Fig Prospecting - Fase 1 - Brebas and Caprifigs

lampo
1461254493

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Originally Posted by Jsacadura
Thanks, Francisco.

I hope that mid July is not too late to pollinate the Smyrnas that i already have.
Last year the Inchário Branco graft was like this in the 25th of July (probably almost receptive to pollination):

We will see... I already have small figs in some turkish varieties but, as you said, these usually fall.

Leaving the cut figs to rest i am now beginning to see some movement.
I have live wasps in the second and third type of figs (mature Mamme?) and rounder and bigger Profichi or late Mamme?. Strangely they seem to coexist and overlap as you said.

In both cases, it seems i can see wasps leaving these 2 types of figs what is somewhat confusing if the third type is a Profichi (not so much if it's a late Mamme - as it should be).
The slimmer Profichi (fourth type) seems more immature.

A male or a female with the wings damaged?

I also saw several false fig wasps:

I believe these are not desirable, because they don't pollinate and can lay their eggs in normal female flowers (non caprifigs) that won't produce seeds.

Jaime,
most interesting pictures you are showing all of us
If I may I would like to summerize this business as

- What is happening through the last hours of the fig wasp life inside the Mamme fig -

It would be great if you could have switched your camera to the 'video mode' when taking second and third pictures on this thread.. there is action there !!!
- there is a female (black) wasp liberating herself from the gall..it's complete with wings and all
- Just under the wasp at 6 o'clock you show a translucent/almost transparent honey colored 'arc' with a gentle bend to the right... and this is the male wasp member searching a female still inside her gall the intention being to fertilize her before she comes out of the gall.. see??
Slightly above the tip of that arc, at approx 2 o'clock we can see the heads of two male wasps, certainly involved in similar fertilization activities....a full orgy with Nature's benediction !!
- Male wasps are wingless almost transparent and honey colored... the head being darker

Male wasps follow then to excavate a tunnel opening the passage for the fertilized females to get to the fig eye from the inside and fly out to the young Profichis. Meanwhile the males die

Similar activities may also be seen on the following picture
So Congratulation Jaime ! You have good, diligent wasps at your door step
Get your Smyrnas with plenty of sun, fertilize, irrigate, etc.. to make sure they shall be receptive by mid July and onward

The parasite you show is called on some regions 'machorro' ... it pierces the synconium from the exterior of the fruit

Francisco

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Jsacadura
1461258101

Francisco,

I forgot that the male was not black but honey colored. I have seen two know:

Here's a better picture of a female:

I have also filmed a few seconds of the male and the female. When i have the time i will try to post it online.

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lampo
1461316725

It would be interesting to have these clips and pictures as genuine documents to illustrate the various phases of the 'life and work' of the carica fig pollinators.

Francisco

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Jsacadura
1468439773

Update - Fig tree in the Bombarral region.

I had the opportunity to check this tree again and i have some more photos of the Brebas. They are big. Unfortunately, i couldn't get a truly mature one because there were very few and they were all still immature and even then the birds have eaten most of them.

One other time i passed in this location i saw some people gathering by the tree and picking figs, so they must be good. I tasted the pulp and it has a good flavor although not ripe yet.

Nevertheless, the biggest Breba that i opened seems odd inside, like it also has male flowers. What do you think?

The tree is already covered with second crop figs. I will try to keep up with them to see if they develop and how they are like when mature.

Some photos:

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Jsacadura
1470181543

The second crop of Bombarral fig tree is still growing. Curious to see a ripe one.

I remember seeing this ribbed look in some Caprifigs, but when I reviewed some Francisco photos in old threads the ribbed look also appears in figs like Cótio-Verdeal
- http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/c%C3%94tia-verdeal-6514582?highlight=verdeal&pid=1279439681

A few more weeks and i will know if they are worth it.

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lampo
1470196203

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jsacadura
The second crop of Bombarral fig tree is still growing. Curious to see a ripe one.

This is a heavy producer
Also curious to see what comes next.
It would be great if it was C/Verdeal but,... the leaves are different
Good luck

Francisco

I remember seeing this ribbed look in some Caprifigs, but when I reviewed some Francisco photos in old threads the ribbed look also appears in figs like Cótio-Verdeal
- http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/c%C3%94tia-verdeal-6514582?highlight=verdeal&pid=1279439681

A few more weeks and i will know if they are worth it.

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Jsacadura
1470223529

Thanks, Francisco.

The leaves seemed a bit different but i wanted your opinion.

It sure is a heavy producer. At first i even suspected it could be a caprifig but the first cut Brebas and the long-styled female flowers they had cleared that option.

Nevertheless, one of the last cut Brebas confused me. Have you seen the photo where this Breba almost seems to have male flowers inside?

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lampo
1470236950

Jaime,

On your last picture (breba cutayat) there is in fact a bush of staminate flowers and they must have some pollen.
If you get a portion of that pollen by the time the fruit is ripe you could try and manually pollinate a few of your Common and/or Smyrnas/San Pedro which, growing in the same environment, should be receptive and ready to accept it and mature with fertile seeds.
Selecting the fertile seeds and germinate them separately you stand a good chance of helping new fig varieties to show up and with full 'in house' parentage'.
But you need to isolate the whole exercise from any wasps and Caducous caprifigs)

Good luck
(PS- Pingo de Mel brebas could as well be a good candidate to provide pollen)

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Jsacadura
1470237882 · Edited

Thanks, Francisco.

I simply didn't realize that non caprifig trees could produce flowers with pollen until now.

Reading this old thread you mentioned in another post as helped to shed some light on it - https://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/fig-breeding-steps-5200745?&trail=50

Specially this post - https://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1286327621&postcount=31&forum=0

The more i read on figs the more they keep surprising me at every corner of the way to understand them.

Edit - i didn't read that old thread all the way through before making this post and it sure went overboard (i think it was a scientist excitement of figuring new things out, like an Eureka moment :-), but the point remains - some Breba can produce pollen. I never knew that until now.

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Smyfigs
1470253824

Ah, so amazing to see these close-up photos, Jaime! And, the great details by Francisco...wow, really great information. Thank you!

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Jsacadura
1475173757

I finally got a chance to go by the Bombarral train station fig tree to check the second crop. They were still ripening in early August - http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1292999320&postcount=30&forum=0

Unfortunately, it's too late now and most of the figs were eaten by birds and the one's remaining are badly split by rain. They were still sweet and it's clearly a very rounded honey fig, but it will have to check it next year as the flavour was affected by the water.

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figoffrandy
1475200054

Must be nice to stumble upon a blastophaga colony, I envy you Mediterranean-climate growers

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