Bountiful Figs

alanmercieca

Administrator

From: North Carolina - Zone 7a -8b

Registered: Nov-29-20

Posts: 106

GM-142 ('Adriatic berry' flavor)

'GM-142' ('Adriatic berry' flavor)

An unknown Maltese cultivar of fig tree) originating from Gozo Malta in Europe.

It's figs are excellent, they are similar to the figs of the Smith cultivar yet with more of a red tone to the skin than Smith has. The green skin with a red tone can be a little on the though side, yet certainly not the toughest and the skin can technically be eaten yet in this cultivar I prefer not eating the peel. The color of the inside is a pinkish red/or red, yet the inside may look orange red in photos. The size of it's figs can get to upper size of medium for the main crop. When the figs of this cultivar are at their best the skin is very soft, that is when they have a dark purple skin.

If it's figs crack open then the ants have a field day. It's figs are split resistant yet certainly not split proof.

The first ripe fig from this fig tree was picked Thursday the 18th of August 2016, I heard that is was great, I did not get to it first!

On August 24th 2016 I tried the first fig from this tree. Picture this, perfectly ripe rich dripping juicy strawberry jam with a natural freshness, powerful flavor with not even a sign of watered down. Fresh strawberry goodness with no acidity that I could notice, very sweet, yet does not give you that burned down feeling that too much sugar gives you. Not as sweet as the average fruit preserves, jams or spread, yet still very sweet. Very impressive figs for it's first and second seasons. When the figs of this cultivar are at their best they are like a combination of strawberry jam mixed with Black Mission figs! Yummm!

In 2022 some of the sweetest figs from this cultivar had a maple like flavor, and they were absent of the strawberry like flavor that I tasted for years prior. Yet in 2022 one fig again had a strawberry jam like flavor, yet that time strawberry/banana jam like flavor. This year (2022) GM-142 has grown on me even more, because it can have two very different flavors that I love!

If you factor production based upon tree size then sometimes it's the highest production fig tree that I have in the ground, I have seven fig trees in ground, all are different cultivars. Sometimes this unknown cultivar is a late cropper, sometimes it's an early cropper.

This unknown cultivar is noticeably more cold hardy than Smith. This cultivar is very rain and moisture tolerant.

GM-142 grows like a weed and it has good strong roots.

My tree of this cultivar was won in a contest on August 22nd, 2015, I was not the winner, the winner gave it to me because he knew that I'd love it, after all it's a cultivar that originated from the Maltese islands! I planted the tree in spring of 2016, tree was planted approximately April 14th 2016.