For those of you with an interest, here's a couple of links to information on the originator of the Hunt fig--Benjamin Weeks Hunt ( an early typo probably led to the common error of listing him as E. W. Hunt). He was a New York banker who moved to Eatonton, Georgia (near the middle of the state), he bred this fig in the 1920's I believe. It has very long stems that are supposed to help it shed rain. Tastes a lot like Celeste

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-902


http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/OBITUARIES/2008-12/1229267072


His old (and supposedly haunted) house (Panola Hall) is still there and I think for sale now.

That's an interesting article.

How do you "breed" a fig? I'm dying to know.

Fun reading both!  Wonder if he has the Hunt fig tree at his house that's for sale.
Suzi

Supposedly many of the plants that he bred (there is also a Hunt grape) are still on the grounds including some fig trees. No wasps here, so he must have gotten a caprifig and pollinated them himself.

http://georgiarealtysales.com/panola.htm

Sorry I forgot the link.

6000 square feet could house a lot of cuttings...

Thanks for sharing.

"Hunt freely shared his discoveries".......must be a common trait of most fig growers.

One of the most enthusiastic breeders of figs in the southern United States
was B. W. Hunt (1911, 1912) of Eatonton, Georgia. For female parents he
used Brown Turkey, Green Ischia, and Celeste, and for pollen he first
resorted to local seedling caprifigs. Later he obtained blastophagas which
effected pollination of the edible figs available. One of his main objectives
was to produce a fig with a peduncle long enough to hang downwards and
thus to shed rain away from the eye. His seedling fig, the Hunt, a cross of
Green Ischia with pollen from California, has the desired character, is larger
than Celeste, but is too tender to ship well as a fresh fruit.

Both Hunt in Georgia and Tanikawa in Japan split open the apex of the
fig and introduced pollen on the point of a knife blade.

It is always amazing to read about those older times.  Brown Turkey?  Green Ischia?  Celeste?  Woah, there were better figs around, even way back then!  And while the main purpose was practical, it was so narrow!

Reading about scientific history is really rewarding, because it tells you just how much people knew back then, and what they didn't really know.  Makes one truly grateful for the error-ridden Wikipedia.