No. Perhaps you have this confused with persistence?
1 Like
I know persistence is passed on only through the pollen parent, but I am pretty confident that if both parents are caprifigs all the offspring will be caprifigs. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. I have about a dozen fig related documents downloaded onto my phone (from the guy that I talked a lot with about fig breeding (and figs in general)) that I got that conclusion from one of them, but I am a little lazy to respend all that time rereading them just to prove I’m not just confused. I’ll test it out though when I get a second caprifig to cross with the one I already have, so that way I can follow up with my own evidence to prove or disprove.
2 Likes
If caprifigs can only procreate caprifigs, then how did females arise?
Actually here is the article that I got it from, after a hour of looking (less time than I thought it would take)
https://www.waynesword.net/pljun99b.htm#:~:text=Ficus%20carica%20has%202%20sexual,only%20long-style%20female%20flowers
Here is a diagram from it showing how it works, which isn’t exactly as simple as I thought it was previously, but that shouldn’t complicate breeding if we don’t cross caprifigs.
Here is a good explanation (for those who are confused) on the ‘ourfigs’ forum. The first reply to post #4. https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/1208414-purple-caprifig-with-lots-of-pollen
Wayne Armstrong was a natural history teacher at a community college about 10 miles east of here. The graph you have posted is an interpretation of W. Saleeb’s 1965 PhD thesis concerning persistence. Very little of W. Armstrong’s writings on figs should be taken seriously. None of it is peer reviewed. However, his wife did produce some illustrations of syconia that were later used in an article by M. Aradhya.
1 Like
Is he the author on the articles on the website? It says on the website that he coded the website, but didn’t he just compile other peoples writings?
Why is that?
Regardless I still plan on running my own experiments, so I can see how consistent in practice it actually is vs in writings. I don’t have any other sources for alternate explanations on how figs work, but this is what will be about the only information I can go off of until I find something else to add or compare to.
Wayne’s course was popular because the textbook (originally handouts) was free. With the innovation of web browsers, he uploaded MS Word documents as web pages. Later, management of the site was delegated to an IT person.
Very little of W. Armstrong’s writings on figs should be taken seriously because none of it is peer reviewed.
If your goal is to produce cold hardy Caprifigs, then females are unnecessary.
I do recommend that you pay attention to lineages of existing caprifigs. Enderud, Saleeb, and UCR 347-1 at USDA Wolfskill, plus caprifigs found downstream from them (Putah Creek) near UCD are all closely related.
1 Like
Okay.
How exactly do you find if it is peer reviewed? How exactly is the process of being peer review done? Does someone that works in that area test it for legitimacy? Or do they read it and if they agree with the writings just endorse it?
Yes, my goal is to start with breeding some caprifigs that are as cold hardy as the current most cold hardy figs available, then use them to try improving the cold hardiness even further (and hasten the ripening time as a side), which I’m not super particular on which fig I can obtain supior cold hardiness in, but definitely a female would be most desirable to me.
Enderud is on my list of caprifigs I want to obtain, never heard of the others (well, I may have, but forgot). Thanks for the suggestions.
1 Like
From the publisher. The notification method varies by publication type; e.g. textbooks, journal articles, scholastic theses.
It is true that W. Armstrong used peer reviewed sources, but then he grossly embellished them with his own conjectures. He also used non-reviewed sources to support his extrapolations.
Armstrong’s writings became popular on hobbiest bulletin boards because many other sources were behind pay walls. Many of those paywalls have since been removed.
1 Like
Google Scholar is a pretty good starting point, though it’s not without issue. LLM AIs like ChatGPT, Grok, etc. can be useful if you use them to find the papers for you, just make sure you go on and read the papers themselves to verify that the AI isn’t making crap up.
1 Like
@KS_razerback
Persistence is not the only attribute solely passed by Caprifigs. Likewise, certain other attributes are only passed by Females. A partial list is discussed by M. Flaishman here:
https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/book/10.1079/9781789242492.0000
Look before you leap!
1 Like
In A.D. 50, Pliny documented the importation of cold-hardy figs from northern Anatolia to the elevated areas east of Rome (Abruzzi). These were most likely F.c. rupestris. The Romans protected these trees from winter cold by piling straw and mulch around the trunk half way up the tree. Seeds of F.c. rupestris are available internationally for import to the USA. There are also a few US botanical gardens with specimens. Please don’t ask me for locations.
1 Like
Can you give a example of some of the traits that are passed exclusively by the seed parent?
That article costs a little more than what I’m inclined to pay to read it.
It’s a 546 page book. 
Clandestine electronic copies can be located online.
3 Likes