How do I know what varieties of figs need pollination?

Sorry for simple questions

From what I read, 90% of turkish figs need wasps to fruit. I have no idea what are the varities.

Hi Kevin,

The supplier of your cuttings or rooted trees is your best source for a responsible answer to your question. If this is not possible the only option left is to let the young tree grow and by the time   it fruits ( by the second or third year) check how the figs develop..... if they seem to keep ripening giving you nice and sweet fruits, then you have a Parthenocarpic variety or as some say it 'self pollinates'-

Or if your figs after growing up to a given size (12 to 15 mm in diameter) do change color to yellowish, brown, shrinking ,becoming dry, and falling, then you stand a good chance of having a caducous fig or a 'Smyrna' variety. And these will not ripen without pollination by the Caprifig insect.

I have assumed that you do not have Caprifigs with Blastophaga insects in your territory


Norhayati, From Turkey there are also a good deal of figs which do not need wasps to ripen.

Francisco

Hi
i francisco. if the fruit is beccoming red is it a sign of caprification?

Hi Eli,

Thank you for question.
Well, I never saw that color change linked to effective pollination.

I am enclosing 3 pictures with this message which show :

--10632 - A Smyrna black fig receiving apparently the first wasp visit. At the center of the picture you have one still glossy green fig, which is a sign of being still 'virgin', with one insect cutting its way through the ostiole scales..in a diving position, and another one behind it, already half way through.
This happens when figs are about half inch in diameter. See on this same image, two figs on the lower right and one behind, on the left, already showing a different green skin, with whitish dots and looking bigger and more round.
This is for me an unmistakable sign of successful pollination by the wasps.

--10819 - Shows what happens when there is no pollination, the color change, shrinking, drying and falling. Certainly, the wasps arrived too late for those figs..a couple of them around did manage to get pollinated as you see by their shape and colors

--10755 - 100% success, all these figs were visited by wasps and got the pollen well in time

I may say that once the Smyrna fig gets the first wasp visit, the changes in color, shape and growth happen very quickly, say in a matter of 2 or 3 days.


Francisco

I once questioned the term 'self-pollination' when it comes to them figs.
I think that the right term of 'no-caprification-needed' should be used.
Figs are an 'inverted' fruit and are different from (say) the plum flower/fruit.
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/self-pollinating-6475397

Common fig types (e.g., Brown Turkey) need no caprification for any crops.
San Pedro fig types (e.g., Desert King) need caprification for the (2nd) main-crop only (breba does not).
Smyrna fig types (e.g., Calimyrna) need caprification for all crops.

Caprification is the transfer of pollen from the male fig (caprifig) to the female edible fig.
In nature, this is a veeery complex doing, by a veeery special fig-wasp that lives
only in limited regions (e.g., the Mediterranean and some places in CA, USA).

Till now havnt seen a wasp on my figs.
Maybe i hav to look more....
Anyhow starting to grow some male tree.. francisco where are the wasps at winter? Send me some wasps pls

Purplesandwich ,
somewhere within the UcDavis site they have a chart of figs telling which ones need caprification and which ones do
not along with which ones are san pedro types .

This forum is the best for newbies wanting answers.  This is a very good question and I appauld Kevin for asking.  Back in 87, I lived in Ankara Turkey for 2 years and never knew how figs were....FIGS!  When I came back to the states, I put my gardening skills in warp speed and bought several figs from Ray Given back when he sold figs.    I like your response George.  There are some nurseries that sell smyrna figs.  Rolling River sells Bursa, Marrabout, Nazarti, and Snowden.  Each of these are smyrna types and they tell you that in the description.  I like that!  I've tasted Snowden and Marrabout at UC Davis.  Those figs are large and taste absolutely amazing!  I'm hoping one day we will have the wasp in Charlotte.

Eli,   when the tiny insect can be seen around, you have to be very patient and spend time looking at the places where you stand a good chance to spot them and your sight has to be top class.
Early morning between 8 and 10 AM.

In our latitudes most of the Blastophaga have, already abandoned the ripe/decaying Mammoni figs, entered the following crop of Mamme, lay their eggs inside this fig gall flower receptacles and ... died!

Caprifig trees do show now less and less leaves (like any other fig) but the new Mamme crop (on the wood of 2013 season)  will be more and more into clear evidence on these trees.
That is why, from now on and until new leaves show up, this is the best timing to go around fields and spot caprifigs.

To  people willing to get wasps near their caducous figs, I say that it is not difficult to make it happen, even considering the very long distances  (Regs allowing it!)
As a test, this season, had a box with 3 Kg of Profich's full of good wasps stored in the fridge for 5 full days... then one early morning the figs were taken to the receptive San Pedro main crop figs 250 km away. I may say that well over 60% of the fruit were effectively  caprified with just this one single pass.

Francisco

I found out that the varieties I have are self pollinating.  I want to thank the vast amount of info posted.  Thanks

Soooo,
What enterprising fig grower with some land in fig wasp territory in S. Cal is going to start a business of raising caprifigs and sending them out full of wasps by overnight delivery to a forum full of paying customers? Sounds like some potential there!!

I wonder if fungus gnats could serve the same purpose as fig wasps.

Seriously...do these wasps carry pollen grains into the figs?  Is that how figs get "Caprified"?

We now have Artificial and In Vitro Fertilization....and, we oil figs to ripen quicker....is there any method of "artificial caprification" that we can use to trick common figs to "think" they have been visited by the wasps....and will this improve the quality of our figs?  I've read that if common figs get Caprified, the resulting figs that are produced, after ripening, are very different in flavor, than the uncaprified versions.

I want to tell my temperamental, "Black Mission" figs to go caprify themselves!   Then maybe the main-crop won't drop like it did this past year.  Can I do it with a small paint brush?


Frank

I have a Marylane Seedless that I grew from scion sourced from Jon at least 5 yrs ago. It's very large and thick and well kept and never produced fruit or even brebas. Smyrna?
Timmy

Francisco, my friend...you have email!

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/391-296.pdf

Chivas          Thanks.... I went on the website but could not find where this was. I just found the order section which I placed my order.  We will do propagation with our Year 6 students.

Thx Chivas. I didn't see Marylane seedless in there. Wonder if it's under a diff name. Oh well. Still useful info!

>>> Seriously...do these wasps carry pollen grains into the figs?  Is that how figs get "Caprified"?

Yes, yes, yes!

Please do some googling about how fig caprification is really done in nature
by a very specialized 'wasp'; often only to one fig species.

Ray Givan refers to fig sex as 'weird sex'.
http://figs4fun.com/links/FigLink006a.pdf

I have only seen the F.carica wasp only once
while visiting my home land in the Med. Sea.
Here is a pic:

Gorgi....

I thought so, but asked anyway.  So, I can't un-virginize my figs with a paint brush.  I'm not sorry....a 'fig letch' is the last thing I want to be called.


Thanks for the link.



Frank

Kevin that link I gave you is a pdf, it has a list of figs on it, it is not a complete list of all the Smyrna figs but it has good descriptions of the ones that it does have.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/mary-lane-seedless-5992242  Marylane is not a Smyrna.