Bountiful Figs

'Adriatic JH' ('Elegant Berry, Adriatic Berry' flavor fig)

When 'Joseph Hood', 'a chiropractor in Austin, Texas', moved to their new home in 2001, 'they inherited a mature in-ground fig tree', the person that 'Joseph Hood' bought the home from 'estimated the fig tree to have been about 7 or 8 years old' that year, 2001! It is believed that the tree was bought from a local nursery, after all there is a seemingly identical mature tree, 'a couple of blocks down the road'.

The name 'Adriatic JH' came about because 'Joe Hood' had thought that his tree was of the real 'Adriatic' cultivar, when he started sharing cuttings of it, yet people had doubts that it was the real 'Adriatic' cultivar. So just in case people attached Joseph Hood's initials to the name. That way if they are not the same, there would be way less confusion down the road. 'Joe Hood' had nothing to do with the cultivar being named 'Adriatic JH', many people call this cultivar 'JH Adriatic', even some of the people most popular for helping to share this cultivar, have spelled it both ways, yet 'Adriatic JH' has become the way to spell it!

Our 'Adriatic JH' never originated from Herman, it originated at one time from ‘drivewayfarmer (Kerry Sullivan)’, drivewayfarmer’s cutting source for his 'Adriatic JH' trees was Joe Hood (JH), when JH was still giving out cuttings from his own original tree.

At first Joe Hood shared cuttings of 'Adriatic JH' with people himself, yet quickly the demand became too much for him to handle, so for a few years he sent bulk cuttings to 'Jon Verdick' owner of the 'Encanto Farms Nursery'. Jon shared plenty of 'Adriatic JH' cuttings with people.

The leaves are very variable in shape, it's leaves range from un-lobed to five-lobed, plus two thumbs. Some of it's young leaves are spade shaped. It's leaves are very similar to the leaves of the UCD Adriatic, yet 'JH Adriatic' seems to be the more disease resistant cultivar of the two. 'Adriatic JH' seems more healthy, it grows way more like a weed, and it's figs ripen much earlier in the season. The eyes of it's fruit might be a little different than the eyes on the fruit of 'UCD Adriatic'.

This cultivar loves heat, and it does not mind '30+ degree Fahrenheit' temperature swings.

Jon Verdick' owner of Encanto Farms Nursery submitted 'Adriatic JH' for addition to the USDA collection during the summer of 2012. At the time, USDA was DNA testing all cultivars in their collection, so a comparison with the original 'Adriatic' cultivar in the USDA Collection was anticipated.. On Friday, I received a response from Jon Verdick about his submission of 'Adriatic JH' to the USDA collection and he's very doubtful that they have 'Adriatic JH' anymore, as it is not listed in GRIN database. Most likely we will never know if they had done a DNA test on it."

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, holds up well in rainy weather. The figs of younger trees of this cultivar 'may split badly', and it's figs may still split badly at an older age 'after long periods of consistent rain', or after heavy rains, 'which causes it's figs to begin souring and spoiling', as well as causes it's leaves to 'rust'. Overall 'Adriatic JH' is not as split resistant as 'White Madeira #1'. It's breba figs have a flap in their skin, on the bottom side of the figs! The eye on each of it's fig fruits may or may not clog with fig honey.

When it's fruit is ripe, long deep cracks often appear in their skin. When it's fruit is ripe, it's skin might get yellowish 'that's if it gets a lot of sunlight and heat', otherwise it's skin color when ripe 'would be a somewhat lighter green'. The soft skin of it's fruit holds together well, is said to taste like the honey that seeps from the fig eye of this cultivar, the skin of a properly ripe fig produced by this cultivar, it might 'taste candied'.

'Adriatic JH' produces at a young age, usually either the same year rooted, or the year after. This cultivar only produces a handful of breba figs each year 'at the most' 'even after a warm winter', it's breba are large in size. The taste and texture of it's breba crop is very similar to it's main crop figs. Most of the figs that 'Adriatic JH' produces, they come in the form of main crop figs. It's main crop figs are usually small to medium in size, some are slightly larger, it's main crop is high production, produces figs at virtually every node, can produce over 90 pounds a year! This cultivar is more productive than 'Ronde De Bordeaux'.

In Austin, TX it's brebas start to ripen in June, sometimes even in May, the breba crop ends there in the first part of August. There it's main crop usually starts to ripen in mid-July, cropping for about 2 weeks. This cultivar is a mid season cropper, and it might be too late at cropping for some locations with short growing seasons. Main crop should ripen 'early September' in the Mid-Atlantic. This cultivar crops about one month after 'Ronde De Bordeaux' crops.

