A few grafts done in April are showing figs.
It's not unusual and sometimes the figs don't go all the way if the rootstock is too young (i usually don't remove them if the rootstock is robust enough, so i can sample the figs of a new grafted variety quickly - it happened with my graft of Negronne last year)

This year, with all the grafts I've done, several varieties are showing figs. The not so common occurrence is that even some chip-buds are doing that and not only the whip and tongue grafts (which is usually the case) and a few varieties are showing how prolific they will be.

The champion until know is Strawberry Verte - several figs developing in a very young chip-bud.

In May

 

In July

 

 

A few other varieties are doing the same - In May



In July


   
 
A few more varieties and photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149505793@N06/albums/72157684306142823

Nice job with the grafts. Impressive to get fruit so fast too.. I just tried a few grafts last week. Hope they take.

Jaime,

Congratulations on your success with your grafts. These big trees of yours should be able to bring those figs to a ripe stage.
I also tried my hand at chip bud grafting 2 days ago by putting a few buds of Desert King on a 5-year old rootstock.

Marcel

Hi Jaime - Congratulations
This is a very nice  job!
With so much 'fig power' available behind all those grafts I agree it won't make a great difference to prune or not to prune the figlets popping off the green growth.

Am curious - on the ... flickr set above... some familiar shapes and contours - on the fifth and sixth pics starting from the top !?  (no legend) are they what I think ??

Francisco

Thanks for your comments.

Jeff and Marcel, good luck with your grafts.

Francisco,
The name on the photos indicates the variety. The fifth and sixth photo are grafts of Grise de St' Jean and Lampeira, respectively. Probably not what you thought.

Regarding the "fig power" of those old trees.
Those grafts were done on some of the trees i freed from being strangled from Ivy, on the piece of land i have that was abandoned - Fig Safari and Rescue.

On the first photos we can see where the big Ivy trunks removed all the bark from the fig tree.
It's amazing how that tree can maintain the flow of sap to these branches. It's a bit risky. If the sap flow fails the grafts will dye.

 
In some areas i wasn't able to remove the dead Ivy completely (although dead, it's still too tangled with the fig tree trunk)

 
 

Fortunately, the rest of the area is mostly cleaned now, and the fig trees are developing nicely and full of figs, although many of the trees still show the marks of the previous situation on their growth habit or their trunks.

 
 
 

Jaime, you have some wonderful under stock on which to graft, and I
can fully understand why you're getting figs so soon. With that much
power fed to the graft, you should get instant results and lots of production.
I know that was a lot of work, but now you're reaping the benefits you
expected. Smart decision, and I can see why you're grafting so much.
Congratulations and keep on grafting.

Excellent grafting jobs Jamie!
I desperately need to improve my grafting skills.  Figs and walnuts are a challenge for me.

Thanks, Ray.

You are right. It was hard work and it's not finished. I still have to find a safe way to kill the Ivy that covers the floor near the fig trees. If i neglect it for a few months it will cover the trees again, so i have to find a definitive solution (probably a chemical one, but even in the winter it may affect the fig trees).

But, as you say, it's hard to ignore all this root stock power, so i used it to graft a few chips of most of the varieties i received this year (lots of varieties, so lots of grafts).

In some cases i got a bit carried away, as here, were i grafted a new variety on almost every new branch. They will be used to take cuttings for the most part.
I will have to select the ones to keep on the tree, later on.

 

In most cases i didn't do this, and i selected a single isolated branch coming directly from the ground.
That way i can let it grown into a tree, if the variety is good enough. Although i was expecting it, i still was amazed at the growth rate of some of the grafts.

 


The growth champion is this one (more than 6'' tall), specially considering i only did a couple of chips.
I don't have water in this piece of land to irrigate the trees but they are well established and don't seem to mind the lack of rain ( it hasn't rain for at least 3 months, although we have high humidity levels over here)

Nice job!
When you have successful grafts, what percentage of those survive the winter months and come back the next season?
Looking forward to your review of the Verte.

Pino,

Don't feel bad. I was grafting pears and apples for two years without problems and my first attempts at figs were a complete failure. Graft protection against loss of moisture is the key.

Regarding walnut grafting, there's a challenge. There is a reason why grafting young walnut rootstock is done mostly inside a warm and humid chamber. Doing it in the field is quite difficult.

I only succeeded after following the advice of this old gentlemen from UCANR - talk about walnut grafting knowledge. Everything he says is spot on and most of it can be used for other species grafting.

Sas,

That's not a problem over here. The lowest temperature we have in the winter is never below -8ºC (17.6 ºF) and only for a couple of weeks during December, January and sometimes February (usually with some warmer days in between).
There's not a single fig tree (even the grafted one's) that get affected by these temperatures. A few tips may get frost byte, but that's all.

If i were in a colder climate i probably would not be grafting fig trees on the ground or might try it, but only at ground level, so the grafts had a better chance of surviving.

I will follow the development of the St_Verte and post pictures if they mature (i sure hope so).

panfishman,

I don't consider figs on my grafts to be a problem. Rather the opposite. It's a great opportunity to sample figs within the first year of getting the variety.

If i were grafting to a young root stock in a pot i would remove all the figs from the grafts. No need to do that when they are in the ground and have a healthy and well established root system.

Hi Jaime
Have you
considered a few 'bridge grafts' to repair the great damage on that trunk ?
As you said the risk is there !

Francisco

That's a good idea, Francisco. But the tree is very damaged all around in that trunk and to be effective i would have to do several long bridge grafts to reach this spot.

I might as well regraft new branches near the ground (below the affected region) next year. I have several candidates growing now, that i will reserve for that purpose.
  
This tree is a strain of Moscatel Branco (with greener skin and a bit later than mine).

In the next photo we can only see the top branches of the tree (the one on the right).

 

It's very old with a very complex trunk structure.
I've only been able to free the tree in the front. There's still lots of growth of all sorts around most of it, because there's a steep incline in the land (just after the trunk in the center of the next photo) and the tree comes from below. 

 
There's an ancient covered water hole at the bottom (at roughly 30'' below this spot), so it probably has access to water which, most likely, has helped it to get this big.

The trunk on the right on the previous photo has lots of new branches near the ground. Good candidates to graft still leaving enough of the old tree intact.




And i'm also using a few suckers that are showing up, directly from the ground roots. These can later grow as "independent" trees.

 
Lot's of work in the following years. But lots of fun also.

You are right Jaime... It will be a challenging job
As you just shown and although difficult,  the way the 'patient' has set and  developed plus your surgeon skills
 would make it a success!
Feel that in this case you may well have to replace most of the parafilm by a few dozen steel nails  and plenty of wax!
Agree.. it will be fun!
Good luck

Francisco

Awesome fig adventure and grafts, thanks for sharing. I tried my hand at grafting some cuttings onto my only in ground unknown and was wondering where do you buy the parafilm? I can't find it anywhere here, I got some grafting tape from China via Ebay but it doesn't behave like yours, it's more like the elastic plastic wrap / cling film used to package foods.