Hi Dani,

I don't know if you're still considering to try pollination, but another idea might be to take your tree to the wasps. If you make an air layer of the tree it might start producing fruit in a season or two. If you grow it in a container then you can then take it or send it to someone who already has a wasp colony up and running to see what happens.

Good luck with solving the mystery!

Interesting idea. Will take it into consideration. The wealth of info on this site is incredible. I realize just how much I do not know. ;)

I spoke with my neighbor. He was told the starts he got from another old homestead were calimyrnas? He does not know this for fact. His pollinate well. He gets a bumper first crop. The trees are 10 years old. He said I was more than welcome to starts. The first 5 pics in my flickr are his trees. Very healthy. He would really love to know what he has if possible. We eat them green. They  do turn darker but I think that is after they are done. These I am showing you most wont make a second crop as the rains have come in. But I did eat a few sweet ones today. He has seen many times a tiny wasp but of course I am sure there are more than one kind of wasp out there. He has a brown turkey also that is being harvested right now.  Thank you for any and all advice and info. :) https://www.flickr.com/photos/46840280@N03/

Dani,

What you telling us is very interesting. If your neighbour has been harvestjng good figs from a tree he says it's a Calymirna for some ten years ! Well definitely the tree must be as he says..

Assuming it´s a Calymirna and ripening good figs, the fruit from this tree had to be pollinated and we do have a way to find out if these figs were pollinated or not.

Very simple:

Get a couple of those figs now, preferably well ripen, and with the help of a tea spoon, separate the pulps and wash  these pulps with warm water, to separate the fig seeds
Once the seeds are clean watch how they behave when put in a transparent glass with clean water....

If the seeds float, they have not been pollinated,,, this a strong indication that the wasp was not present.

If the seeds sink, this means they have a solid kernel, the fig flowers were pollinated and a good sign of the wasp presence when the figs were receptive, sometime in June/July

See pictures of fig seeds  (all sank)  taken from pollinated figs -Smyrna and Common.

Can you try this simple exercise ?

Francisco
Portugal

 

 

Sure I can try this. But as I said in the last post he was told they were calimyrnas but does not know for sure. There might be a fig or two that is ripe enough.  BRB!

Not Calimyrna. Calimyrna are golden yellow with tan interior. They are large open eye figs. I live around acres of them here in fresno.

Hi Lampo,
     Well I think my experiment was not good.  My third flickr picture shows that this second crop of his is young fruit still. There weren't really any fully ripe ones on my neighbors trees. He had a beautiful first crop. His second crop never gets fully ripe as our season turns right about now. Which seems to be what is happening. I did find a couple earlier today that were sweet but still very young. But I ate them before you asked about the experiment. Still I think the seeds would have been about the same size as my two flickr pictures I have posted. I think I would have to do this experiment next year on his first crop that gets big and fully ripe. I will take a look at his trees in a week or two and see if a few figs make it through to maturity. I will try again then. I had a very hard time separating the seeds and pulp as they were a fraction of the size of your seeds. Now if I were trying this with his brown turkey fig it would be a different outcome. :) Those are ready to pick.
I wonder if my trees beings that they are only three years old from the cuttings we took. Maybe this was just their first attempt at producing and it happened to late in the season? One way or the other I will graft or see what happens next year on my trees. In the meantime I will watch and see if the neighbor gets a few ripe figs on this second crop. Not likely though. Again thank you for your wisdom and generous patience with this new fig tree owner. :) Whatever type of fig it ends up being. By grafting or just waiting til it gets older. https://www.flickr.com/photos/46840280@N03/

Okay thank you Brianm. It was just what the neighbor was told. He stated he did not know for sure. Back to square one on the neighbors trees. ;) Heck back to square one
on my trees. Its okay I am enjoying the journey wherever it takes me with these trees. :)

Dani,

I understand very well your comment on the hassle to separate the seeds from the rest!!
Mrs's are very good at that... I never do it but mine always volunteer and does a good job (if in a good mood !)

You may well do the same exercise with the Brown Turkey  figs.. It will be probably easier and if the wasp was present at the good time (June/July) they will certainly have visited the BT figs.
Wasp go to all figs providing they are receptive.

Back to the Calymirnas,---
These are figs of the Smyrna type and should ripe only the summer, or so called, main crop.
I have several varieties of Smyrna figs,  local and from abroad,  and they always ripen crop only ripening after being pollinated by the fig wasp (Blastophaga psenes) in June.

They may show an earlier crop of figs in March/April, popping out on the previous year wood as if they were spring brebas, like the Brown Turkey does.
As there are no wasps with pollen at this time these  'would be brebas',  lacking the pollen, do not ripen, dry and fall.
Being a parthenocarpic fig, Brown Turkey ripens both brebas and main crop without the presence of wasps. Bear in mind that pollinated BT figs of the second crop are superior fruit in many respects.

Brianm,
Hope you may help and clarify one old question of mine, related to Calymirna
Old writings from G.Eisen and I.Condit do apparently tell us that Calymirna figs grown in the San Joaquin Valley could on some occasions ripen a few brebas ?! .. which would be taken to the markets of that time and sold with other brebas.. mainly BT.
Wonder,  given your location and eventual contacts with local growers if you could comment on this
Have you ever read or heard about this ??

Francisco
Portugal

The Neighbor fig,is not Calymirna,i second Brianm opinion.
My opinion:That fig is ,Desert King.
Edit note:Neighbor fig,is Desert King,yours is wild fig.!

