A friend of mine has a young black fig tree. I don’t know the variety. She said that the first year it bore black fruit with red flesh. But the next year it started producing green figs. There is a large green fig tree close by, and she’s convinced that the green fig tree made her black fig change.
Is this ridiculous or has anybody experienced something like this?
–eric
The green fig won’t have any effect on the black fig. There is zero chance of that happening. There are a couple of possiblities. If the plants are close enough together a shoot from the green fig may have invaded the space of the black fig. If the green fig was grafted, which is unlikely, maybe the green fruits are the rootstock. Or there’s a chance the black fig threw off a sport that’s green. It does happen in figs but very rare.
I’ve got a greenhouse full of black, green, grey, yellow, and red figs. None of them affect their neighbor in the least.
It could also be that the green figs are brebas and the black figs are main crop.
One plant does exist that makes both. So it’s not completely crazy. Highly unlikely though.
Col de Dame Blanca/Negra is said to produce both.
Today I learned what a breba is! I’ve seen that term and just figured it meant “fruit that hasn’t ripened yet”, but I looked it up after I read your post. Thanks!
That’s not unusual. All variegated plants can revert back to original. You need to remove those branches if you wish to keep the variegation. CdD Rimada is the worst for reverting back. Panache is rather stable, but I see it too can revert back.
I always pondered what Breba means. Phonetically, it sounds like an Arabic word. It would make sense since figs originated in the Middle East. In the Arabic language, “Breba” means literally “from its own paste”. That’s because Breba figs are produced from stored concentrated sugars from the year before. Main crop figs on the other hand are produced on new wood using new leaves that produce fresh sugar of the current year. That could explain the consistency difference between the two. I have nothing to back the above except that I speak arabic and my mind never stops questioning things…
It’s the Breba on last years wood. They will ripen dark
This is interesting. I had gotten it in my head that figs were only produced on old wood. I had to keep pruning my own fig tree because of its location, but I was always reluctant to do so because I thought I wouldn’t get figs on new wood. Apparently I’m not a very observant orchardist!
Spanish breva, alteration of Old Spanish bebra, from Latin (ficus) bifera twice-bearing fig, from ficus fig + bifera, feminine of bifer twice-bearing, from bi- bi- entry 1 + -fer ferous
Most breba figs are sub standard compared to new wood main crop figs. Some exceptions not many though.
Very interesting!! Anything to do with Arabs ruling Spain for over 800 years?? In my twenties, I took Spanish only to find out that it’s riddled with Arabic words. None of my Spanish speaking friends knew that because to them, and not knowing Arabic, it’s all Spanish!
There are indeed Arabic words in Spanish but as you can see from the quote this one has Latin origin.
Arabic is my mother tongue, breba and breva don’t sound like any Arabic words that I know 
.
Type رب أل بندورة (phonetically Rubb al banadura) in google translate and you get Tomato paste
I have never heard that expression before, it is possibly a local colloquial expression that I am unaware of. “Rubb” in Arabic means God or care giver, I don’t know of any other meanings for it.
