'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' ('Honey/sugar, Tropical' flavor fig)
The 'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' 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. 'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' is one of the most cold hardy cultivars of 'English Brown Turkey'.
It is a strain of English Brown Turkey that has survived some brutally cold winters in the 'Czech Republic' and still ripened fruit. In 2006 this cultivar was hit by -16.6 degrees Fahrenheit (-27 degrees Celsius). Then in 2010 the tree was hit by -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 degrees Celsius), much less cold yet it still had way more damage than the 2006 damage, that happened because the temperature drop from the warmest part of the day to the coldest part of the night was such an extreme drop, a 36 degree Fahrenheit drop (20 degrees Celsius), and the still brutally cold temperatures stayed unusually long. Then there was a late April frost that same year. All this causing the tree to die back to .98 feet above the ground (30 centimeters), that was the worst ever cold damage to the tree! Some small clones of the tree that were in early morning sun were hit much harder by the cold than the small clones of the tree that were not in early morning sun. Then in the winter of 2011/2012, it was reported that the tree was exposed to minus 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-30.56 Celsius). It lost 70 percent of it's height, yet it still managed to produce a crop of figs in 2012, despite that. When this cultivar has die-back to the ground, it recovers starting in the spring, and still sets a heavy crop.
'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' and 'Süßer Georg' are both unusually resistant to 'Fig Mosaic Virus'.
One of the best fig cultivars around if you want a high production breba fig crop, followed by a high production main fig crop. This cultivar is a mid season cropper, and it might be too late at cropping for some locations with short growing seasons. Excellent in a cold climate, excellent in a short season climate if you give them a head start in a pot!
It's Medium to very large figs each has a small eye, and has a rich sweet to very sweet flesh, with a good to excellent fruity taste, quality of it's figs get better as the tree ages.
This cultivar may be a slow grower due it's nature of putting more effort in to the figs than in to the vegetation, although the vegetation of some 'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' trees will grow aggressively for years before putting a lot of effort in to production, delaying production.
The figs of this cultivar may split easily in nonstop rain, it's fruit is also a bee, a wasp, and a ant magnet like the figs of 'LSU Gold', and like the figs of 'Peter's Honey', especially if the figs are left on the tree too long.
It's figs look similar to the figs of 'Bayernfeige Violleta' yet taste different. 'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' is said to taste better than 'Bayernfeige Violleta'.
Someone distributed cuttings of 'LaRadek's English Brown Turkey' under the three following different names, and some people falsely assumed that the abbreviation stood for 'Eastern Brown Turkey'.
01) 'Laradek English Brown Turkey'
02) 'Laradek EBT'
03) 'Laradek BT'
Outside of the UK, yet in Europe 'English Brown Turkey' is usually 'just called Brown Turkey', there are different genuine 'English Brown Turkey' cultivars/strains, and outside the UK what we call 'English Brown Turkey' is just a fig type that similar cultivars and strains are called, of which originated from Europe, not necessarily 'England or the UK'.
