen and we'll get a better idea of the fruit quality and hopefully the rain I should have probably just left that one on it's gonna rain tonight and we would have probably observed at that point what the fruit would have looked like but I was so concerned with ripening it as a main crop and just confirming that um