I was reading about the Frazzacano fig on Jon's site and how Italians caprifi them to (possibly) cause early ripening:

...According to Vallese, this variety is grown throughout Lecce Province for its two crops of fruit, the second maturing into early October if the weather continues favorable. De Rosa reports that caprification is practiced, but Vallese maintains that the reason growers put caprifigs in the trees is that caprified figs mature about fourteen days earlier than those that are uncaprified.

I know the Calif fig farmers hang bags with caprifigs in their smyrna trees so as not to over pollinate the figs. The Calif farmers probably grow their own caprifigs. I wonder if there's a business that supplies them as well?

If caprifigs were made available to the public, it's possible for colder climate figs to ripen earlier. Granted it would be a yearly expense as the wasps would not survive the winter in colder climates but might be worth experimenting.

I emailed Howard at UCD but his email bounced...I tried to ask him if it was possible to get wasp ladened caprifigs from the UCD trees in the summer. I'll try others there.

Sue

I am interested in obtaining wasp laden profichi crop caprifigs too. I talked to Howard at UCD about a month ago, and he told me that he didn't think they could send insects out of the state. He said he would look into it, but hasn't got back to me yet. I then contacted my Utah Department of Agriculture to see if I could get a "license" or "permit" to import 20 or so caprifigs with wasps, and they haven't got back to me yet either, its been about 3 weeks. The woman I spoke with said that it was doubtful they would permit import of insects, and asked for a copy of a USDA Risk Assessment for import to California. I replied that the wasp was imported by the USDA in 1899, and that I was unable to locate any Risk Assessment for its import. I also informed them that the wasp would not be able to survive unaided here in Salt Lake City Utah, where we routinely have night time low winter temperatures in the single digits for at least a week at a time, and at least a month of continuous sub freezing temps (lower 20s day and night).

I talked with a person at the Valley Fig Growers association in California, and she informed me that some of their members are "caprifig growers". I asked for contact information, and was told that the association couldn't release it, but they would forward mine to some caprifig growers. I haven't heard anything in over 3 weeks.

I had wanted to obtain some wasp laden caprifigs for several reasons, one of which was to see if a local tree that dropped all its huge crop of figs might hold onto them if caprified. I have since seen several of the large main crop ripen, after it dropped most of them, which leads me to the conclusion that it was lack of water that caused the drop, not lack of pollination.

Anyway, I am still interested in getting some wasp laden caprifigs like the Calmyrna growers use over here to Salt Lake to see how they change the fruit from the trees that grow here. I have read that caprified fruits are different than those that aren't even if it doesn't need it.

If anyone gets information on where I can buy some of these caprifigs (should be around next June) let me know.

Hello,
This is a very interesting discussion and thanks for posting. I had also been curious about having wasps but have not had a chance to check on permits to conduct such an experiment outside of California. I would be interested in any additional information related to this topic that is discovered. As far as risk assessment, I would assume based on what I have read, that the fig wasp would pose no threat to other forms of life since the wasp is completely dependent on ficus carica for its existence. The only risks that I can think of are the wasps transferring disease into the figs. Anyway, this could be an interesting topic to research.

Ingevald

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