Wild figs of California

Good info thanks for posting!

I need more time, but I can say that Los Santos 2 appears to ripen early. I started rooting a couple cuttings and both have figs on them. A very vigorous grower too. This one has yet to be cleared for trade until we confirm it’s common. I won’t have to wait long for that, maybe 3 weeks. That is very early for here! Will know more next year. None of my rooted cuttings look anything like this plant though. This one is crazy growing wanting to fruit like mad! Some others have figs but nowhere near as developed. It certainly appears to be an early ripening type.

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That’s a new word to me so I looked it up. Do any of you home-growing zealots engage in it?

Los Santos 2 does look promising! I hope it holds the fruit for you.

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That’s good news Mark! I didn’t read Storey. I believe I picked up the genetics from a summary of ficus sex determination at palomar.edu. Unless I’m forgetting, they acknowledged these would be less likely in nature, but did not mention they were only observed when made in the lab. They hypothesized that the high number of males in parts of CA could be due to the presence of homozygous dominant males. I appreciate the correction!

Please let me know when you can share it.
I’m growing a lot of Wild Turkish figs from seed.
The fruits were about 1-1/2 inches long
light brown.
Have more seedlings than I can manage!

Yeah will do.

Just wanted to share for those who don’t know but there is a pest that they found on some fig trees on California from Santa Barbara down to Orange County and possibly further south. ID is a Black Fig Fly, they have found larvae inside figs and they mentioned that it could be a very troubling and they have notified the state about it.

Just heads up if you’re planning or ware thinking on getting trees, cuttings or airlayers from any in California till they found out more about this pest.

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Cuttings will be pest free. I would not get soil or trees with figs. A lot of us in the east coast already have them all so keep us in mind when bidding😉

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Did you find any good early ripe seedlings?
How can you tell if they set Unfertilized figs?

If they require the wasp they will drop off. They are hanging on. More later on what is working here.

It would be amazing if we could start a group effort for someone in CA to cross Florea and Malta Black and LdA and the earliest Etna and send seeds north for growing out an evaluating for zone 6 inground dieback regrow culture z6 production that would test to find a?new fig that might become king of the north! :slight_smile:

We could name it Jon Snow :sunglasses:

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Sounds like a plan man lol!!! :smiley:

My brother just moved to LA, he is no fig expert but I could probably get him interested to do some experiments if he had material to work with. This is assuming there are wasps in LA.

Also serious question- since the wasps are introduced and unable to survive in cold climates, is it even possible to overwinter a population in a greenhouse dedicated to figs, or some other climate controlled contained area to keep them alive? Is this the borderline of dedication and insanity? Maybe.

How would you cross two female figs? I guess you have to cross the males and females figs in F1 to produce offsprings in F2. That would be a 10 year experiment (if what I’m thinking is even right)

You could shorten it vastly by grafting to an established tree. I think @scottfsmith did something similar to trial apple seedlings.

Regardless, wouldn’t this be easy to do with hand-pollination in a wasp-free area rather than trying to direct wasps between specific figs (and ensuring other pollen doesn’t enter those figs)?

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Figs don’t work like apples or stone fruit. You can’t make those crosses. Or at least I don’t think you can. Figs are very complicated regarding breeding and selection.

I think I could do that in my greenhouse. But be careful what you ask for. Pollinated figs are very sensitive to over watering and they’re messy. The fruit is very juicy compared to un pollinated fruits. Even in CA it’s not all a plus. Where it’s hot the fruit of most varieties spoil as they ripen because all that juice is too low in sugars to avoid souring.

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