Hello fellow figaholics,

This is a photo of a seedling that grew voluntarily in on of my pots a few years ago, probably a gift from a generous bird. I had already posted about it here some time ago, it produces small green figs that are quite tasty.
Until now, I was certain that this is a smyrna type fig; I read here about the slim chances of getting a common fig from seed, and, two season ago, I noticed that figs that grew late in the season shriveled and dropped, probably because no wasps were active at the time.
BUT, today I noticed that one of last season's fig still clings to the tree, having survived the winter! This fig didn't ripen because it appeared late last season, probably around October, when (supposedly) no wasps are active. So, my question is, could this seedling actually be a common type fig?

I had a similar question about the wasp pollination in September / October also. My Smyrna started producing a late crop at the end of September last year and none dropped. They look as if they were pollinated and the seeds sank.
The sure thing you can test is the seeds. If most of them sink, the fig has been pollinated.
Do this with many seeds, a very few might not be representative.

You will need to cover some figs with panty hose or breathable bags to prevent pollination. That or give a airlayer to someone on east coast.

That sounds tricky to find out for sure. I'm going to have to use a method like that on several thousand seedling figs that I have growing. I have tiny black wasps inside my figs(not figs wasps, but they like hanging out in the figs anyway) they may cross pollinate them and give me false positives on the figs being common. :( How long after a fig forms can it become pollinated? Can it be pollinated before it reaches the stagnation stage?

greenfig,

can I do the fig pollination test on an unripe fig? it's stone-hard right now.

brian,

Yes, this is the answer I was afraid to hear :) it will be months before I can know for sure, but I'll have to do it.

Figgysid1,

I don't really know, but there are some pollination experts on this forum who might know.