Well, it is three years since I had hoped to get started on this. Below is a beginning and a framework. Hopefully forum members can take one or more of these items and write a definition which can be added. if you have a good picture which illustrates one of these items, please send it to me: minimum size 800 x 600. When this gets further along, I will find a place for it at the Figs 4 Fun website and get it linked here at the Forum. Some of these subjects have been covered in the "Growing Tips" Link, so they can be inserted into this project fairly easily.
This has not been edited or proof-read. That comes later.
FAQ and FIG GLOSSARY
Air-Layering
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http://figs4fun.com/More_Info_Air_Layering.html
Ants
For trees that do not contact other trees or objects, and that have branches pruned so that no foliage touches the ground, ants can be controlled with Tree Tanglefoot - a sticky, non-drying product that, when applied around the trunk, creates an impassable barrier for ants and other climbing insects. Do not apply directly to the bark. First wrap with a non-porous material (plastic or ?), and apply Tanglefoot to that material. Check frequently for bridging materials (leaves, dead bugs, dust, dirt, etc.) and rough up the surface to expose fresh material. It needs to be re-applied every so often.
After applying the Tanglefoot barrier the t\ree can be hosed with water to remove insects.
For more information see:
http://contech-inc.com/customerservice/productsupport/treetanglefoot/faq/#4
Spraying Malathion or other insecticides on tree trunks can create a temporary barrier to many ants, as long as they do not have an alternative route up into the tree.
Birds
Birds are a large problem. Reflective tapes, CDs, rubber snakes, plastic owls, and other devices may have a very brief deterrent effect on some birds, but the only truly effective bird barrier is screen or netting with openings small enough to prevent the smallest fruit-eating species in your area from squeezing through. Netting with a cell size of ½” x ½” is small enough to stop all birds
Birdnet
The only truly effective bird barrier is screen or netting with openings small enough to prevent the smallest fruit-eating species in your area from squeezing through. Netting with a cell size of ½” x ½” is small enough to stop all birds. This will also stop many fig beetles, but a smaller opening size is required to keep all beetles out. The netting must cover 100% of the tree, by being bunched and tied around the trunk, and making contact with the ground around the entire circumference. Unless properly applied, plastic bird netting is frequently a death trap for birds, lizards, and snakes. The most effective application is to drape the netting over some type of frame that holds the mesh away from figs and foliage, and keeps it taut enough to prevent birds from becoming entangled. Roll up any areas of excess netting, such as at corners, and secure it with twist ties or clothes pins. Bring the netting straight down to the ground and stake or weight it rather than gathering it around the trunk. If lizards or snakes occur in your area, encircling the tree with a low fence of plastic sheeting will prevent them from getting trapped in the mesh, as long as the netting overlaps the top of the plastic fence far enough to exclude birds, but remains well clear of the ground. Frames can be made of PVC pipe and fittings, or poles and string/wire, and can enclose a single tree or multiple trees. For individual trees, harvesting can be accomplished by raising the netting high enough to reach underneath and access the fruit. For larger enclosures, a permanent doorway can be built to allow full access to all of the trees inside.
http://figs4fun.com/More_Info_Bird.html
http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP992-48.jpg
Breba
Fruit produced on wood which grew in the previous season. Also called “profichi” in Italian. Also known as the Spring crop.
http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP538-13.jpg
http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP989-71.jpg
Caprifig
Functionally male fig or synconia, which produces pollen necessary for pollenating Smyrna type figs and the second or main crop of San Pedro typ figs. They also contain short-styles female flowers, which, when pollenated, produce a sort of pseudo-flesh.
Common type
One of 4 types of Ficus carica which comprises the majority of figs which the home gardener encounters. Well known examples are Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Celeste, Kadota and White Genoa.
Condit, Ira J.
Fig breeder, who wsas responsible for a breeding program at the University of California, in the 1950s (?). The goal of the program was to develop a common fig which would have all the characteristics of the smyrna-type fig, Calimyrna.
