Here are pix of the seedlings under my Panache tree. More important that the seedlings, is to see the hundreds/thousands of seeds which did not sprout, presumably uncaprified.

Mother nature is amazing. Will you keep them?

Definitely going to keep some to play with. Quite a few will disappear as food for bugs, slugs, snails, sow bugs, earwigs, etc. but there should be enough to play with. I try and keep a dozen or so each year. I saved seeds from several figs last year, but haven't planted the seeds yet. I did plant some Turkish seeds I got on Ebay, and I see a couple little sprouts staring to show. Need to get my seeds planted soon.

Hey Jon, I have been searching for an answer for quite some time and cant seem to find anything on the net on this subject.

A common type fig like Mission lets say if it gets caprified those seeds become fertile, would this increase the amound of seedlings that would be of the common type compared to seedlings that had smyrna type parentage?

Or if one used a edible caprifig as the father and common type mother technically the odds should be even higher NO?

I mean somebody must of thought this through at some point when doing hybrids.

Someday I need to sort out all of the literature and see if there is a final answer on what happens with figs.

In my limited experience, few of my seedlings have been Smyrna or San Pedro types. OI am not at all sure whether caprifigs (male) are common, Sp and Smyrna, or just the females (my suspicion). but then there is this from UC Davis re: persistent and no persistent caprifigs:

Persistent Capri refers to fig that persist even when uninhabited by wasp vs. Caducous that drop when uninhabited.  Persisted Caprifig is important for breeding as it segregated into persistent : Caducous  in 1 : 1 proportion irrespective of fig (female parent) that is either persistent or Caducous.  The Caducous caprifig produces 100% caduceus progeny irrespective the type of fig (female parent) used in crossing, which is useless.

Fig                                          Caprifig                                                Progeny

Caducous                            Caducous                                            all caducous

Caducous                            Persistent                                           1:1 Caducous:Persistent

Persistent                           Caducous                                            all caducous

Persistent                           Persistent                                           1:1 Caducous:Persistent

So, It never seems to get any easier.

I am still, also, not clear, about where San Pedro types figure in all this, where they came from and how they interact when pollinated, do the pollinated brebas produce different offspring than the pollinated main crop?

I'm getting a headache.

Does anyone know where this info in Jon's last post here about fig breeding and persistant vs non-persistant caprifigs is from?

Ed, that table is in advances in fruit breeding as well as posted at waynes world.
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/arbimg10.htm

Thanks Andy - I guessed that you might be one who could answer!  And I know I had seen it before.  I spent an hour yesterday looking through links trying to find that.

Jon,

Looking over the chart you posted:

"Fig                                          Caprifig                                                Progeny

Caducous                            Caducous                                            all caducous

Caducous                            Persistent                                           1:1 Caducous:Persistent

Persistent                           Caducous                                            all caducous

punnett square all over again.. hope that is gene is a simple one.. not like human blood type. 

Hi SEGeo,
Read this if you want :
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/fig-pollination-myth-kill-6717719?pid=1281180356#post1281180356
Have fun in explaining me the stuff ... So Male Figtree and Female Figtree go to bed and ...
There was no male here - or at least no wasp to help them meet !

Hi pitangadiego,
Do you have the wasp and caprifigs at that location ?

Jon (Pitangadiego) does have the wasp.  It's not a matter of which parent provides the persistent gene.  A homozygous persistent embryo will die.  Otherwise there would probably be nothing but fig plants covering the face of the Earth.  The Waynesword site has all of this info.

Bob, I read the Waynesword site again (read it before) but a common fig is only possible when using a persistent caprifig.  Are you claiming otherwise?  The fig breeder I visited with explained this to me and I believe I saw this also at Wayesword with comments about the gene being lethal.

I agree with what you wrote.  The lethality is not due to the identity of the parent donating the persistent gene but in the presence of two of them, in response to Chris' post.  When the female parent donates the persistent gene to an embryo that didn't get one from the male, that plant can grow normally.

It would be interesting if we could block or add back whatever makes the homozygous persistent figs abort and see what that would be like.

Bob, I don't think you have it exactly right. According to the Wayne's Word site linked above: "According to W.B. Storey (1975), there is a dominant mutant allele (P) for persistent syconia and ovule abortion. This allele is egg lethal so it can only be carried in the sperm. In other words, it cannot be passed on from a persistent female tree. "
If it were as you described, the observed ratio of offspring for a persistent caprifig x persistent(common) fig would be 2/3 persistant (heterozygous persistent/'wild') and1/3 non-persistent (homozygous 'wild' or non-persistent ) as only 1/4 of the embryos would be aborted. The above description where all eggs containing only the persistent gene from the female die is consistent with the observed 1:1 ratio of persistent:non-persistentf offspring, where 1/2 of the potential seeds do not develop due to the lethal P gene ( to the developing egg) from the mother.

Ed - You're right!

The secret is to plant lots of seeds, and keep the ones that produce something you want to eat.

The goal of the breeding program at UCR was a fig that had all the characteristics of Calimyrna and that was common. That was a very small, narrow, focused target, and thus hard to hit, and, in fact, never reached.

My target, in saving seedlings, is "tastes good", which is a much broader target and easier to achieve, and has been met with 4-5 different seedlings.

Jon - which of your seedling finds are common and which are Smyrna? I was thinking about requesting a couple of your babies but I was not sure of that vital detail.

Encanto Red appears to be a Smyrna type.

Encanto is common.

B Mad 001 and 002 appear to be common.

jon, isn't B Mad 002 one that has peach taste? 

Playing with the panache is interesting as you could target more heavily stripped fruits and earlier ripping panache figs ...
I'm playing with my ufti which is dark fig.