Maybe figs do taste good

#61

It has done ok. It set fruit in its second leaf, but very late in the season so it eventually dropped when the weather got cold. The one fig that ripened this season was snagged by my fig loving four year old. He said it was great, but he will eat unripe figs by the handful.

In general, my tree suffers from cuttingitis. It has been trying to tell me for three seasons that there was something wrong with the main trunk (sending up lots of suckers while the trunk barely grows) but I keep cutting the suckers off and sharing them. This year the main trunk is going and Iā€™m starting over.
Iā€™m quite interested to see how it turns out for you and Kelby.

#62

The last member of the House of Medici died in 1743, I would doubt the mother tree is that old. :wink:

#63

The oldest fig tree I heard of is 460 years old.at Lambeth Palace.

460 year old fig tree, Lambeth Palace.jpg1350x900 276 KB

#64

Yes, and itā€™s pretty well known, Iā€™ve seen this photo multiple times. The Italian one suddenly appeared from nowhere, to juice up an ebay sale ad.

#65

those multi-centenarians never fail to put my finite existence in perspective, lol!

#66

For sure, I have seen a few others too, really amazing.
I trust Olga, an old timer, Sheā€™s friends with Bass and Rafed, if they consider her a friend, you canā€™t have more street cred. She loves talking figs too. She said ask her anything, any time. I tend to look at the positive side of things. I throw away plants that donā€™t meet my needs, I hate it, but do it, so no big deal, i still have the other 200 plants.

I got cuttings of Malta Black, and Takoma Violet today. Thanks to Don S. He saw I needed them on F4F and asked if I wanted cuttings, would not even take postage. I will pay him back. What great people are around. If more than one of the cuttings take of each type, I may have a plant or two to give away in the spring. Both are known and valued plants to the easternerā€™s. Good cold hardy types. Although they are Mt Etna, Iā€™m just trying to find the best Mt Etna type. Not sure how an Etna fig got to Malta? Iā€™ll decide what to keep down the road.

#67

To update this, I picked the 2nd fig today and was better prepared with my refractometer. 19 brix.

I donā€™t think I let this one get quite as ripe (it didnā€™t fall off on its own and was a bit firmer). But it was still tasty and this time I brought it home and shared it with my family (1 great, 1 good, and 1 OK response).

Fig_Second_01-16-2016.JPG1224x1632 531 KB

Nice closed eye:

Fig_Eye_01-16-2016.JPG1224x1632 301 KB

I think that the insides have a few more seeds in this one, but were still pretty smooth.

Fig_Cut_01-16-2016.JPG1632x1224 432 KB

#68

Bob,
Whatever this varety is, you have found a keeper. Congrats. To my untrained eyes, it looked good.

#69

I have been talking to Rafed lately since he only lives a few miles from me. The Rafed associated with Genovese Nero (Rafedā€™s). Who left all fig forums. I asked him about Olga. He said "I trust Olga with my life. Sheā€™s a good person. "

Good enough for me. Did your cutting make it? Mine did not, but she gave me another and I grafted it, it looks like it took. I want to eventually air layer one on itā€™s own roots. So it will be some time before I can trade this one around, plus I want to try fruit first.

#70

Drew. I recently discovered that Olga gets her Italian varieties from an Italian collector name Tatiana. Sheā€™s on Rafedā€™s group if you want to look her up. Olga is great, but Tatiana is unknown to me.

To answer your question, my first cutting died, but Iā€™m rooting the second now. If I had the rootstock Iā€™d graft it too I would, haha. I just got Dallā€™Oso (Belfiore) cuttings. The only Dallā€™Oso worth having and three rootstocks went to that bad boy.

#71

I donā€™t do facebook, I canā€™t stand it. Olga also gave me a few other things, very nice.
Speaking of new additions, I have been trading!
This year I added Violet Sepor, Galicia Negra, LSU Red, Miralla (MP), BFF, CDD Rimada, Martinenca Rimada. Malta Black, Takoma Violet, CDD Blanc, and
Noire de Barbentane. Probably a few others I forgot about.
All I want to add is CDD B/N and BB 10. I know guys who have them, just need to let my plant grow as they want CC in trade. I need to clone the heck out of this one.

