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Pingo de Mel (breba) a Persistant caprifig

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  • lampo
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Time now to pick PM brebas a good example of a persistant and edible Caprifig
Pollen from these brebas have been used to hand pollinate female, Common varieties aiming at creating new figs

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Just for comparison here a Caducous non-edible Caprifig which is not good for the above breeding but ideal for natural pollination of Smyrna and San Pedro main crop figs.


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Francisco
Portugal

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so interesting fruit type.. )) i love it . )) 
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Wow didn't know there were caprifigs that produced edibles. How do they taste? They first cut fruit looks tasty but the last one looks a bit dry?
Thanks for sharing
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  • lampo
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Originally Posted by lobboroz
Wow didn't know there were caprifigs that produced edibles. How do they taste? They first cut fruit looks tasty but the last one looks a bit dry? Thanks for sharing


Yes. There are a few edible Caprifigs .Some of their brebas taste better than others
This particular breba  (the Pingo de Mel) has an acceptable flavor but it's not famous!
However, its main crop is fantastic fig in many respects - sweet/flavored, a  true honey fig
as per these pictures..


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The other fig is totally UNedible. Its insides are full of those roundish 'capsules'. (hundreds of them) . each capsule is a modified fig female flower called 'gall' used by the insect to lay an egg inside thus warranting the next generation of fig wasps
One may see that on this particular example the dark shades inside those galls are the female insects about to hatch. Some may have already left the fig through the eye on the right side of the picture..It's the Profichi crop being ready by June every season (in the Northern Hemisphere) and it is the only Caprifig crop with fertile pollen. The golden color shades over those galls are  pollen grains spread around the entire cavity and coming from the fig male flowers just under the fig eye.
As the wasps hatch and leave the galls, they shall be smeared with this pollen they take with them when flying out of the fruit.

Francisco

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Thanks for the great pictures and information .
Always learning something from you.
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wow the pic of the cut fig looks amazing. 
Ive always wanted this fig but its always sold out on the only site ive seen selling it but im on a waiting list for the past 6 months...
got too many on the go now so probably wouldnt be able to get one for another year.
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That's spooky Francisco, I was going to raise a fig identity question today to confirm if a fig whose breba I tried today from my greenhouse was a pingo de mel. I was going to reference you in the query as I remembered from one of your past posts that it was a variety you have. It was bought as a sucre vert but it certainly isn't that. The brebas I get from this fig look similar to your pictures and since we don't have the wasp in the UK, if mine is a pingo de mel you have given the reason why my main crop is poor and pretty tasteless with a lot of dry seeds. For me the brebas are ok but not special and also I am seeing that they drop easily from the tree before full ripeness. Is this typical to the variety?
I hope you don't mind if I attach some pictures to this post for you to give an opinion on if I do have the same fig.

John

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Thank you all for your commenting on this topic
Francisco
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Elruge
That's spooky Francisco, I was going to raise a fig identity question today to confirm if a fig whose breba I tried today from my greenhouse was a pingo de mel. I was going to reference you in the query as I remembered from one of your past posts that it was a variety you have. It was bought as a sucre vert but it certainly isn't that. The brebas I get from this fig look similar to your pictures and since we don't have the wasp in the UK, if mine is a pingo de mel you have given the reason why my main crop is poor and pretty tasteless with a lot of dry seeds. For me the brebas are ok but not special and also I am seeing that they drop easily from the tree before full ripeness. Is this typical to the variety? I hope you don't mind if I attach some pictures to this post for you to give an opinion on if I do have the same fig. John


You are welcome John.. love to see pictures.
You may be right! I have never grown 'Sucre Vert' having then no experience. I know it's a single crop variety and requires very warm and sunny climates.. and under these conditions its fruit may be confused with Pingo de Mel main crop
Pingo de Mel has a variety of strains in the south of Portugal..and many never produced a single breba.. think their breba buttons are of a rather fragile structure and abort when temperatures 'dangerously' approach or even go bellow the 0ºC and although much up North,  inside your GH they seem to make it. But as you say, here too, PM brebas never get mealy... they are more to the dryish consistency and very poorly anchored to its limb... light winds are enough to bring many to the ground.

Think this PM still going through its long mutation from a genuine Caprifig into a more 'civilized' fruit.

Early in the XX century G. Eisen said that -  /.. at Niles this fig has never matured a main crop -/ ... and was planning caprification to try and find the correct classification .. either an edible Caprifig or not !

This season am bringging  wasps near their main crop and try and find later on what the outcome will be

Francisco
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Good information Francisco.
I can see from your pictures pingo de mel does well in your climate but in UK it doesn't justify the greenhouse space for an average breba and a poor main crop so for me it is not a keeper. Thanks
John
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People with Pingo de Mel please post pics of your leaves.  First year for me, cuttings from Christopher Bianco in Malta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Its_Just_me

People with Pingo de Mel please post pics of your leaves.  First year for me, cuttings from Christopher Bianco in Malta



will these help ??

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Francisco
Portugal

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Dear Francisco I will appreciate your permission to use your 4 photos above - crediting you - and explain in Hebrew on my FB the issues of male flowering and the edible caprifig issues
Ariel
Israel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariel023
Dear Francisco I will appreciate your permission to use your 4 photos above - crediting you - and explain in Hebrew on my FB the issues of male flowering and the edible caprifig issues
Ariel
Israel


Yes Ariel you are welcome
Go ahead,  please , and use those pictures as you wish
Francisco
Portugal
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