Among his written articles and books, the most often cited is The Fig. See http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;cc=chla;sid=28cfe61701c1cc4dd90d19d3aa0fdc33;rgn=main;view=text;idno=3116126
Containers
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http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP813-02.jpg
See http://figs4fun.com/bills_figs.html
Cracking
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Cutting
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http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP972-25.jpg
Die Back
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Diseases
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See Rust
DNA
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Dried Fruit Beetle (Carpophilus hemipterus & other closely-related species)
Figs that have an open ostiole, or eye, are susceptible to damage from this tiny beetle. Driedfruit beetles enter the fig through the ostiole and introduce yeasts and other microorganisms that cause severe souring and rapid deterioration of the fruit. In regions where this pest is found, the best way to avoid souring is to grow only closed-eye varieties.
For recommendations, see http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4652491
Drying
Small figs can be dried whole, but large varieties may need to be cut in pieces to prevent spoilage during the drying process. In warm areas with low humidity, some figs can be dried outdoors in the sun if protected from birds and insects. Electric fruit dryers do an excellent job as well, but vary widely in their quality and in the amount of fruit that can be dried at one time. The best varieties offer multiple drying racks and fan-driven air circulation for uniform heat distribution and moisture removal.
Dormant wood
This term generally refers to branches or cutting which are no longer actively growing, and shed their leaves, usually during the fall, in preparation for winter. Dormant wood is generally brown in color, indicating a change in the composition of the cells ina process known as lignification.
See Lignification
Eye
See Ostiole
Fertilizer
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Fig Beetle, Cotinis mutabilis
Also known as the Western Green June Beetle.
These large scarab beetles can decimate figs and other crops in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico. They often feed in groups, clustered tightly around a fig as they devour it. Adults are active during the day and can be stopped with ¼” x ¼” plastic netting, but the more common ½” x ½” size allows many of them to pass right through. They lay their eggs in leaf litter beneath the tree, producing large white grubs that feed on decaying matter and tree roots.
http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP999-66.jpg
See, also Dried Fruit Beetle
Fig Mosaic Virus
A virus that infects fig tree and plants. It is considered ubiquitous worldwide by the USDA. Infected plants may or may not show any symptoms. Most obvious symptoms are patterns and patches of discoloration on the leaves, distorted leaves, and poorly growing branches or plants. Distortedd leaves seem to be more pronounced when the weather is cool and damp, which is more common in the Spring and Fall.
Flower
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FMV
See Fig Mosaic Virus
Frost
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Fruit
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Fruit drop
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Gall Flower
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Grafting
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http://figs4fun.com/More_Info_Grafting.html
Green wood
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Harvesting
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http://figs4fun.com/basics_Harvest.html
Insects
[...] Stink Bugs, White Fly
See also Fig Beetle
See also Dried Fruit Beetle
Irrigation
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Lignification
Lignification is the plant cell wall process by which the lignin polymers that hold the fibers together are produced. Lignins add structural rigidity to the cell wall, aid in water transport up the plant stem, and function in defense against various pathogens. The current theory, based on that developed some 50 years ago, holds that the polymerization process is under simple chemical control. That is, unlike the synthesis of proteins and carbohydrates, for example, enzymes or proteins are not directly involved in preparing the polymer. The theory continues to accommodate all of the currently known facts.
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=202132
Long-styled Female Flowers
Found in female common figs.
Main Crop
Fruit produced on current season’s wood. Also known as the Summer crop, or Mammoni in Italian.
Mamme
Italian for the third or Winter crop.
Mammoni
Fruit produced on current season’s wood. Also known as the Summer crop.
Mold
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http://figs4fun.com/More_Info_Humidity.html
Nematodes
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See Root Knot Nematodes
Ostiole
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http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP948-85.jpg
Pests
[...] Rabbits, Voles, Mice, Rats, Deer, Foxes, Gophers, other
Pinching
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Profichi
Fruit produced on wood which grew in the previous season. Also called “breba” or the Spring crop.