Unlike some other 'Adriatic' types of figs 'Adriatic JH' does not need lots of sunlight hours, yet lots of sunlight hours should make the fruit even better.

The figs of 'Adriatic JH', they have a somewhat juicy flesh, when properly ripe their somewhat firm flesh has an intense, complex, unique, very sweet like candy, syrupy rich smooth strawberry flavor, that resembles strawberry jam with Vanilla, and with honey, or with caramel, with moderate acidity. It's fruit might have a touch of tropical fruit flavor 'resembling fruit like pineapple or mango'. It's fruit has little to no crunch, from the very small yet flavorful seeds. Cold weather, humidity, and rain does not easily lower the quality of it's fruit flesh as it ripens. When properly ripe it's figs have a 'deep dark raspberry red' colored pulp. Even when it's figs are not properly ripe they are still quite good!

'Adriatic JH' is considered by many 'to be one of the very best green/yellow skinned fig cultivars' around, if not the best, as well as better than most dark skinned figs 'when it comes to the fruit', 'much of the time'! Herman thinks that 'Adriatic JH' might be related to 'Black Madeira, and to Preto. Two of the most popular fig cultivars in the world, both of which produce figs that are significantly above average in fruit quality.

The figs of 'Adriatic JH' and 'Battaglia Green' ripen several weeks apart of each other, which one has the ripe figs first can very. The leaf shape of 'Adriatic JH' and the leaf shape of 'Battaglia Green' are not the same. Of these two cultivars a lot of people prefer 'Adriatic JH', due to it doing better in their climate, in a lot of climates it usually produces good to great figs, even in low light, in cool weather, during rain, in high humidity, and when picked early, even when it's figs ooz latex 'when removed'.

For the best fig quality wait for each fig to be soft to the touch, and drooping at the neck, hopefully seeing wrinkles, as well as sugar spots, a ripe fig of this cultivar should fall off at the lightest touch. Sometimes the figs of this cultivar will harden/dry on the tree.

It appears that 'Unk Prosciutto' might be the Adriatic type of fig, that is most like 'Adriatic JH', yet they are not identical. Unk Prosciutto is said to be a little bit sweeter, is said to have a little more seed crunch, with a little bit more raspberry flavor verses the 'Adriatic JH' cultivar. More so than not 'Unk Prosciutto' seems like an improved 'Adriatic JH', although 'Adriatic JH' is a little bit more productive than 'Unk Prosciutto' is, and 'Unk Prosciutto' is not a young producer, which is another advantage of owning a 'Adriatic JH'.

More so than not 'Unk Prosciutto', 'Strawberry Verte', 'Dalmatie', 'White Madeira #1', 'Green Michurinska', and 'Vasilika Sika (VS)', they all ripen earlier than 'Adriatic JH'. Although more so than not 'Battaglia Green', 'Green Ischia', 'Stella', 'Paradiso Bronze', and 'Hadoulis F White', they all ripen later than 'Adriatic JH'.

This cultivar does 'good to great' in-ground in zone 6+. 'Adriatic JH' recovers fast 'if it has any frost damage', even after die-back to the ground 'it still produces a main crop', plant against a wall which helps to protect it against dangerous winter winds, while it receives warmth that very slowly leaks from inside the building.

'Unk Prosciutto' is a little more cold hardy than 'Adriatic JH', and 'Unk Prosciutto' is even more cold hardy than 'White Madeira #1. 'Adriatic JH' is more cold hardy than 'White Madeira #1', and it's more cold hardy than 'Ronde De Bordeaux'.

If you plant this cultivar in-ground 'in zone 6a or colder' then it needs way more serious protection. Not only for the tree, also for the roots.

A potted 'Adriatic JH' survived the polar vortex of 'January - March 2014' in Road Island, Zone 6a, after dying back to the ground!

'White Madeira #1' is supposedly the Adriatic type of fig 'with the very best flavor, a more complex flavor, which has more depth'! It seems like 'White Madeira #1' is the 'Adriatic type of fig' which is the most different from 'Adriatic JH', while they have a similar flavor profile. Both are high production premium cultivars, the 'White Madeira #1' cultivar has the highest production of the two!

'White Madeira #1' has a bit of a hollow void in the center (similar to Black Madeira-types), 'Adriatic JH' does not have that.