Bountiful Figs

alanmercieca

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From: North Carolina - Zone 7a -8b

Registered: Nov-29-20

Posts: 106

Olympian ('Honey/sugar, Tropical' flavor fig)

Olympian ('Honey/sugar, Tropical' flavor fig)

the 'Olympian' cultivar is a type of fig tree often referred to as 'English Brown Turkey'. At least a few 'English Brown Turkey' cultivars are more cold hardy than the Mount Etna fig cultivars. 'Olympian' is one of the most cold hardy cultivars of 'English Brown Turkey', yet it does not seem like 'Olympian' is as early a cropper as 'English Brown Turkey (Tuckahoe)' is 'which is about as cold hardy', yet it still appears to be earlier than some of the other 'English Brown Turkey' type of figs.

An old enough/big enough 'Olympian' can survive down to at least -15 degrees Fahrenheit with protection, yet that is after dying back to the ground, and regrowing. The same thing happens after 'Olympian' is hit by 0 degrees Fahrenheit, yet in time this cultivar should gain more cold hardiness than that, in zone 7a Long Island this cultivar had just a small amount of die back at the tips of the branches, I am thinking that with age there might be even less damage than that there.

Olympian's fruit is better than 'Bayern Feige Violetta', better than 'Dauphine', better than 'Bornholm/Nexoe' which is not as cold hardy as the 'Olympian' cultivar. Olympian's fruit is nearly identical to Marlow. Olympian's fruit is nearly identical to Gene's Vashon, Gene's Vashon's fruit might be a tiny bit better, yet has a slightly smaller fruit size. Those cultivars are also the 'English Brown Turkey' type of fig.

The dense rich flesh of Olympian's thin skinned fruit can taste undeniably like a ripe peach soaked in honey, like peaches with tropical fruit, like peaches with a strong cherry flavor, like berry soaked in honey, like watermelon soaked in honey, or like brown sugar and honey. It's fruit has very little if any seed crunch. It's fruit might have a slight crunchiness to it 'resembling a thin layer of soft ice', that is created by the sugar crystals of the fig fruit. The fruit that 'Olympian' produces, they range from sweet to very sweet. If the skin of it's fruit shrivels a little, then it gets jammy. It's fruit gets juicy 'yet not as juicy' as a lot of other fig cultivars, and it's flesh is refreshing. The flavor of it's fruit continues as an aftertaste. This cultivar produces good figs in cool weather, and in coastal climates. The rain does not water it down easily. The fruit may taste like 'American Cantaloupes' after enough rain, that happens to a lot of fig cultivars when the rain forces the figs to ripen prematurely. Some people love the figs of this cultivar so much that they wind up with more than one tree of it, despite it being so productive.

This cultivar produces two crops even in 'Seattle, Washington' 'at least on some years', and is very productive, both of it's crops can be very productive. It's fruit may ripen July-October, ripening time may be shorter or longer based upon age/size of the tree, and based upon the yearly micro-climate that it's in, eventually as the tree ages it's breba crop may ripen 'as early as May', it's breba crop can withstand temperatures into the teens. It's main crop figs have a more intense flavor than the figs of it's breba crop. This cultivar usually bears fruit at an early age.

The figs of the 'Olympian' cultivar's breba crop, they have a long neck, they are usually larger and elongated, it's main crop figs have a shorter neck, are smaller, and are roundish.

The breba fruit size of a mature enough 'Olympian' fig tree has been compared to the size of tangerines, it's main crop figs are large in size. The skin of it's fruit is purple, or olive green with reddish-brown, the fruit flesh is an amber-red or a bright violet-red.

The fruit of this cultivar has a medium to large sized eye, the eye on most of it's figs is not fully open, yet the eye of it's fruit is often not tight either. For that reason it's fruit is somewhat weather resistant, yet in some cases it's fruit can be an easy target because of the fig eye. Some people have mentioned that closing the eye of a fig's fruit using 'waterproof breathable medical tape' prevents fig fruit from splitting, from souring, from premature spoiling, it also keeps insects out of the figs. Even after heavy rain.

The vegetation of 'Olympian' grows like a weed.

This heirloom cultivar was discovered by a retired environmental biologist named 'Denny McGaughy' in 2003, he found the 'over 100 year old' fig tree in 'a sheltered area of a woman's yard, location 'Olympia, Washington', so he called it 'Olympian'.

'Denny McGaughy' had the 'Olympian' cultivar DNA tested with the help of 'Malli Aradhy', a geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 'National Clonal Germplasm Repository', that DNA test was conducted to find out if 'Olympian' was a known cultivar. It did not match any of the 125 fig cultivars that it was compared to, originally 194 'so called cultivars' were included in the DNA test. Several dozen of those turned out to be 'duplicated cultivars under different names'. The DNA testing for about a dozen 'so called cultivars' appeared to have been corrupted somehow so those 'so called cultivars' were not compared to 'Olympian', for those reasons the original 194 count was off by 69 cultivars, making the count really 125 fig cultivars. 'Olympian' was not compared to any 'English Brown Turkey'. The DNA testing took place during 2009 at the 'Wolfskill Experimental Orchards' at UC Davis, which was 6 years after he discovered the cultivar.

'Olympian' was Introduced in 2014, that same year the cultivar won, the Retailers' Choice Award, at the 2014 FarWest Show!

'Olympian' has gained great popularity, in part because it tolerates a wider range of climate conditions, than a majority of other fig cultivars do, also in part because this cultivar requires only a low amount of heat units.