Takoma Violet ('Dark Berry' flavor fig)
Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2021 7:09 am
'Takoma Violet' ('Dark Berry' flavor fig)
The cultivar 'Takoma Violet' is one of the most productive Mount Etna like figs, and it fruits at a young age as well. If the climate is not too cold then it can have a highly productive breba crop, not just a highly productive main crop.
It's breba figs are a little smaller in size in comparison to the main crop, it's breba crop is just as tasty as it's main crop, if not better, both of which are the opposite of what normally happens with fig cultivars.
It's thin skinned small to medium jammy fruits have little to no seed crunch, they are very rich, and their slightly addictive strong 'fruity' taste is outstanding, even under cool rainy conditions, and it's fruit is way better under ripe than the fruit of many other cultivars are. This cultivar is split resistant.
It's sweet to very sweet fruit might taste like cherry, or like peach! The fruit of this cultivar takes '80 days to ripen'.
It's fruit starts to ripen in early August, and that continues almost until frost hits!
The thin tender skin of it's fruit is usually a 'medium to dark violet' color in warm/hot summers with plenty of sunlight, sometimes almost black, there might be brown in the skin color as well.
'Takoma Violet' can be way more sensitive than a lot of other cultivars 'when it's small and young', then all of a sudden it can get tough and grow like a weed.
The leaves of this cultivar are 5 lobed, and those leaves have the basic 'Mount Etna' leaf shape.
This cultivar was 'discovered' in 'Takoma Park, Maryland' during the summer of 2001, by Gene Hosey's friend Kathleen (the same Kathleen that discovered 'Kathleen's Black'), Kathleen had found this cultivar in the back yard of one of her local friends, that neighbor of hers, an elderly 'German' lady', she bought 'Takoma Violet' from a budget nursery catalog for her husband 'in approximately 1981'.
This cultivar was named after where it was found 'Takoma Park, Maryland', Takoma spelled with a 'k', sometimes this cultivar's name is falsely spelled 'Tacoma'!
'Takoma Violet' has a unique cold resistance, it's breba crop can actually survive 10 degrees Fahrenheit 'without protection' for several days straight. The arctic vortex of January - March 2014 caused this cultivar to die-back to the ground, although just the same it recovered fast enough for it to produce figs 'at the normal time of year'.