I was driving through a residential street trying to avoid the traffic and found this nice fig tree. It looks like an Adriatic. I took a few pics.
Is this a caprifig or an edible fig??
I cannot tell right away.
This is in Los Angeles.

Greenfig,

It looks a real Caprifig. I would suggest you find a powerful lens and inspect the galls inside the receptacle....in its lower side -opposite to the ostiole. You may eventually see inside these galls the developing insect. It looks like to me that the galls are full... but I may be wrong.
A few Caprifig varieties do have reddish buds and leaf stalks and young branching of similar color.
A good Caprifig will  show by now, clumps of many fruit hanging near the tips of the branches on old wood (2013) but you do not show them..?  not there ?
The fig on the picture shows a rich 'bush' of male flowers which are prone to provide much pollen in June
(these flowers are just under the ostiole)

Francisco

Looks like a caprifig with a bunch of wasp galls/eggs to me!

I'm going caprifig too.

That is a caprifig. Pay close attention to the (male) flowers near the eye, notice they have a different structure. Caprifigs are functionally male but also have female flowers, usually they never turn into anything resembling fruit though because the wasp larvae develop inside the caprifigs instead of seeds and juice.

Thanks, everybody!
The figs there were so large that I was not sure.
Francisco, I didn't see the clumps, maybe because the tree has been pruned?
I am going to visit it in a month to check on the progress.
It is a nice healthy caprifig, I will get some cuttings to move it closer to my house (it is about 5 km away now)

A question:
I’ve seen on some videos from Turkey as they sell the bags of caprifigs with the wasps inside.
If I want to collect some from this tree, for example, when is the time to collect the figs to bring home to release the wasps?

Greenfig,

As a further contribution to your caprifig discovery and identification , let me extract a short text written by Dr.G. Eisen over a century ago in his description of several caprifig varieties ...
Quote / .....

Mitchell.— Leaves small to medium, the smaller leaves generally being."1 and 3 lobed, while the larger leaves are almost entire: surface rough and deep graygreen.
The leafstalks are bright red, and in this respect differ from any other caprifig known to us in California. The profichi are turbinate, with long and distinct neck and stalk. As far as can be seen from uncaprificated trees the figs are rough, lopsided, and when matured will probably be red. The profichi have more male flowers than any other variety seen by me. The profichi and mammoni crops overlap each other. This very interesting and probably very valuable variety was originated in a garden in San Francisco, probably from seed. The fig is named after Mr. Greorge O. Mitchell, who has kindly donated the trees for further propagation.--

.../ Unquote

You may have found that Mitchell variety or a not too distant variant.
The color of the leafstalks, leaf shapes, Profichi contours, richness of male flowers, etc.. seem to put your caprifig almost in line with  Eisen's Mitchell fig.
I would say that it's a variety to have in your yards, a non-edible winner.

This brings about your comment on cuttings. OK but, If the tree is in protected surroundings, air-layers, IMHO is the answer. Prepared by the end of 2014 with least disturbance to the tree and on selected branches with plenty of good size Mamme, I estimate that leaving the layers set through April 2015 , to be cut on last days of that same month, and immediately potted. Left under the mother tree for 4 or 5 weeks, and then, ready to be brought home with enough fertile Profichis to pollinate several small trees around the 20th of June/15.

Francisco

WOW!!!
Francisco, you are a real asset to this forum!
I will try both, cuttings and an airlayer. One of those should succeed.
Thank you for your update!

Greenfig,

Good question - how do I know they are ripe and ready for pickup?-

This date approaching one has to keep close to and inspect the trees daily.. farmers know that the first Profichis to ripe on a given Caprifig, come from the most sun exposed branches and these are the first to be inspected... their many years of practicing,  the knowledge of the weather conditions through the 3 months of the Profichi development, will tell them approx when.. Generally speaking it will be around the second week of June.
Early morning, once the sun warms up the exposed fruit, try and see if they still hard or started to soften. ... they may already see the odd wasp flying around,.. Profichis about to liberate wasps will be soft to the touch and the eye although still closed, seem to have opened up its scales....with a toothpick, in a sample fig,  a gentle piercing to help them out....as a rule once the wasps feel a bit of fresh air they will start moving out one after the other together with a few male wingless insects, pushed out and quickly dying on the sun.

