Grasa was kind enough to bring me a couple of her Main Crop Grasa's Unknown and Mead Figs together with some leaves to photograph and taste so here they are!

   

The GRASA.UNK.COMPOSITE.JPG and GRASA.UNK.LEAF2.FINAL.JPG both show her Main Crop Figs at the lower left and her Brebas (thanks to digital magic :) on the right side for comparison.  The LEAF2 photo shows a leaf from my tree with about 90 degree angled pointed Basal Lobes that I find unique on Grasa's Unknown variety but not in my other 30+ varieties.  Maybe some Forum Member has a variety with that characteristic and can identify its varietal name.

Does Mead produce Brebas or just the Main Crop?

Both tasted OK but since we don't get Main Crop Figs on many varieties to ripen here in Seattle (and those usually in "hot" years like we've had in 2014) I would rather grow reliable Breba producers with stronger flavor.

Happy Growing,   kiwibob, Seattle

Which Grasa's Unknown is it?

Is it the Adriatic/King mentioned here:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/adriatic-king-or-else-cuttings-available-7051052
(I have cuttings rooting.)

or, is it the Purple one mentioned here:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/seattle-purple-unknown-first-main-crop-fig-7081383
(I do not have this one.)

In Malta, there is a kind of breba fig that b/c of some local mirco-climate (in Mellieha), it ripens 2 weeks earlier than any other place on the island.
My wife sent me this pic on June 1st - I assume that they were harvested at least 1 day before
(that puts it in May!). When I went there later, they were selling at 5 to 3 Euros/Kilo (~$2.30/lb).


 

Gorgi,

It's the latter purple one, not her Desert King which was erroneously given to her as "Adriatic".  The whole Main Crop Fig at lower left shows the sunny side but the side toward the stone tile has the characteristic purple/green striping of this variety in the second link.  I chose the sunny side because the other side was checked which isn't characteristic of the variety.  The Brebas on the right side are from my August 12, 2014 photos.

Much of this varietal confusion can be eliminated by reading Ira Condit's "Fig Varieties: A Monograph" which is downloadable as a PDF from my website:  http://sites.google.com/site/kiwifruitsalad2

Thanks,   kiwibob, Seattle

Thanks for the info.

I like your word (.doc) file; you seem to be an expert on fig leaf shapes ...
FIG VARIETY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION PROJECT:

FIG VARIETY PHOTOGRAPHIC IDENTIFICATION DATABASE PROPOSAL

George, Kiwibob is an expert in a lot of things. He came over to 'id' my tree and on his way, he pointed to me about this fungi yellow spots growing on my pears.. I was not aware that those spots were not normal.. well, I cooked all the leaves with it in the microwave and disposed them in the garbage.  since then, my pears leafed out beautifully.   He is a well knowledged man about his many varieties of Kiwi and figs.   a very nice guy indeed! Luck of those who met him, including myself.   Many thanks for his sharing.

Kiwibob, yes, Mead UNK does produce a breba crop. Maybe not a huge one, and I don't recall there being too much difference between breba and main crop as far as apearence and taste goes. It had been years since I observed the mother tree, but it's figs can be delicious when it's hot and dry. Here is a post by genecolin showing some brebas of his Mead UNK-
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/summer-pictures-picture-heavy-5446994?highlight=mead&pid=1269805392#post1269805392

Grasa, I'm glad you were able to gets some figs from your Mead UNK. I wondered if it would produce good figs in your location. I have had only two figs from my tree this year, and they were both reddish green like yours, instead of the reddish black I'm used to seeing. We have had a cooler summer than normal, and these two were at the base and out of the sun. I hope to get some nicer figs from the higher ups that will ripen soon. The mother plant would have ripe figs by early August, but my plant is young and we had a cold winter, and I have just started getting ripe figs. Everything seems to be later this year.

Mike in Hanover, VA

Mike, I got mine from a cutting from Gene.  it put out several figs, but I knocked most of them. Still those left, matured, the first I thought it was pretty good, the second I brought it to Bob, and the third one is on the little tree. 

I am going to paint my solid fence with either reflective or white paint and am going to make a raised bed in front of it. I am growing them next year in the ground and I am going to make an funky plastic house for them using the fence as one solid side and the hoops from it.  I think this will increase the temperature over them and hopefully keep them small to fit under this cover for a while.   as they grow taller, I will weed through and only keep the best tasting one. Mead is a good one so far, along with a few others that I am testing.

Gorgi,

I really wanted to do comparative photos of the leaves of all 30+ varieties of my Figs but we have had such a bad year for FMV and other issues that affect the leaves that I decided to wait until next year and hopefully better weather so the leaves won't look sick!  If it works next year, the photos will show either six leaves or 12 leaves on stone tiles (3 tiles x 2 tiles or 4 tiles by 3 tiles) and be organized as best I can by dominant leaf shape like Brunswick, Stella, Negronne, & Petit Negri together as they all have long slender lobes.


I still hope some F4F Forum Member has a known variety that has the characteristics of Grasa's Unknown (purple) so we can eliminate the "Unknown" and call it by its proper name.

Thanks,   kiwibob

@ Grasa: Oh yeah!
I was fortunate enough to visit/meet kiwibob back in July 2012 while visiting Seattle, WA.
A very nice person indeed. I was impressed with his not-so-big garden mostly full of different varieties of kiwis and figs.
Every nook, granny and inch was professionally taken advantage off ...

Doing the fig tour, we stopped in front of each of his fig trees, then he carefully pulled a typical leaf
and handed it to me. Then he described the leaf shape and other characteristics about that particular fig.
I 'was' carrying a sharpie marker, and would have loved to mark each leaf by the name;
but, but, no; it was raining/drizzling at the moment, and as all know, sharpies are useless on a wet surface.
I ended up with a pile of leaves that by the time I got back to the hotel, I forgot which is which!

I tried to attach the file I mentioned above, but it exceeds the size limit - sooo, do visit kiwibob's website.