Thank you Lampo, Brianm and Herman2. My journey begins!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/46840280@N03/21114503172/in/dateposted-public/ Okay the "mother" fig tree to my neighbors 6 fig trees I spoke with the owners of it and it was their grand fathers and they don't know the name of it. But they have 6 other trees and they have the list somewhere and are currently looking for it to tell me what they are. This picture, are figs from those 6 trees. They were sure one was a mission fig. Might that be #5? I am not asking for anyone to try to ID all these. Just another step further in my quest. I do have leaf pics of each tree and figs on the trees but again I am not asking anyone to ID all of them as I will have the answers shortly. I'm just very happy! All the choices I will have! Sincerely, dani

Can you graft more then one type of fig to a tree like you can do with some fruit trees? Just curious is all.

Yes, you can do multiple grafts on the same root stock.

You may check on this link for instance...
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1871671/article-on-multiple-grafting-and-green-cuttings

Various members on this forum have done this with good success..


Francisco
Portugal

Thank you.

Search for Frankenfig, this is the first thread , there are others.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/my-frankenfig-6346903?highlight=frankenfig&trail=50

Thank you.

I'm back with my continuing saga. We found ripe figs at another old homestead called "The Mill Site." They would have planted this tree with all the other fruit trees that still exist there sometime in maybe the 30's or 40's? I am including one pic of the figs. I put a key in the picture to show size. They aren't as big as brown turkeys. Could they be a mission fig, surely they aren't the elusive Smyrna fig? Any help would be appreciated. I would like to graft off this tree if it is something good. I know good is subjective. :) I do have other pics if needed just have to figure out how to get them here from my I-pad.  Thank you in advance!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/46840280@N03/21427899436/in/dateposted-public/ Just the first picture is from this new "old" homestead tree.

Hi Dani,

Read your, again very interesting post and must tell that the figs on the picture are not Black Mission neither they seem to be of any Smyrna type known to me.
Growing at the Mill Site for so long they could even be of some now forgotten or lost variety.
Does it produce any breba crop ?

Looking at the picture showing the fig cutaway, it is obvious that it's a light colored pulp,   seedless type fig, Some growers and/or collectors do appreciated these types and the most known example, appearing on forum discussions is  the variety - Mary Lane Seedless - claimed by many to be an excellent fruit.

Try this link,
http://figs4fun.com/fvar-M-N%20frames1.html
on the Mary Lane Seedless and make some comparisons. The leaves are also shown and you may compare with the leaves of the Mill Site tree.
The skin of your figs looks darker and this  depends on their location on the tree

The Mill Site fig could also be of some other variety . Celeste ??  Other members will come up with their own ideas-

Whatever happens, if you like these figs, it will always be feasible to graft scions of this fig to any other ficus carica rootstock.

Francisco
Portugal

I dont know about the breba crop as I dont visit this place often. I will next year. The fruit was very tasty. I did find very tiny seeds in one and did your water test. They did sink. When I ate a few they had the crunch in the middle.

More interesting news.

If those seeds you are talking about do effectively have solid kernels (then sinking)  we may be in the presence of a pollinated fig.
Well, on your picture showing the cutaway fig, one particular detail caught my attention,,

- The opened fig eye and the gallery dug through the fig insides down to the central cavity -

This could well be a sign left by the pollinating insect by the time it entered the fig
I have seen this same type of gallery on some Smyrna as well as main crop San Pedro which before getting ripen, must be pollinated by the insect.
Will try and find a picture, so you may see similar galleries

Francisco
Portugal

Three years back, in September 2012 my Dauphine main crop figs were showing their colors....
Being a San Pedro type, this main crop can only survive and ripen with the help of the Caprifig and there were enough around to pollinate these figs
Found now a set of pictures from that time.. just have a look as these figs seem not much different from yours..

 
 
 
 
The colors may not be exactly the same but while your climate is more humid and cooler,  these figs have grown and ripen in a very dry and hot climate..
I no longer have these trees , offered them to friends who loved this variety.

You see that gallery I talked about on the previous post and this was effectively dug by the wasp.

May be the tree at Mill Site is a Dauphine and if it is, well you have a good variety and tailored for your climate ! .. and producing very large brebas in June/july
Over and above that it looks like that you are very close to evidence that somewhere at Mill Site there are Caprifigs.. Where ??

Francisco
Portugal

Hi Lampo,
The French Dauphine is of the common type. The maincrop ripens here in Zone7 currently.
Dauphine main crop figs are dark black.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/46840280@N03/ The first 10 photos are the old mill site tree. Went back there and took pics today. These figs are really sweet.
We searched today for another fig tree on the site and to no avail? Too many mysteries. ;) Lots of pics of twin fawns that happened through without momma, there were apple trees, plum, no other fig that we could find. Very, very thin skinned fig?

jdsfrance,

Interesting the information about the main crop of french Dauphine not needing pollination. 
Nevertheless, why do so many sites and books, including some French ones, say that the Dauphine (not Violette Dauphine) is a San Pedro type?

http://figues-du-monde.com/figuier-dauphine/

http://figficuscarica.blogspot.pt/2014/12/san-pedro-fig-type-ficus-carica.html

book - Des fruits et des graines comestibles du monde entier

book - Pollinisation et productions végétales

article - http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/PlantSciences_Faculty/crisosto/pdfpub/111-%2007%20Fig%20Overview%20of%20an%20Ancient%20Fruit.pdf