Ficus carica 'Archipel' End Of Season Review 2023

 

 'Archipel'   A.K.A. 'Osborn Prolific'

    This was the second Ficus carica variety added to my collection and 2023 will be its fourth year in ground here in the Puget Sound USDA Zone 8b. Historically, there are two different figs that go by the name 'Archipel'. The one I grow and that I am describing is the common type that produces two crops each season. Even though it dropped its entire breba crop this year, the tree is still young and dropping fruit can happen. Last season I had a handful of breba figs before the wildlife in my garden realized what they were missing out on and took the remaining twenty or so from this tree.

    Although it dropped its entire breba crop, the trees extra energy went into a delicious and abundant main crop production. Main crop fruits started to ripen from the second or third week of September all the way up until our first freeze, around October 27^th, A week or so earlier than usual. It’s planted in a narrow, slightly raised bed with good drainage on the South East corner of the house. It gets a good amount of sun but less water naturally than other trees in the more open landscape. The soil stays on the drier side, especially in our dry summers when it’s too hot for me to get out and hand water every day.

    The growth habit has been semi-vigorous since I planted the tree in the ground and since the first year after it’s been precocious to produce a crop. This variety has noteworthy split resistance and because the skin is thin and soft the figs will crack when they start to droop and shrivel. I haven’t had a fig split and spoil from this variety as the cracks do not typically lead to a split. I let a few figs droop, crack, and wrinkle and most of them held onto the tree well past being fully ripe.

   As far as the size of the figs, I’ve observed that they vary from medium to large. Generally the main crop produces larger figs than its breba crop. I would say the breba figs are a medium size where the main crop figs can be medium to a large fruit. The eye on all of the breba were completely closed, but on the main crop they varied from completely closed to slightly open. Only one fig on the entire tree this year developed a large open eye and the birds ate it before it ever ripened.

    I get a similar flavor profile from each of these figs. The taste is like a Crème brulee married to a sweet and slightly burnt caramel with a soft and pleasant texture due to its soft skin and shy presence of seeds. So far the flavor and texture has been consistent from brebas to the main crop. I noticed this is the first year the figs tasted really good before they were “extra” ripe where as in the past they were bland at this stage. The last two seasons I had to let them get really ripe to the point of drooping and wrinkling in order to get to the good flavor it’s capable of producing but this year was not the case. Fruit was good well before what I consider completely ripe. 

    The color of these figs are more consistent in warmer climates but here in the Pacific Northwest we can get cold enough temperatures before the end of the season that the exterior color changes. The colors transition from a brown dominant profile with red striped undertones to a deep purple bottomed fruit that transition to a pinkish red on its way towards the neck or top of the fig. During the start of the cool weather rolling in at the end of summer is when you can see both brown and red figs on the same tree as darker purple ones affected by the cooler temperatures.

    I think this is a great fig for the Puget Sound region of Western Washington because of its tight eye resulting in a resistance to splitting and its ability to ripen two crops in our short growing season. When the tree matures a bit you can pick the figs a little earlier than recommended and still get some good flavor and texture. I also appreciate the color changing of the figs towards the end of summer transitioning into fall. Weather a brown and red fig or a purple fig the interior is always a golden yellow and the flavor is consistently sweet and sugary with a wonderful soft texture in each bite.