It looks like my new figlet is off to a good start.  Both leaves and roots.  Thanks again Aaron.

       

Hi Schaplin,
This is a good start! Keep the efforts on !
Until it has done its first wintering, those things are easy to loose !

oh, good job Sharon, I'm so glad these delicious ones are spreading their wings around the country :)

That's what mine looks like, cant see roots as its in a pot, but I suspect it's rooted, thanks for sharing it Aaron. Hope you Zidi is rooting.

Mike in Hanover, VA

You are welcome Mike.
I made 3 cuttings from Zidi you sent me and they all rooted and leafing, great growers, thanks.

 

Sharon, Good Luck for those nice cuttings.

Aaron, Those are very promising Zidi's, ..are they originated from green sticks or from last year's ? Hopes for next season introduction to your wasps. With good,  timed up-potting and selected fertigation, all together you could easily taste a dozen  ..of those superb and  delicious figs about a year from now!
If you can,  keep track of what Caprifig will provide the wasps as  Zidi seems to be very 'keen' on particular pollens. Studies performed in North Africa revealed that fruit weight/size may differ greatly as a result of differentiated pollination, from 65 to over 100 gram per fruit. Good luck!
Francisco

Aaron, fantastic! Glad they are rooting well. Francisco, the Zidi was actively growing, so it had both green and last years wood. I would love to taste this fig one day. I guess it all depends on if it can mature a breba crop here in Virginia. Richard Watts told me he gets some without the wasp in Camarillo, CA.

Mike in Hanover, VA

Francisco, they were last year's brown cuttings with this year's end part I believe. It was one good size branch that I divided into three. Mike is the source...
Do you have any Zidi Francisco?

  Mike,

Mike,

Thank you for clarification. Aaron seems to be a specialist when it comes to rooting figs and I am sure he will have good success.
As for your Zidi brebas, let me tell you that it will be very difficult to see a growing/ripening breba on this type of fig (never seen any!) . It is a full Smyrna fig and these types do not ripen brebas at all, at least the ones I know of.

What happens is that on certain seasons Smyrnas do grow a nice layer of figs in May, many of them reaching a promising size but,... to fall off in the next few days. Have at least four or five black Smyrna varieties, and all of them erratically show a layer of figs 'imitating' brebas with a very short life.

As regards to ripening the  Zidi fig and all others in this same group, there are many theories and we hear all sorts of experiences. Even here in the southern Portugal I have friends who keep telling me that their Smyrna figs ripen nicely without wasps...!? but, when doing the seed gravity test on those figs, the result is that practically 100% of the seeds are fertile  showing fertile kernels and for sure they were pollinated by wasps which in the season are ALL OVER..you have not the need to bring the Profichi figs to the trees. The pollinating insects will find those trees .
On some occasions a very minor percentage of Smyrna figs, seems that it is going to ripen, even failing pollination, .. getting a bit of more volume and changing the skin color... just that !,, then the fig fall off the tree,  much immature, spongy pulp and no fertile seeds...with no particular taste !

Let me show one of my ripening Zidi.. It's already a big fig and I expect it to need still the full month of July to finish its ripening process. If the birds allow I may show it ripe some time later.
Francisco

Aaron,

Sorry, for some reason I did not see your post (#8) and responded solely to Mike.
My answer is yes.. I have 2 Zidis, one from 2013 rooting and a second one from this current season from  Morocco. The fruit shown on the previous post was pollinated with insects from an Odel caprifig.
All fellows in California should grow this variety once ALL needed ingredients are there and, from reading your and Igor's posts, in ample supply.
This variety, Marabout, Bournabat, Incharios, etc., are super figs

Hope to show later on, around August, a brand new dark Smyrna seedling, for convenience called LTK also in the 'large' class like the Zidi.
I am confident that after tasting the first figs, people will no longer be scared of wasps and this will certainly  represent additional business to sellers.


Francisco

Yes Francisco, all those wonderful varieties are all coming together in my garden thanks to very generous friends from forum...I can't wait to expose them to Wasps and turn them into Cinderellas with their magic wands ...well in their case the wings that carry the Capri pollen.

- How do you keep the track of which Capri Wasps pollinates which female fig tree?

I have a nice zidi that I grew from a cutting. Richard sent it to me im here in Fresno Ca.

It is amazing how quickly this cutting is taking off.  Since we have zero hardiness information I suspect this one will be spending winter in the "cold" part of the greenhouse which typically is no colder than 45-50.  If I get a second one started then it will winter in the cravo which gets colder but never freezes.  I'll see where things go from there.

Aaron,

On a particular season you can select from what Caprifig you are going to take the wasps
You need to keep frequent and  meticulous checking your garden when approaching pollination time. 
You will see what potted Caprifig ripens first... they never become ready all at the same time. Then you decide what variety to keep close to your figs and the ones to keep away.
You can differentiate the sourcing of wasps ,,, not the receiving tree.
Keeping notes of the dates, the varieties involved, the efficiency of caprification and the final results, like the number of fruits fully ripen, sizes, weights, etc.. you can make a pretty good idea, after 2 or 3 seasons experimenting, what the best matches are.

For 3 or 4 consecutive seasons I have found that the Odel caprifig provides enough insects right in time when nearby Smyrnas are receptive, negligible number of failures and fruit size and weight in line with the standards. A good number of friends have taken buds from this Caprifig to graft on several of their Smyrnas and San Pedro trees.

Francisco

OK, that sounds like a long term plan Francisco.

My original thoughts were that if I have several types of Capri in the big group of different variety of figs, I wouldn't need to worry about which one pollinates what fig...I was assuming if I had several Capri figs there would always be wasps in the air plus the wasps from nature all around us here. Does it makes sense?

Also, does each variety of Capri effect differently on the pollinated figs?

Sharon, this would be a great chance to compare and see how this variety does in different climates...In any case, you will get great, early brebas out of it :)

Yes this is what I was thinking.  Also having 2 different cold zones should give me good data on wintering conditions.

Aaron,

Just read this short resume to understand what I said above that Zidi reacts differently to its pollinators and some may strongly boost fruit characteristics. (Djebba2)

http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.elsevier-3c4cfeb0-d8fb-3899-9e06-a2680f13024a?q=d0f73703-5563-4478-b6e5-8ba76f985e96

Remember that red leaf peduncle Caprifig ?- (much similar to Mitchell, highly spoken by Eisen in his book?
This could be a good start.

Francisco

Francisco, this is exactly what I was asking about, makes so much sense, since each variety of Capri would leave it's own signature effect, thus POSSIBLE even to create new varieties out of pollinated seeds depending what variety of Capri pollen was used to fertilize the seeds.
Now, the remaining question would be... Would the new fig from pollinated seed give Truly New Variety or a variation of pre-existing Variety? as we know from DNA 101, the parents leave their traces and always evidence as a blue print and base of the foundation to the New created out of them.

Oh, this is too important not to have it's own Thread. Sorry Sharon for taking space on your thread :)