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Emalyn's Purple

A friend of mine near Sacramento gave me a cutting of his seedling fig a couple of years ago and I stuck it as a graft on a potted tree since the cutting was somewhat small.  I have had this growing in a pot for a couple of years, not knowing where to plant it.  He described it very favorably which impressed me as he has a sense of taste which I usually find to be very reliable to my own sense of taste.  He was going to cut back his tree last year and wanted to get this more widely distributed and I suggested he send cuttings to Jon but first give it a name and thus it was named as indicated above.  I see Jon has a plant for sale now and I encourage others to give it a try.  Jon's eBay auction includes a good description provided by my friend to Jon.  Mine will be finally going in the ground this summer in a new block I am planting (removing some of my alfalfa field).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281119036931

Has anyone grown it outside of the wasp territory?

No, I don't believe so, but I wouldn't think there are many caprifigs near my friend's urban location.

Further clarification: "wasp territory" is a vague term.  I'm rural country where there are some wild figs that grow and I've discovered two caprifigs growing on the farm next to mine (I rent that farm).  The older of these is a large tree and now has many wasps flying around it.  The smaller tree that I just discovered a week ago has some figs but I don't see any evidence of wasp activity inside or outside the fruits.  The larger tree is about 1,500 feet away from my own fig trees and I planted a Marabout C. Smyrna a few years ago that is fairly large (8' tall, more or less).  It had figs last year but they dropped some they obviously were not pollinated.  I believe that outside of commercial growing areas, wasps cannot be relied upon to pollinate fruits unless we know of some that are much closer to our trees.

By the way, I learned that the fig is named after my friend's wife.  I know her by a nickname and did not realize the association until today.

My friend reports he has no caprifig tree and said that if there are any fig wasps in his area he is unaware of it.  I asked him if he had any photos and he regretted not having any but said it's a beautiful fig, fyi. :)

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