“Red Delicious”, “Gala”, and others are U.S. “produce grades”. This permits farmers to grow successive ripening cultivars that meet the grade and offer them in markets under a single label for an extended period of time. The same is true of “Hass Avocado”. All of these are the results of breeding programs and chance seedlings – not cultivar drift.
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A local to me member unknowingly purchased I-258 from Etsy from another country and it was not the correct variety.
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For apples, most are actually the results of sports found on existing trees.
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I have been studying the apple genetics literature and analyzing chromosome level sequences taken in the past 4 years. The literature from repositories mentions breeding programs, chance seedlings, and a few sports. A sport is a local mutation on an individual specimen. Sometimes docents at repositories misapply the term “sport” to seedlings resulting from chemical treatment of flowers in a breeding program. Genetic drift refers to an entire plant grown from a clone. It is typically not macroscopically noticable in a single iteration from one donor plant to a plant grown from the scion. Instead, it becomes noticeable between the original cultivar and a plant resulting from many iterations of clone of clone of clone … of clone of original cultivar.
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Did your fig cuttings arrive yet? Are you going to store all of them until spring or will you roots some right away?
Good clarification, Richard. Drift caused the loss of many excellent named roses over the past 100+ years. Commercial rose forcing greenhouses would constantly take new cuttings from ‘blind wood canes’ so they wouldn’t lose a flower sale. Over generations the cultivar would ‘run out’, really drift. Some perceptive growers warned it could happen. Many rose researchers were shocked how much better an old original rose is compared to the example available from current production.
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Im still picking Malta Black now. Still decently sweet and flavorful. Note that I’m further north than most folks on this forum.
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@ramv
Congratulations!
You might have heard this past week about fire-spreading Santa Ana winds in southern CA. They also have a tendency to push the marine layer out to sea, resulting in clear, colder nights in the Fall. Last night I had temperatures oscillating between 45°F and 47°F for about 7 hours. Ripening processes on my figs (and bananas!) will grind to a halt with that sort of event. I doubt the birds will find any more ripe figs to eat until next summer.
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Not yet, it says Tuesday. Weird cause the other ones I’ve gotten arrived in a day but i guess the holiday rush has begun.
I’m rooting everything right now, waiting until they get a little bigger, letting them go dormant for January- February, then restarting their growth.
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That’s quite something that you’re two zones higher and yet this past week I was seeing temperatures in the 80s. Granted it’s not usually that warm here in November, but still.
LSU Scott’s Black thriving with this weather.
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@a_Vivaldi
Yes. Daytime highs have been in the mid 70’s F at our property, about 8 aerial miles from the coast. Keep in mind that our coastal water currents come down from the Gulf of Alaska, not up from the Gulf of Mexico.
Check the tracking history to make sure it’s not oscillating between two distribution centers.
Its on its way. East to west takes about 5 days usually. Well west to east takes 5 days, no experience going the other way.
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So weird cause the last order from Pennsylvania took only 2 days so i thought that was normal lol
Lots of different factors could dictate when you get packages. If your package came from a distribution center that has a quick route to your distribution center, your package will arrive faster. Also, your package could be delayed if the route handling your package is running behind.
Are there any varieties of figs that are pink and taste good?
What do you do with leaf growth on fig cuttings while rooting? I see alot of people say cut them off and alot of people say leave them on. I’m growing them in a humidity dome inside thats got a towel over it to stop light.
@sharq
Here’s an update on my post far above.
The two scions I grafted are still looking healthy. Our daytime temperatures have been in the 60’s F and pre-dawn lows in the low 40’s. One of them is pushing leaf buds, but real test will be their status next summer.
The cuttings I’m attempting to root are indoors with nearby air temperatures ranging from 64° to 78°. Underneath the tray and towel (pictured above) is a Sunlight Supply 9" x 20" seedling heat mat. It is plugged into a timer that is on from 6am to 6pm.
Water is added to the rooting containers based on weight (thank you @fruitnut). I weigh the container tray after each watering has drained for an hour, and then periodically until significant weight loss is noticed but without totally drying the containers. Then the watering cycle repeats.
By the way, I cut a row off the 4 x 5 Stuewe mini treepot tray so it would fit in the Sunlight Supply super thick 10 x 20 drainage tray.
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