What would be a good name for a seedling fig that turned out to be a keeper?  I'm raising some vigorous seedlings from seed Greenfig was generous enough to offer, and it got me to thinking about fig names.  If you had a seedling that deserved a name, what would you call it.  What would attract your interest, be descriptive, and be unique enough to avoid confusion with other names. 

You could do the useful and practical LSU thing and give a color and something that suggests which area it was made in.  LSU Gold, LSU Purple etc... for areas similar to Louisiana.  You could go for savory names such as Ambrosia, Heavenly Gold, etc...  You could use a loved one's name such as Sarah's Christmas fig (for a green/red), or Billy's Midnight fig (for a dark), etc...

Anyway, what would you like to see in a fig name.  Any thoughts are welcome.

Charles, When you say a keeper, does this mean you have some great tasting fruit from seed? If this is the case then congratulations.
Since it might be the only one in existence, you could name it whatever you wish. I usually like to name it in honor of the giver's name. If not, I like to refer to the location of the mother tree and perhaps the variety's name if known.
Sorry to say it, but if no ripe and edible fruit, then you only have a nice Bonsai tree that you still could name for your records.

Hi Sas, these seedlings are still small. A keeper could be many things, LSU Purple lookalike with better flavor, earlier ripening Col de Dame, larger fruited RdB, Brunswick with closed eye, caprifig mothered by a great tasting variety for future use, etc... Several people on the forum are in the early stages of hybridizing work with figs, so I was curious what you thought would be some great names.  They might become reality.  Igor does get to name the pick of the litter so to speak, since these seeds came from him.  When the mothers are CDD, RdB, Strawberry Verte, and the like, there is a decent chance of getting interesting children.

All I heard was that figs from seeds do not produce and ripen their fruit unless you have the fig wasp. I would love to hear from someone who actually succeeded in getting positive results outside the fig wasp domain.

Using a number system with your initials might be a good approach if you're doing a lot of research and have many samples.

I personally have only one seedling from seed in its third year and no sign of figs yet. I hope that it still have my label as it is lost in the shuffle.
The original seeds came from a 100 year old tree in Spain. Looking forward to hear about your results.

I think if you trace back each variety we have today you will find nearly all were originally from a seedling. Except the rare sport mutation.

To start with I'm going to keep it simple, name of female in cross X male. If the male is unknown will just put female name and hybrid after. Then a number.

(RDB hybrid) (01)-(100)
(Grantham's Royal Hybrid) (01)-(150)
(GM 171 Gludi)X (HD Capri) (01)-(100)


If they turn into good tasting common figs I will name them. If they are persistent Capri figs I will also name those. San Pedro figs will only get a first name, since they produce only half as many figs, they only deserve half a name...

I think since the seedlings will be born and raised in Hawaii I might use Hawaiian words as the names.

If I got a very large red fig and I called it.

English
(Big red)

Hawaiian
(Nui 'ula)

That would solve the name problem since as far as I know there are not many Hawaiian named figs.

From what I understand,it is very, very rare to come up with a seedling, that is actually worthwhile as a edible fruit. Yes, they all started out as seedlings, but out of thousands and thousands of seedlings,look at how many true Figs are actually eatable ... Not trying to bust no bodies bubble, just from what I have read..And this is just my opinion.. : )

Frank

Aren't all of the LSU releases from seed?

True but I am planning on growing up at least 60,000 seedlings once I get a good edible Capri fig big enough to extract pollen from.

Using a persistent edible Capri greatly increases the chances of getting something common and edible.

How are you going to take care of 60,000 seedlings.??

Same way I'm taking care of the nearly 1,000 fig trees I have now.

Just got 6 acres cleared and ready for this fig breeding program project. I ordered a shipping container full of potting soil and pots. I will grow the trees as single stems so they should only take 4sq ft per tree so I can fit 10,000 per acre. With a little bit of room left to walk between rows.

With that number I should get something good. I don't expect it to take very long for them to produce fruit since they can keep growing year round here.

I believe that you need a persistent Caprifig father and a common fig mother for getting a common fig
Most wild caprifigs are not persistent.

From my reading, a persistent capri is the needed bit to get some persistent seedlings, any female will work, but may as well use high quality common females.  Making some new high quality persistent capris is a priority. 

43,560 square feet to an acre, so if he is giving 4 square feet per seedling before culling then 10,000 seedlings/acre is possible.  60,000 is too many for me though.  I plan on culling earlier, with trays of seedlings getting some frost in a freezer, then sprinkling ground up rusty leaves on the survivors to lower the seedling numbers to a manageable number.

Hi,
@Figgysid and frankallen : Ready for an headache !, : You both wrote : "They all came from seedlings"  so from a seed. The seed came from a fruit, born by a tree coming from a seed ... Wait ?
                                    Who was first ? The seed or the tree ? ( I warned you :P - herrr, no, no one dropped trees on earth ... not even E.T. ... )

As for the name, I'll be using a code for the first 5 years ... Why would you care naming something you'll trash ? So for instance cddn-2015-00001 ... cddn-2015-999999
Or cddn-2015 for the whole batch until you make some selection because why name something you'll trash ? And there is no way to distinguish the seedlings in between them,
except for the mother tree and the year.

Then if the fruit is of interest, I would name it "color from ZZZ", where ZZZ could be a location or a name or whatever. Why not color-2015-from_me ?
Using the name of the mother is for me adding confusion if the fig no longer resembles the mother ... Shortening you know ...
Imagine a green cddn ??? green col de dame noir so green col de dame black ... Is that a black or a green fig? What to expect ?
So at some point for fruits, the ancestry no longer is of interest in the name IMO.
A reference to the size could be used too, or both a reference to color and size and a year.
Imagine if you release 100 seedlings ... You'll be busy finding names ...
Thanks for the topic, as it is a funny one ! By the way... The seed or the tree ? ... The caprifigs first ? the San Pedro first ? The smyrnas ? The commons ? Let me get back to sleep ...

The simple answer is you can name them whatever you want. Consider names that reflect their parentage, their color, their flavor, or maybe local towns and cities. Be creative.

For example, Raspberry Latte was a seedling that grew up in under my coffee tree (the Latte part) and had a raspberryish flavor.

Have fun.