Some info on our fig varaieties...

Grow in full sun for best sweet fruit. Trunk may need protection from sunburn.  Can be grown in containers or planted with barrier. If in a pot, shade the containers from sun or paint them white. Figs are huge trees. Can be pruned to keep size down. Prune in autumn after harvest. Fruits forms on second year wood so hard winter pruning sacrifices next years crop. Propagate from dormant cuttings of newish growth 30cm long.

Figs need regular deep watering, however water less when fruit has set to prevent splitting.

It is best to remain conservative with fertilising to reduce massive foliage growth- fertilise only if the branches grew less than a foot during the previous year.

BLACK GENOA

Large fruit, purple skin and deep red flesh. rich sweet flavor, best suited for fresh eating. Vigorous and productive, is grown commercially, fruits early in season, maturing before Brown Turkey.

CELESTE 
Small fig with light brown/ violet skin and strawberry pulp. Pyriform with tapering neck. Small, closed eye. The eye remains green until the fig is almost ripe (unlike Brown Turkey) Pale bark. Beautiful tree.Good variety for container.

PERSIAN PROLIFIC

Prolific tree, mid season fruit, light purple skin and light brown fruit.

  

PRESTON PROLIFIC

Very thick flesh, creamy white and juicy, with sweet flavour. Extremely vigorous. Late season.

BLACK MISSION

Large crops of medium to large fruits. Purple/black dropping fruits, strawberry-coloured flesh, excellent quality good for drying.  Breba crop Very large tree and fruits better if not pruned when mature. Mid season fruit.

CONADRIA

Vigorous and productive. Good quality. Tolerates heat and drought.

Fruit pale green, medium, flesh strawberry red. Mildly sweet. Good fresh or dried. More productive than Adriatic but of lesser quality. Light breba crop. Tree vigorous, tends to growth excessively when   irrigated

DEANNA
A medium to large, golden yellow fig with strawberry pulp.  Breba crop.

WHITE ADRIATIC

Early fig. Fruits well in a range of climates. Mid season.  Medium fruit, brownish-green skin and pink flesh. Great fresh or for jam. Italian variety. Light breba crop. Leafs out early so subject to frost damage. Spreading tree, likes a prune to force new growth.

VARDOULIS ?

SURPRISE ?

TONY’S ? Assumably named after the late Tony Stevens of the SA Rare Fruit Society.

ZIDI

Tunsian variety

TENA

Small, skin is light green, flesh amber. Good flavour fresh or dried. Breba crop. Bears heavily. Tree strong, dense.

FLANDERS

Medium, long neck, skin is brownish yellow with violet stripes, flesh amber. Good strong flavour. Excellent all-purpose fruit. Breba crop. Ripens late. Tree vigorous but requires no great pruning.

EXCEL

Medium to large fruit no neck and block shaped. Light greenish-yellow skin, amber inside, very sweet.  It is excellent for fresh fruit, preserving or drying- high sugar content. Doesn’t split. Mid season. Vigorous tree.

BROWN TURKEY

Early variety of fig, dark brown /purple skin, pink juicy sweet rich flesh, best eaten fresh. Good for inland dry conditions. Long crop- good for backyard.  Small for a fig tree. Berba crop, prune back hard for main crop.

BLUE PROVINCE

Rare fig, Grown in Australia- early 1900’s. Blue / violet skin, blue  flesh, red seeds, very soft and sweet. Mid to late season.

WHITE GENOA
Good for cooler areas. Yellow green skin and orange flesh, mild flavour.

Winter Fruit Trees

Merristem has been propagating some amazing and hard to find fruit trees this year, great for edible plant nerds, stoic defenders of genetic diversity, and anyone around Melbourne who wants to eat some really tasty fruit! Growing out these trees also means you can contribute cuttings later on - so over time they can become more widely available in our region.

When : 2-4pm Sunday, 17th July
Where: Merristem - 38 Harrison st Brunswick. 

You can bring your own cuttings to exchange for trees! there are more details on what we need and how to take the cuttings further down.

Trees

Pricing, as usual, is by donations or exchange, kinda like Lentil as Anything curries. So consider how much trees are in nurseries, but also what you can afford.

Figs
We bundled fig cuttings on the train from South Australia last winter, including: Excel, Celeste, White Adriatic, Deanna, Preston Prolific, Persian Prolific, Sugar Condria, Vardoulis, Tena, Suprise, Tony's, Zida and Flanders.

Pommegranites
We now have ten varaieties of Pommegranite and hopefully getting more this winter. We have available Wonderfull, Veles, Elche and others...

Mulberries
Well not really, due to a cheeky mouse who ringbarked our entire stock!! But you can grab some 'Hicks Fancy' that might re-shoot, though they're not pretty. We'll put it down as a learning experience. Anyone got a spare cat?

Fiejoa
Red Cherry Guava
Black Currants
Olive
Medlar - 'Dutch' culivar grafted on Quince. Tasty weird fruit!
Vitex agnus-castus (chaste tree, a medicinal)
Ginko biloba
And more...

Some of these are we have good quantities, but others we could only propagate a few.... So taking home the rare ones comes with a challenge to return healthy cuttings for others in coming years. Anyone up for it?

Cuttings to Exchange

For a solid bundle of named cuttings we can exchange a rooted tree you can plant. How good is that?


Cuttings should be at least 30cm long, taken from fat, healthy young growth. 20 is a good amount. Yes, thats 20! less if it's all you have, but remember they won't all take root.

We are looking for named varieties of:
Figs
Pommegranites - Any except 'Wonderful'
Currants - Smaller quantities are ok
Mulberries - Any except 'Hicks Fancy' or 'Black English'
Grapes
Kiwi/Hardy Kiwi
Hops -  Any good roots with buds on them.
Rasberries or Thornless Blackberries - Divisions. Just dig up some suckers or rooted blackberry tips and bring them in (10 is a good quantity)

Mail us if you have any questions. Hope to see you on the day!

Wishlist...

The winter veg day went well,we were pretty much cleaned out of stock! Thanks to everyone who came along.

Anyway, now we have some space to propagate....

We are always looking for new cultivars and species to try out in Melbourne, so here is our wishlist, a list of things we haven't propagated yet or want new cultivars of. Bring seed at any time, but remember that cuttings often need to be taken in the right season.

Email us if you have any of these you would like to share! We can give you any details on how and when to take cuttings and divisions.

Important at the moment and coming up are divisions of Raspberries and Thornless Blackberries,  seeds for Yellow Cherry Guavas and cuttings of Fig, Mulberry and Pommegranite cultivars when they are dormant. We will have some kind of root crop day soon as well, but more on that later....

View the list here as a webpage or see below if you can get it to scroll down... up and down keys might work.