So it's time to pick up the first dozens of Profichis, the soft ones.
This will be done late in the afternoon when there are NO wasp moves

Immediately after the 'necklaces' are prepared and ready for early next morning (6  AM) to spread them on the trees in need.
Hope this helps

Francisco

Francisco,

Thank you for your explanation, very interesting. I can practice to detect a proper day on a nearby caprifig.

Some people asked me if it would be possible to ship the figs with the wasps. Is this is feasible? It seems I would have 1 day to move the figs from the tree to a new location.
What if I collect the figs when they are still not soft? Will the wasps die?
When do those Turkish sellers in a market collect their figs with wasps, same morning?

Sorry for so many questions, this is all new to me. 

Greenfig,

Yes it will be possible to ship Profichis in a closed package.
Collect the fruit 'about ripe', even a couple of days before becoming soft and exiting wasps-..make the package sufficiently tight to avoid the fruit to 'jump around'inside ..and the ostiole area unobstructed.
wipe the sap/milk before packing and keep the pack dark inside. If going by road keep the pack somehow refrigerated or sufficiently cool (about 8-10ºC)
see the enclosed pictures.

It's also OK to refrigerate them for various days
Last year has a bag of them in the fridge for over a week and when brought to a San Pedro fig one day, early morning, wasps immediately commence to fly off to the receptive figs

I don't know when the Turks collected those figs, may be 1, 2 or 3 days before and did not sell all the day after, or as quickly as they expected, so the wasps kept moving out. The insects are only active during the morning hours, up to around 10, 10H30 AM.. after that they keep inside and will come out, next morning.
There are  many wasps inside the Profichis (from 250 up to 700 or more per fig).

One picture shows wasps moving out of a potted Profichi  on the 10th of June/2012 at 07.52AM
The other pic shows boxed Profichi immed. after pick up from an old ground Caprifig on the 16th of June/2012 at 11,04AM.

Francisco    

Wonderful!
So, it seems I should keep a log per tree I am interested in, collect a few days prior to the exodus and ship them in a cold box (with ice/cold packs).

Now, as to when?...
The common figs come as early, mid, and late season types.
Do the caprifigs vary in a similar way or the wasps exit approximately at the same time in the same growth area for different caprifig varieties (or within a few days apart)?
Basically, should I keep track of all the trees I have an access to, or one is enough?

In your post above you mentioned the June 10th and 16th, those are the dates in question here.

Thank you, Francisco, again for the invaluable information!

Fig sex is sooo weird and complex...

Greenfig,

I think you should keep a log per tree as you say. Also bear in mind that...

- By the time Profichis are ripe and ready to dispatch wasps with pollen, generally speaking, most Smyrnas are also receptive.. in broad terms wasps will keep issuing until first week of July

- From old readings on 'Cal Figs' this timing coincides with what we see along the Med. with a few exceptions.
June 16th seems to be the magic date for the first wasps to emerge from the Profichi be it in Portugal,
Algeria, Greece  or Turkey

- Persistent varieties (Common), on the way of the insects and receptive enough will be caprificated.

- From those old readings it seems that in the San Francisco Bay area, certainly due to climatic conditions (?) Caprifigs ripen approx one month later than in other Cal regions. You could investigate this and may be, if you bring a couple of those varieties to your yard, you could possibly extend the pollination period for your figs  by a week or two.

- Keeping and tendering Caprifigs in pots you may have them ready one week ahead of all other ground Caprifigs.

- Caducous and Persistant figs are 'wasp ready' through their early develop.stages average size from 12 or 13 mm (1/2 inch) round, dark green and glossy skins and tightly closed eye.
The insect can be seen working around the eye, lifting its scales to move in..this may take  1/2 hour or more. Two days after,  one can see that the fig skin will change color to a different green more like light emerald and small white dots will appear over the skin...this is a sign of a successful pollination.

