or is it Figenstein (and for the record, it's pronounced "Fie jin steen")

I layered several clones of a neighbor's fig tree in Richmond, VA in 2003.  It was an unnamed that had been in his yard for over 30 yrs, and he had rooted it from a cutting off his mother's tree where he had grown up. 

I gave all but one away, and it has been in the ground in south Louisiana for 7 years after spending a few in a pot.

I like to piddle in my garden. . .



July 2004






April 2006  It's the "big" one in the foreground





May 2006




March 2009




Gotta download some more pics, more to come.  Shaping and grafting. . .

June 2010





Jan 2011








March 2011

Nov 2011











Going for two planes, about 4' and 6' off the ground




March 2013










And now the grafts (Most covered in foil).  Most of the grafts are now budding out.  I;l get more pics tomorrow.  


 May 2013

I used a variety of graft techniques.  Total rookie.  Here are a T graft and a chip graft.

15 varieties grafted (if the ebay sellers are all accurate):

LSU purple
Neighbor's Celest or BT, will see in fall
Unknown yellow from local source
Violette de Bourdeaux
Panache
Kadota
Alma
Conradia
Black Mission
Neri
Galban
Paridiso
st Jerome
Hardy Chicago
unknown Bronx Yellow from jimmychao (thread on this site)

I now need to do the top layer.  I figure I can fit 8-15 more, depending on the grafting density.  ANy ideas for closed eye varieties, good fresh?

That's one amazing tree... I mean 15+1 amazing trees..

Thanks.  I look at the really pretty shape from a couple of years ago and sometimes wonder if I should have stuck with that.

Wow, that is one incredible figatron. I don't know much about grafting, but I have one large, disappointing tree that I've been thinking about adding grafts to. Did you use dormant cuttings for the grafts?

You have some good varieties. One thing I would suggest for the next layer would be to add a couple of breba-only figs, like desert king. That way you can stretch out harvest time.

Those pictures are so cool. Thanks for posting.

That tree is amazing, very nice work.

Thank you for sharing that photo montage, documenting the progress of this amazing fig tree.  Very enjoyable viewing.

Beautiful children....future fig growers.


Frank

Nice pics...and nice to see the kids involved.

And noone is going to comment on my outstanding Young Frankenstein reference in post 1?  Uncultured louts. . .

Some cuttings were greening up a bit, others freshly cut from activelyt growing limbs, but most were dormant. I don't see a trend in which technique worked best, because almost all are budding out (assuming budding out suggests the grafts are taking)  They've been in LA heat for at least two wks, many up to three, so I'm guessing they're taking.

Thanks for posting the pictures and the chronology. It's a very attractive topiary.
How productive was the 2011 form?
How do the figs look and taste?
Thanks.

This is a nice grafting idea....

Also, I have read with great interest on this site about FMV, and it seems consensus that if my tree was not already infected, it almost assuredly is now, likely by several different viruses.  I have decided to subscribe to the "cold sore" point of view, that it can manifest itself when the tree is stressed, resulting in stunted growth and/or reduced yields, but it is not fatal or otherwise constitutionally harmful.

Still, I took cuttings prior to the first graft.

I added LSU Gold and Magnolia today.  The magnolia was a spontaneous Lowes purchase for 6$.  I have read now that it is an open eye variety prone to split and rot.  Not good for wet south LA.  I'll leave it be, but I may have my first contestant for swapping out if it does not please me.

After counting, I have two more spots on the bottom and 14 up top, though I'll likely leave several as the native tree.  They're ppretty good in their own right.

Thank you brackishfigger. I love all the photos. You took them all at just the right time making it easy to see how to do what you have done. I feel like I have been totally schooled. In a good way.

Thanks again

THISISME

A few updates and some random pics

Of the previous grafts, these made it with varying degrees of vigor, a few still tenuous:

LSU purple
Neighbor's Celest or BT, will see in fall
Unknown yellow from local source
Violette de Bourdeaux
Panache
Magnolia/Brunswick
Alma
Conradia
Black Mission
Neri
Galban
Hardy Chicago
unknown Bronx Yellow from jimmychao (thread on this site)


I lost these, including the rooted cuttings:

Kadota 1
Paridiso
st Jerome
LSU Gold

I have since added using cuttings from the LSU orchard:

Scotts Black
O'Rourke
Hollier
Hunt
LSU Purple (duplicate, but this one from one of the mama trees at LSU)
Champagne
Tiger
Marseille

and from one of my fellow LSU field-trippers, whose name I did not catch (THANK YOU!!):

"Native Black" Becnel Belle Chase


and I have added 4 new unnamed from local sources.



So 17 named cutivars and 8 unknows if including Native Black.

I have room for 5-6 more.







The first three pics are of the same chip/escutcheon graft


















Fresh whip graft






a well healed but ugly whip graft




chip/escutcheon graft





saddle graft




bark grafts







a well healed whip graft






 This is the same chip graft shown in the last pic of post 4 above

Great job brackish figger!  I would love to see that tree someday...

I would recommend LSU GOLD, although the eye is not completely closed, there is usually a drop of honey that seals it.  And even in rainy weather here near Baton Rouge, I only have a handful that have ever split, and remarkably those don't necessarily sour if you get em soon enough.  It has become one of my favorite figs, it produces a ton of very large sweet figs with good flavor. 

Thanks Cal, it is on my short list and I can't believe I forgot to grab a cutting at Burden/LSU.  No shortage of them around here though, so I'll come across one eventually. 

My "Purple" I bought at a local nursery, for the cuttings to graft,and it remains in the pot with figs.  The graft took great, one of my four best, but the figs on the potted mama are the wrong shape and appear to be ripening yellow, so I may have a Gold already!  Glad I got cuttings from a true Purple at Burden/LSU.

Of the large batch I grafted on LSU day (7/13/13, 15 days ago), only the "Native Black" has clearly "taken" (and two different grafts, to boot!) , with all of the others yet to bud out.  I remain confident that some/many will make it.  Thanks again to the anonymous supplier of the Native Black.

Here is a bark graft of the nursery-bought-probably-isn't-really LSU Purple that I pruned because the one on the other side was the more vigorous of the two, and it refuses to die.




Edit 12/29/15  The little sprout never gave up!

 

 


Both of my Neri 2 grafts died, but two cuttings are growing.  I decided to try a whip/tongue graft using the bottom of a rooted cutting , and reroot the top.  I incorporated the roots into the graft by cutting a slit along the length of the rooot stock, separating the bark, and placing the roots in that space like you would a T graft.




















Edited 10/22  this graft did not take

Awesome.