I bought some “Wild” Turkish figs a month ago.
Planted some of the seeds.
Starting to sprout.
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Looks encouraging!
I have one too, and it turned out common, but the fig as not that good. I got rid of it. I have so many fig trees. They have to be exceptional for me to keep them. The fig was pretty good, but not exceptional. I had seeds from Doug in California and I have one growing. Chances are it is not common, let alone something good. But it’s fun to do this! I have 3 peach seedlings right now. I love growing from seed! I also just got cuttings of three wild figs in California to test if they are common. Some of the best new figs are volunteer wilds from California. I just got two cuttings of Boysenberry Blush thanks to the guy who discovered it! I’m so pleased! Some people are just great people.
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Yeah it may be good or maybe not.
We need early ripe figs up here.
Seedlings have some interesting variability in the leaf forms.
Hopefully
a few will set a good Breba crop.
Seed from Wild Turkish Figs.
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I did the same thing this winter, mostly as a curiosity since my understanding is the chance of finding a common fig seedling from a commercially grown smyrna in Turkey is close to zero. I don’t really know what I’ll do with them, probably separate a dozen or so and pot them up soon. Maybe I could use them to caprify my common figs by hand? How long does it take for a fig seedling to start fruiting?
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This is normal. Taxonomists won’t consider Ficus carica leaf shapes “stabilized” until the plant has been grown strictly outdoors for a number of years and matured into a tree of moderate size with identifiable scaffolding. Here are the two criteria they use:
- Predominate number of lobes at the third leaf on branch
- Leaf texture
Even then there is variability. As a general rule, morphology should never be used for cultivar identification. Instead it can be helpful to identify what a specimen is not. For example, a maturing specimen continuously growing outdoors year-round with only paddle-shaped leaves is not F. carica.
I removed the first one today just to see how easy it was to do so without killing it. Looks good so far, will check in again in a few days:
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Any updates on this fig project?
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