Hi, I'd appreciate any information about Igo. The name is too short to turn up anything in the forum search.

I've seen pictures of it at Jon's site, but no significant comments, and did find Rafed's recent thread looking for it.

Does anyone grow it successfully in a long season area, and if so, how does it taste?

I've just rooted some cuttings of it and wondered how carefully I need to take care of them. ;)

Thanks, Gina

I have it. It has been incredibly slow for me. I got scion from Jon to start. In 2 years it grew very little so this year I decided to try to push it. I over potted it significantly, fed it pretty heavily and now it is putting out good growth. No sign of figs yet and it does have visible fmv. I hope yours moves faster than mine did to start. 

Here is a link that might shed some light on this fig http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/forum/64796.html   Beyond the info in that link, I haven't found much else.

Ingevald

Maybe this link will help - Google search of ONLY the F4F forum on the term 'igo':  https://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com+igo

Thank you all. There are some interesting tidbits in these found pieces that indicate it has very good flavor, but requires a long growing season. Also that FMV could be a problem. The tree I got mine from was planted 10 years ago but I don't remember if it was vigorous or not since there were a number of trees I was taking cuttings from at the same time. But it was a tree.

This is the most appealing tidbit from the cloudforest link, emphasis mine: ""Igo Information from Mr. Bill Fogarty: Vigorous tree. One crop in fall. Small fruit with spectacular alpine strawberry-like flavor. Green skin that develops into violet blush. Purplish flesh. Should be given warmest possible location.""

And from Paully22 in the thread about small fruited, tasty figs:  ""Here's what I have that have proven as keepers:  Dark Portuguese, Igo, Marseillies VS, Negronne, Hardy Chicago, Celeste, Hollier""


Guess I'll go pot up those cuttings now. ;)

I've looked through what Igo comments I could find (used site:www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com igo in my Google search) but don't see anything explaining the different accessions/strains listed in the Encanto variety list at http://figs4fun.com/Varieties.html.  The first one listed is of an source that is not indicated. The second one is GRIN's DFIC0168 and said to be from Don Polensky (a friend of mine) and a California seedling.  The third one is DFIC0287.  I can't find these listed in the GRIN database to see if Don donated both of them or what the situation is.

I'll probably be seeing Don in a couple of weeks and can ask him about it then.  As mentioned in another thread, posturedoc and I both were impressed with Igo at Prusch Park so I want to know more about it.

I am curious about it also as I just got cuttings of it a couple weeks ago. 

Just a couple topics down there was a discussion about Florea with pics that turned out to be Igo...   Tyler

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/in-ground-trial-florea-actually-igo-6649061

Tyler, I saw that post but it doesn't explain why there are three different Igo figs on the variety list of Jon's (or which one of those three it is).

Here is a photo taken on September 21, 2013 at Prusch Park of the Igo fig there.  It was a great fig and I have it started growing in my greenhouse.  It certainly looks different than the one in the thread about the Florea mix-up or the one Jon has photos of in the variety list.

 

Tyler, the tree in the Florea mixup thread is not confirmed to be Igo, and is quite possibly something else.

It does have very distinctive leaves, and they do not match what Harvey posted above. Hopefully next year we can get some good leaf pics to go with the fruit pics and get an ID for it. Until then it is still an unknown.

Harvey, thanks for posting those leaf pics. Did it have the "spectacular alpine strawberry-like flavor"?

I just spoke with Don Polensky.  He said Igo (the I is pronounced as a long I) was a discovery of Todd Kennedy from the town of Igo which is slightly west of Redding, CA (far north).  He was surprised his name was associated with it in any way but said that he may have sent cuttings from Prusch to Jon.

It looks very close to Florea ,as fruit on outside but very different compared to Florea inside.
Florea is dark amber inside not strawberry,like this above pix.
The leaves are similar to Florea.
Let's hope that the fruits of  the above pix were not caprified,(because if they are,and in California is possible),then the interior is strawberry for that reason,and if the fruits were not caprified these fruits would have been amber inside,to create even more confusion.
There are trees in California or other ,countries where ,caprification is possible ,that have two kind of ripe fruits on the tree,amber and strawberry inside on same tree.

I have a 2 year old tree from a cutting I rooted over the winter of '11-'12. first year in a pot sunk into the garden, 53" tall and 9 figs that didn't ripen. next year, repotted to larger size and buried in the garden again, had 1/3 die back (wintered in unheated detached garage) with moderate growth this summer but no figs. will keep this year and see what happens...joel

Nice photo Harvey. That was clearly before the downpour, the first rain in months in San Jose. What timing!

I'll confirm Harvey's opinion of Igo. It was excellent, maybe in the best shape of all the figs we sampled that day, most of which were a bit past their prime. The flavor was intense with a nice acid tang, though many of the figs we tasted that day had a lot of acid, something to do with the local conditions, no doubt (the irrigation line to the fig orchard had been inadvertently turned off at some point in the past, likely some years ago given the loss of some trees in the orchard and the precarious condition of several others). I am excited to try figs of my own two or three years down the road.

Vasile, I don't believe the figs at Prusch are caprified.  There is no caprifig there in the park and most of the area is commercial, with some urban areas to the west, maybe 2,000 feet from the fig trees at Prusch.  I know wasps can fly a good distance but even in my own personal situation my Marabout c. Smyrna never set fruit until this year when I brought caprifigs from a wild tree growing about 1,500 away and hung them in the tree.

Marius, how can you say for sure?  Todd Kennedy discovered the Igo fig and he's a member of the CRFG chapter that maintains the fig orchard at Prusch Park.  I am trying to figure this out but I would venture to guess that Prusch Park has the fig that Todd discovered and named Igo.  I am trying to figure out why there are three different Igo figs on the variety list at F4F.  As I wrote earlier, Todd named it after the town of Igo, so it should be written as such, not IGO.

I will also say that the map for Prusch is sometimes hard to follow as rows are not very straight, but in this area of the orchard Neil and I did not have difficulty, as I recall.

Since I couldn't find DFIC 168 or DFIC 287 at Davis using the conventional methods, I searched for another fig that I knew Todd Kennedy had contributed and then searched for all accessions that were attributed to him (http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/cno_acc.pl?45884).  Both 168 and 287 show up here.

168 http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/display.pl?1564773 shows it was collected by Todd and donated by a Mr. Bill Fogarty who gave the following descriptions:

my cutting came from a member  in southern California. I live in west jersey zone 6b

Jon wrote to me yesterday saying that his originally came from someone in Georgia around 10 years ago.  I don't know where that person may have obtained the true Igo from.  Davis hasn't distributed material as they show it is still unavailable for distribution.

I sent Todd Kennedy an email with the above photo I took in September, asking if he could confirm it as being Igo.  Here is his reply:

I sent Howard at Davis an email to ask for his assistance in sorting this out.