Hope this respond to your questions
Francisco

In the Nikitsky botanical garden in the collection were collected eighteen varieties kaprifig for women with different varieties of fig ripening. We gardeners lovers male figs are rare.

Hi greenfig,
As long as there are figs from the caprifig near your trees, you've done what could be done.
I once saw a photo, from which could be understood that, in the Mediterranean region people would cut branches from the caprifig and hang
them in the female trees.
That said, if you put the caprifig branches in bottle of water, those branches would last longer and so would the figs and so would the wasps .

So if I were to make such a setup, I would cut the interesting branches on the caprifig by the 5th of June and put them in a bottle under my trees and leave them there
until later or say December :) .

jdfrance,
thanks for a suggestion! I have several different caprifigs in the 5 km/mi radius, some are growing in the private yards but very close to the fence where 1/2 the branches are hanging over the sidewalk and some are in the parks/public streets. I think the wasps would find my figs anyway but brining the caprifigs closer to home would increase there number for sure. I have started several Smyrnas this year, will see how happy they are going to be.

Francisco,
Thank you for your suggestions as well. I will try to keep some notes per tree. The closest to me is this one:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/palmofig-synergy-6219808?highlight=palmofig&pid=1277016334#post1277016334
and it covered by smallish figs now. I would need to do some reading on this topic.

I took the branch you see in the photos at the top, cut it in half and stuck in a glass with water from a koi pond.
Here is a result a month later. The roots do not look thin and flimsy, that is a bit surprising. I am going to pot them up quite soon, it seems.




 

 

Good job Igor.. 100% success!

I also root a lot in water (from the tap although I believe that rain water will be better as they are exempt of chlorides. Also do it with willow tea diluted in water

Those sticks are ready to be potted in a good soil under a shade
On many occasions my water rootings are made under partial sun - near a N/S wall with shade in the morning and full sun after mid day....Seen no difference and when potting they ready for open air and to get full sun.

That fig looks very, very good.
When ripe, get a couple of dozens and make  4 'neck-laces' to hang on your Smyrnas, San Pedro..Brown Turkey, Mission, etc.. You will then see some differences.
Be prepared to be patient and wait..
One good early morning you will witness the wasps at work !

Good luck

Francisco

Strong work!

Francisco,

Thanks for the video and rooting suggestions!
My glass is inside but facing the South. I think I should pot them up asap to avoid the unpleasant leaf sun adjustment since the leaves a tiny at the moment.

You said to do what that woman is doing when the figs are ripe. That would be now.
However… if I go outside and inspect my figs, I will see many wasps around, almost every fig has some near its eye.
Is there any benefit to bring more? I can think of at least 2 caprifigs in the neighborhood that are releasing the wasps in great numbers.

How many wasps each fig needs to be happy?

Igor,

Another good surprise ! You are really very lucky...hundreds of wasps coming from the thin air landing on your yard and pollinating your figs... Fantastic !
I believe on what you say but if you could send some good pictures I would be very thank full.
You should register in pictures, how the receptive figs look like specially size and colors.. 'cause once they are effectively pollinated they will change - size and color and the eye may show evidence of the visit of the insect..
If you happy with those wasps coming to your figs, un-invited - you right, I wouldn't bother to prepare any necklaces...  but I feel, to be sure, you should bring some, depending on the size of the yard, the number of figs and their location (wind direction should be taken into account).

Tell me.. On all previous years and seasons you may already be picking pollinated figs ?!
Will this be correct ? Unless your move to the actual location is very recent.. I am curious.

Once figs (any. Common or Smyrna ) do not become receptive at the same time what the Med typical farmer does is to organize 2 or 3 runs of caprification (sometimes 4) spaced approx one week from each other. Doing so he is sure that pollination will cover the majority of his figs - This is the necklace system.

Nowadays modern orchards in one particular area will have one Caprifig for every twenty Smyrna trees and this is enough or...

On small farms they graft 2 or 3 Caprifigs branches on some the Smyrna trees-

Francisco