One of my favorite sellers is @fruitnut.
His trees are the best.
Search for fruitnut on figbid.
5 Likes
I like his posts. Thanks. 
2 Likes
There’s also this seller. He was at the center of the drama that shut down F4F, it’s a long story. To sum up, people were upset that he wanted to sell low cost trees and cuttings to make it a fun hobby again… they convinced lots of people to demand refunds because he underestimated the amount of orders and overestimated when the trees would be ready, so ended up getting way behind and almost bankrupt. I’ve never dealt with him so can’t personally recommend him, but have read that the people who have bought from him recently have been happy with their purchases, and just checked and see he’s having a sale on plants.
In the aftermath a couple other nurseries got out of figs, most likely because the drama drove people away from participating online. So the market shrunk (auction prices were down for a year, many sellers moved to buy it now), but people who sell on auctions ended up with more control over the market.
2 Likes
Yeah. Too bad he doesn’t ship to Arizona! 
ahhh…i see… yeah you’ll see a post on here where one person will buy a tree and get a different variety (then what they thought they had ordered). I’m pretty sure it has happened to me with a few apple trees i’ve bought. I haven’t followed figs enough but i know some seem to command a lot of $$$. I’ve had pretty good luck with Ebay plants overall…i’ve had some seeds that have been garbage (mostly from overseas) but i’ve been more impressed then disappointed.
Can figs be grown out from seed?
Japan is one of the places i need to go to before i’m turned into compost 
I would assume figs can be grown in Japan but haven’t looked it up.
Yes they can but most seedlings aren’t even edible. Most are caprifigs which are only useful in the few areas that have the fig wasp for pollination.
So I found a random fig tree growing in Sea World and decided to just take it with me. I am trying to root it up now. Probably won’t amount to much but I figure it is worth a shot. Only problem is I don’t have the wasp here either… you think it’s still worth the gamble?
Figs are terrible as far as being mislabeled, I’ve wasted a lot of time and money growing out plants that were not true to type. People, including my favorite seller, used to put their forum name in eBay listings so potential buyers could check them out and see that they have earned a reputation and are legit. That morphed into people who contributed basically nothing putting their forum names in listing and making a big deal out of being a member to get around having pictures and a good reputation themselves!
I’ve been breeding for 5 years, it is complicated because the gene for persistence is only passed by the male. And only half of the seeds from a persistent male cross will be persistent themselves, and of course half are male so best case scenario 25% will be common females that can be grown without the pollinator wasp (which is only in native regions and parts of California). So starting seeds from dried figs you buy that have an unknown pollen parent is even more of a gamble than that and not recommended aside from rootstocks (which are a pain because they sucker profusely). There has been very little breeding done with figs, nearly all varieties in circulation were selected from the wild, and aside from a program in Russia which yielded Michurinska 10/Florea there have been no other attempts to breed figs that are adapted to colder climates that I’m aware of.
The Japanese take their figs very seriously, like you’d expect. Orchards are mostly step over cordons with wire supports. Some in giant greenhouses.
http://www.hawaiifruit.net/japanfigresearch/pages/Narita%20san.html
3 Likes
It is either half, or in some cases all. Because male figs are functionally hermaphrodite they can pollinate themselves or other males. Yielding some or all homozygous male offspring, these homozygous male caprifigs even when crossed with a female fig yield all heterozygous male offspring.
https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/pljun99b.htm
It adds another element of complexity, you must also know the mother of the pollen parent to know if you have a heterozygous caprifig and will get any females. Or grow out them out to see like I did and select hetero caprifigs from the next generation.
All female figs are considered edible, of course superior tasting varieties are harder to find, but considering very few of the varieties in circulation are suited to colder regions it lowers the bar for what might be considered superior as long as they have desirable traits for the climate.
5 Likes
This is so interesting to me great posts! I figure if nothing else it can be a rootstock for something else at some point! Right now I have the room to play with it. Later that may not be the case. Especially since I just started. 
2 Likes
Remove the suckers as they form if you want a standard tree. Otherwise you’ll have to knock them off with a sledgehammer later on or be forever pruning the cut stumps back.
1 Like
I am usually pretty good about removing suckers. I don’t want a mess. Good to know.
2 Likes
Here’s two types in my garden I’m proppagating, Sunfire and Ronde de Bordeaux. Here in colder 6b i need those who may produce after dieback… I plan to protect these roots inground and airlayer the tops of these next month for this winter indoor pots for next spring planting out in the orchard.
If I was in z10 AZ i would plant lots of varieties and especially any that do best in a dry climate like maybe desert king…
4 Likes
I just got a really good tasting fig from my tree. It did taste like really ripe strawberry. I am seriously learning this whole balance between too much water and not enough. Here in the desert figs dry out if left to hang too long for ripening. But today I picked a perfect fig. Sorry, I was eating it while driving so no photo.
4 Likes
I would leave them on that long then, that is when they are best. I wish I could leave mine on longer most summers. Maybe you mean too long, but I can’t think of anything better than sun dried figs. That’s very cool at any rate!
I can get them about this dry only before being harvested.
7 Likes
I love them dried but they didn’t get to the jammy stage. So sweet and chewy but not soft and squishy…
1 Like
OK, I get it. Yes you have a tough environment no doubt. They should thrive with some luck.
I’ll be trying a lot of new ones (to me) this year. The crop is huge this year, it’s going to be a blast.
2 Likes
There were a couple of fig breeding programs here in the states. I believe LSU was attempting to come up with a variety suited to their local conditions, particularly the humidity. There were a number of official and unofficial releases in the LSU line.
I have a volunteer fig in my backyard that is fruiting for the first time. I do not expect the fruit to be edible, but the tree might be a start in establishing the fig wasp in my neighborhood.
4 Likes
Very cool. Keep us updated if the fruit is edible or not. I would like to know.
1 Like
That’s awesome. Can’t wait until I have plenty more to share.
1 Like