Is anyone growing Socorro Black successfully besides Jose?  I have cuttings on eBay and my two trees haven't fruited yet so I'd like to have some help in answer questions from a potential bidder.  My trees should fruit next year.  Both seem to have a lot more side branches than most of my trees.  Jose posted about it at http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=40229673&postcount=16 but I haven't seen anybody else post about fruit and I'd like more information about its productivity and taste. Thanks.

JD has posted number of pictures of Socorro Black. wonderful looking figs.

i had few cuttings, only two made it. one was chewed up by my puppies and one left. it's not very fast growing for me. it was rooted summer of last yr, and it has grown total about 1 foot. it grew at 90 degree angle. it did put on couple of figs, but they didn't come to much. i'm sure with string of bad luck i'm running with figs this yr, it's all my fault. 

all the pix i have seen on the forum looks wonderful and very tempting fig. 

Thanks, Pete, I remember his thread now and I even posted in it twice. http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=6450893

Strange, because when I searched for the term "Socorro Black" I did not get JD's thread to show up.  I just now searched "Socorro" and entered "JD" for member, and this thread came up.

Anybody have an idea why JD's fruits this year had cavities?  Jose's fruits are solid.  I notice in Pons' book that Panache has a cavity yet mine never do.

The fruits I had on my Socorro Black trees came very late and didn't mature.  Both trees grew to about 3' this first year.

no idea why the cavity, but JD's SB from 2011 also shows cavity. 

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/socrro-black-5554708

looking at jose's pix, his figs were not as ripen as JD's. also, i can see a small cavity. nothing all that big, but maybe as the figs ripens, the pulps collapse and create bigger cavity? not sure.. 

Pics of the fruit looked great.
However, I lost my young plant before it fruited.

I've let my Panache go beyond dead ripe and they never have a cavity while the fruit in Pons book has a large cavity.  It must have something to do with the climate, I think.

Gorgi, did your SB die for freeze?

I received my SB from JD last spring, planted it in ground and it fruited in the summer.
Unfortunately I was able to taste only a few, thanks to the fracking birds and late ripening. The ones I sampled were dense and very rich tasting. Did not bother looking  for a cavity as the birds were hovering nearby and poised to attack.

"poised to attack" :)

Folks have written about trapping squirrels but I just realized that nothing has been said about trapping birds.  Is there something that makes it more objectionable to kill a bird than a squirrel or rat?

When I was a youth our neighbors trapped birds all the time.  They had a pet skunk in a cage.  Yes, really!  They had the scent glands removed from the skunk, only God knows how they talked a vet into doing that.  Anyways, they trapped birds frequently and fed them tot he skunk.  It was pretty easy, they had a wire mesh cage (1/4" square mesh, I think, though this was over 40 years ago).  There was one shorter area on one end and some grain or other bait was placed on the ground in this area and there was a cone shaped funnel out of the wire mesh leading from this section to the main enclosed area of the trap.  Usually near the other end of the funnel was a lot more grain or bait and they would hop through the funnel and not be able to get back out.  It looked something like this:

 

@Harvey: It was the cold/freeze that killed my SB.

Many/Most birds are illegal to kill I beleive.

why is it illegal to kill the birds? i can see some are more rare and endangered.. but robin, pigeon, and sparrows are plentiful and doesn't really do much other than poop on the sidewalk. now the canadian geese are becoming traffic hazard down here. 

by the way, i just remembered something. the SB cutting i kept alive was very small thin cutting. maybe it didn't have enough energy reserve to shoot up this yr. now the new growth is more presentable, maybe it will kick into high gear next yr. 

I am sure Local laws vary to a degree, but most songbirds are protected as are birds of prey. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) provides federal legal protection for wild birds with the exception of species not native to North America and resident game birds. Common Pigeon, European Starling, English House Sparrow (which is actually a finch) are normally ok to kill, but many of the birds that would be harassing you figs Mockingbirds, Thrashers, Catbirds, etc... I believe are protected most everywhere. You may be able to get a permit in some situations in regards to crop damage, but doubtful for a backyard grower. Your Geese would fall under Fish and Game laws as would other birds with a defined hunting season. I love most birds, but not trying to define right and wrong, just giving input to the question of why killing birds is more objectionable than killing a squirrel or rat. While squirrels  have a defined hunting season for me locally they are also classified as nuisance animal.

Sparrows cause the most damage for me by far.  I've not seen mocking birds mess with figs.

There is such a thing as a depredation permit but I don't know what's involved.

I wonder if aversive conditioning would work for problem birds, like is done for bears?

Trap and hold them for a day, spray a little paint on their tails then show them pictures of CarrotTop and let them go.

Trapping didn't work on my towhees, Brent (who after being trapped several times in my chipmunk cages decided to build a nest right smack the top of my LSU). Should have added some Carrot Top. Or maybe a HoneyBooBoo scarecrow. My grandpa used to put fake rubber snakes in his trees and garden to keep the birds away...might try that next year.

 

harvey,

this is what you need. non-lethal solution.

http://m.cnet.com/news/rubber-band-machine-gun-holds-672-elastic-shots/57616103

edit: video to boot.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11447722/rubber-band-machine-gun-0

My bird problem isn't too severe. Frank needs some help, though.  I shoot to kill. :)

For my new 6/10 acre block of figs I've already considered netting it if I get serious about marketing figs.  I think I figured it would cost $6-$8,000!

one thing good about all the rain this yr was... no birds and no flying insects.

Hi,

Does anyone know where I can find cuttings for a Socorro Black or a Ruby3 fig?

I would like to try to add one or both of these to my fledgling fig family.

Thanks,
Jubilee

Ruby 3 -- Richard Watts has it. Not sure whether Jon has it. It is a late fig here. May junk it after this
season if green house trick don't help.

Soccoro Blk --- In my opinion Hardy Chicago, Dark Portuguese, RdB are better tasting. More
likely it has to do with my zonal characteristics.

No disrespect intended but I don't know why anyone would put cuttings up for sale if they never fruited for them.  How are you even 100% positive that is the variety you have? 

Ed, my cuttings came from Jose, the discoverer of this variety.  He has posted about them here and on GW and there are some folks that want them.  The plants grew well for me so I had good cuttings available to sell and I think the above made them worthy of being sold.  Maybe you think I should have thrown them away??

No, I agree that I would not have thrown them away.  I also have a small plant but since it has not fruited for me I would not sell cuttings, maybe traded with an explanation.  I think as forum members we should take a higher road to ensure there are no mix ups.  Case in point, and I know I am not making any friends here but there is a member, who is a very nice person I understand and who has been generous to other members from what I hear. He constantly has fig cuttings for sale on ebay.  Why I would never buy from him is that he never puts pictures of the fruit.  Worse yet for me are those who don't even put a picture of the actual cuttings but the same picture for all the different varieties.  Maybe it's just me and I apologize if I offended anyone.

Ed,
I agree with you completely.
If this was only a Hobby, that would be a good procedure to help ensure its integrity. Personally I am using that procedure (growing out cuttings to harvest) to confirm cultivars.

But due to the diversity of the forum and financial concerns, that simple procedure would never be implemented.