Has anyone every purchased the wasps to pollinate their figs?

You do not have them in your backyard?

We have fig orchards in my area, but I'm not sure if the wasps are here too.

It's easiest to spot caprifigs in the winter when all the leaves are gone but the mamme crop of figs are still on the trees.

How cold does it get there?  If it gets too cold the wasps will be killed.

Oh, and regarding your question, there are growers that sell profichi crop caprifigs with wasps but the problem might be the timing with your own crop cycle.

If the weather averages follow these values, (not much diff from mine - mid 80's now) yes, that's good ground for the male figs. Nice not to have excessive winds around mid March and mid June.

http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/brawley/california/united-states/usca0126

Good advice from Harvey... from now on as leaves fall the wild fig shall be in full evidence and easy to locate...may be a couple of generous air layers on selected limbs and hopefully one could well have a bunch of grounded or potted  mature Profichis on the back yard next June ready to pollinate some figs.

Francisco
Portugal

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Caprifigs through winter (December?)

 


A dozen of ripe Profichis (mid June) being prepared for dispatch (hope you see the wasps)

 




Francisco
Portugal

Being from New Jersey, I assumed you were talking about a payoff or a bribe to get the wasps to pollinate your figs...;-)
Badabing!
Jim

This is just an idea I had while day dreaming so don't take it too serious

Lets say you have a fig tree variety that needs pollination....lets say Zidi for example

Lets say you let the tree get established for a few years

Then what if you grafted some caprifig cuttings onto some of the branches of the Zidi

Lets say you attract so wasps and they live in the caprifigs that are now on the tree

So you know have male caprifigs growing on you tree that needs to be pollinated

Is it even possible to graft caprifig cuttings onto another fig tree?

Oh okay I see what you mean. Its cuz I had purchased some Kiwi plants and they came with the male and females. So thats how I kinda got the idea that maybe you could just have the male and females on one tree to make it easy. Thanks for the input.

I also read somewhere that different varieties of caprifigs are wasp ready at different times. You need to match the caprifig to your Smyrna needs for the best results.
Did you check your seeds for sinking? Maybe you are fine for wasps already.

I believe Francisco may have said that he's done such grafting.  To avoid over-pollination you could just strip most of the fruits from the branch with the caprifigs.  At the same time, this might make it more difficult to maintain a colony/population of wasps.

If there are no Caprifigs  around Brawley now, It seems that in the good old days, there were plenty, as well as Smyrna figs (Calimyrna) ...!!
just have a look ...
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=IVP19080425.2.24

To make matters even more interesting,..Brawley's sparrows, orioles, Mickey's/Minnies, Bunnies .. may also have given birth to a particular wild, , officially named 'Brawley', with the looks of a most sought-after, Persistent Caprifig
just read this familiar page
http://www.crfgsandiego.org/Presentations/The%20Incredible%20Edible%20Fig.pdf

Henry ( twobrothersgarden)  should check 3 or 4 samples of their fig seeds to verify if some or all have been pollinated. The Brawley area should grow the early Caprifig, in principle , getting their Profichi ripe and issuing insects through the second fortnight of June and less pollen first and second week of July.
Caprifigs growing in the Bay Area ripe a month after due to the particular weather.
Pat (figarita) did apparently confirmed this with her Caprifig (Menlo Park)

Grafting a pair of branches on some selected trees if you have several of them may be a good approach for a start.
Assuming a good, healthy Caprifig is found the air layer option is in my view the best to have a pollinator well rooted in the yard by the time Profichis are ripe and issuing wasps with pollen.

Francisco
Portugal

В книге "Сорта инжира", изданной в СССР, в помологическом описании инжиров, которыым требуется опыление,указаны сорта каприфиг. Это очень хорошая помощь  садоводам ,которые только начинают садить свои новые деревья.

К сожалению я не имею ПДФ.

Cool!!! Thanks lampo! I didn't know that.