Propagation
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http://figs4fun.com/basics_Propagating.html
Pruning
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http://figs4fun.com/basics_Pruning.html
Ripeness
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http://figs4fun.com/basics_Harvest.html
Root Knot Nematodes
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http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP972-28.jpg
Rooting
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http://figs4fun.com/basics_Rooting.html
Rust
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San Pedro type
A category of figs which set a breba crop with out pollenation, like a common fig, but require pollination for the main crop figs to persist, like a Smyrna type fig. Examples include Desert King, White King, and Dauphine.
A specific variety of fig fromj which the San Pedro category derives its name.
Seeds / Seedlings
Viable seeds are sedxually prfoduced by pollenation of a female fig and pollen from a caprifig. Because they are sexually produced, they contain genetic material ffrom both their male and female parents, and will not produce a plant that is
The best example of this variability in the USDA collection at UC Davis’s Wolfskill Experimental Orchard is DFIC0164.1 through DFIC0164.9 which were grown from seed obtained from Croatia (?). The other example in the USDA collection is DFIC0260 Encanto which is a seedling of Vista Black Mission, produced and selected at Encanto Farms Nursery approximately 2001.
One half of seedlings will be caprifigs, functionally male and not suitable for eating. The balance will be edible, but the fruit may not be palatable, or, in some cases, not produced at all, or after a long period of juvenility. For these reasons, apart from specific breeding programs, seeds are seldom (if ever) used as a source of fig trees for home or commercial orchard use.
http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP518-16.jpg
Short-styled Female flowers
Found [only?] in caprifgs.
See also caprifig.
Smyrna type
A category of figs which requires pollenation to set the main crop. [Smyrna types only main-crop figs and do not produce brebas?] The most well know examples of this type are Smyrna and Calimyrna.
Splitting
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http://figs4fun.com/More_Info_Splitting.html
http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP956-97.jpg
Sucker
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http://figs4fun.com/fpix/FP522-86.jpg
Synconium
The fig tree (Ficus carica) is a plant native to the Mediterranean region. The edible part of the fig, called the 'fruit' is not really a fruit at all, it's a synconium. A synconium, in the fig's case anyway, is a green globe with an opening on one end. Inside the synconium are a cluster of hundreds of flowers. If pollinated, these flowers produce drupelets, tiny bubbles of fruit material with a seed in the center. http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/a/fig_trees.htm
Third Crop
See Mamme
U C Davis
See University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The USDA maintains its National Germplasm Collection of Figs (and several other fruits and nuts) at the University of California, Davis on a property known as the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard (WEO).
http://figs4fun.com/WEO%20Collection.html
Variety
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Wasp, Blastophaga psenes
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Fig trees are symbiotic--that is to say, they can only survive to reproduce with the assistance of another creature, in this case a fig wasp. Without the fig wasp's pollinating activities, the tree would never produce a germinated seed for the next generation; alternatively, the fig wasp would never survive without the fig tree's food and shelter. At the proper time, female fig wasps enter the opening of the synconium, and attempt to inject their progeny (eggs) into the flowers. If fig wasp eggs are injected into the short hermaphrodite fig flowers by their mothers, the new fig wasps feed on the developing fruit and spend most of their lives within the synconium until they reach adulthood. Still inside the syncomium, the females are fertilized by the males and then the females gnaw their way out of the synconium. On the way out, their bodies are dusted with pollen. Their sole remaining job in life is to find another synconium, enter it, inject their eggs, dust the pollen off their bodies and die.
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/a/fig_trees.htm
http://www.figweb.org/Interaction/Life_cycle/index.htm
Winter crop
See Mamme
Winter Protection
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Wolfskill Experimental Orchard
See University of California, Davis