#72

Nice! Awesome additions, Drew. I was after CC myself, Drew, but I think itā€™s too similar to Black Madeira to pursue that one. At least for now. Finding a healthy strain is all I need!

#73

I donā€™t have BM, and CC doesnā€™t have FMV either. I got it for postage before it exploded. Itā€™s trade bait for me.

#74

I like the ā€œstrategeryā€ of your fig bartering.

#75

Unfortunately as it gets spread around some plants will become infected with FMV by fig bud mites, or in rare cases virus is present in only sections of the plant and will show when buds break.

The symptoms are associated with high virus levels, the virus particles actually gum up the works of the cells. But because the amount of virus is always in flux in any tree the symptoms can increase or decrease. That is why it is important to know whether the mother tree shows symptoms, because during rooting the stress may cause the already high levels to increase even more and result in a stunted new plant. Sure, it may grow, figs are weeds after all, but infected plants lack consistency because the virus does have an affect.

The community seems very confused overall by the disease, on the one hand sellers often make declarations about FMV that are very contrary to all published research and advice. On the other growers want healthy plants, but feel like they are offending people who have infected trees. Iā€™ve purchased some varieties multiple times to get healthy specimens, and also worked with symptomatic ones to propagate healthy new plants.

I guess the moral to the story is you can only speak for your own trees (exception made for the Lorax :wink:). People might read about how a variety is healthy from one person and then buy cuttings from someone else and end up with a symptomatic plant (probably fig bud mites as well). It would really help the community if people would share the condition of their trees when distributing.

#76

Yeah I have no idea about the mother tree for CC, but right now only one person is distributing plant material, and that would be Padsfan. I think somebody else sold cuttings once. I have not passed it on to anybody yet. Everybody wants it, but itā€™s only 2nd leaf. It does have 2 air layers on it now for trades.All I can say is mine is 2nd leaf and has yet to display any symptoms. Itā€™s a vigorous plant, and produces tonā€™s of figs too. Itā€™s first year from a cutting it produced about 13 figs. Something like that. See what is does this year, although Iā€™m cutting two branches off of it soon! So I donā€™t expect as many as itā€™s first year. Only one branch left.Padsfan has BM and says CC produces bigger figs. I donā€™t have BM and have no plans to obtain one or Preto either. So I can;t say? Iā€™m happy with it, and it was like 5 bucks or something to get it.

I really like getting the found figs. People brought them here for a reason, Unk Teramo brought to Easton MD. It is one of my favorites. Vigorous, prolific producer of these small delicious figs. Right now it has tonā€™s of breba, and they are bigger than any other breba of the 35 plus varieties I have.I mean more advanced. Surely the first figs of the season. A wonderful tree.

#77

Yeah, I read that they are bigger but they are also coming off a mature tree. The fruit is supposed to get bigger as a tree matures.

#78

It may just be a BM or Preto from another tree brought here. I do know it comes from the Azores. In any case if someone wants to trade for it, and give me something I could not obtain otherwise, Iā€™m not going to complain. I refuse to pay these high prices, they will come down.

Oh yeah Maltese Falcon for a Lebanese Red (Bass), added that too, it has bad FMV, so does a CDD Blanc I have and El Molito, forgot about that one too, that may not be a common fig? I donā€™t think it is. With CDDB every piece I had rooted, one of the easiest. I heard two sources for this one UCD, and MP.

#79

One of the things that might drive prices up is if people decide it is different and they need both, I am guilty :smile: Cuttings from the same mother can end up so different grown in different situations it can be really hard to tell though.

I had CdDB from UCD and it was a nice little bonsai sized tree that never seemed to ripen on time, or was ā€œcitrusyā€, yuck, it did make just a few really nice fruits though. At some point I need to figure out how to get the latest ripening varieties a head start.

Maltese Falcon refuses to set figs so far for me, very strong growth in ground but nothing else. I started some more for containers this year and might try grafting the ones in ground with something else.

Iā€™ve got a couple Teramoā€™s also, started late last year and they didnā€™t do much but one might get a spot in the ground this year.

#80

I was looking at some of the Sicilian figs, and one of those might be the same as Teramo?
My in ground figs seemed to do well, but now are just kinda sitting there. It looks like they will die back some now, whereas a month ago they looked fine. I think Iā€™m just going to stick with containers.