Thank you all for your kind comments

Francisco

More summer figs.. Perola this time

 
 
 
 

Francisco
Portugal

Beautiful fig this Pérola, Francisco. 

I love that green mixed with bronze skin colors. I believe this is a Common. isn't it?

Another one for my wishlist that keeps on growing when you publish this beautiful pictures. :-)

"Champagne" - excelent name for this beauty. I would love to try this Pérola over here when you have some cuttings available.

Still high temperatures this week, Francisco, (35-36ºC highest in some more exposed areas) but i still might try some patch grafts in some protected areas i have with lots of shadow.

Also, i don't think this weather is going to hold. The forecast gives highest temperatures in the 24-25ºC starting mid August over here, so it will be much cooler throughout the remaining of August and ideal for some grafts that can benefit from an early start.

The buds i grafted last August are growing like mad since March. Some of the buds grafted this year in March-April are still struggling, with just a few inches of growth.

Look at the growth of this chip bud of Inchário Preto grafted in August 2015. It stayed dormant in the winter but now is growing very quickly and quite vigorous.
The first photo shows the bud breaking in April 2016 and the second was taken the 27th of July (huge leaves).

 

 

Edit - Today - 15 days later...

 

Yes,  sometimes the dormant budding method produces extremely robust shoots like the one you showing us
Now you have to acclimate your Caprifigs to match the receptive timing of those Smyrna and others

another subject..
My friend Alberto sent this morning a few figs  he had promised from long time ago..
These are his large and heavy,  tasty ''Tres num Prato'' figs- Common type with great main crops. Produces a few brebas in June.

 

 

 

Hello Andreas

Thank you for taking your time to comment on those pics
The last two on that post are  Inchários - μαύρο και άσπρο

Hope you got what I tried to make very easy to you

cheers
Francisco

Andreas, I think they are Inchário Branco. I hope to taste a couple of them myself this year thanks to the wasps Francisco sent me. Sadly, i think only 2-3 figs of the 8-9 that should be receptive at the time the wasps arrived where caprified. Don't now why...

Francisco,
That's my main concern. Even if i can succeed in keeping the wasps here, will the caprifigs match the timing with the different receptive Smyrna?

Nevertheless, your Code 2 and Code 4 over here may also mature later, coinciding with the later Smyrna. And i also have a couple of Spanish caprifigs that may have different maturing dates.

But some things keep puzzling me. Several of the supposed to be caprified figs are not maturing (not enough polen, perhaps?).
And some Smyrna types are having a very odd behavior. For instance, i am just now starting to see tiny young figs in Sarilop and Bardacick.
 
I hope that's because they are still young plants (just their 2nd year in pot) and because of the strange weather we had this Spring.

Those Tres num Prato look very tasty. I hope i can compare them to your Bomfim in a few weeks.



.

Francisco
all i can just keep telling you is awesome looking figs!!!
i hope you and your loved ones are safe from all those fires in Portugal.

Abandoned for well over half a century it was almost extinct
Thanks to a few hobbyists and collectors this excellent fig is slowly coming back .

Quarteira that's its name, a Common,  light colored skin, practicaly yellow when fuly ripen,  highly flavored, reddish pulp full of juices. birds always get to this fig first.

 

 

 


Francisco
Portugal

For those who like BIG figs here is a good one - Name : Bêbera Branca
It is a Common fig already shown in this forum several times. It has very good flavor, crunchy and juices to spare... For the greatest tasting pleasure one should eat it with the help of a table spoon !
This season, it's showing up a bit ahead of time probably pushed by the rather dry and very hot weather.

 
 
 
 
Francisco
Portugal

Bêbera Branca sliced open looks fabulous, perfectly ripened.  Anybody growing these in USA?

Beautiful fig, Francisco.  Bebera Branca has one of the most appealing interiors i have seen. It makes my mouth water everytime.

I hope my tree (bought in Plântula Nursery) is the same strain as yours.

Last year i decided to do an airlayer of my Bebera Branca inground because my tree is stunted. The soil is quite bad in that location (mainly clay).

The airlayer in the pot is already bigger than the tree in the ground. I hope that, this way, i can taste a couple of these beauties next year.

Even non pollinated they should be fine (a bit smaller and not so juicy).

I am quite amazed it matured so early over there (even with the very hot weather we are experiencing). I should be early September, isn't it?

That means that, in some hot years, i can hope to taste them by late August over here, which is great.

Thanks for the info, Francisco. Regarding the nursery, i hope, at least, that the cultivar i have is the real Bebera Branca you have over there.
The leaves seem correct and a couple of figs it produced last year had the right characteristics (they were very late, didn't develop fully and the rain we had ruined them so i wasn't able to confirm it)

200 grams for a main crop fig is amazing and the looks are just to die for. The shape, the cracks in the skin and the rich and juicy pulp. I love it. One of the most beautiful figs i have ever seen. I remember someone saying that there are fig photos and there is fig "porno" and your photos of Bebera Branca do qualify into that last category. ;-)

Francisco, every single photo is just mouth-watering! Beautiful figs! And, amazing to think that some were almost gone forever.

Jamie, wow, nice grafting! Some day I will try it and succeed.

Thanks for your offer, Francisco. If you can send a couple of cuttings this winter i appreciate it, just to be on the safe side.



Meg,

Grafting figs is not so difficult, specially Chip budding. Is just a matter of protecting the grafts very well against dehydration (they are more sensitive that other species).
And learning to graft figs is important. It allowed me to save some varieties i received.
Sometimes, when i see a cutting is not rooting after a couple of months and it's the last one i have, i remove a chip from the upper part of the cutting that is still green and it allows me to save the variety, despite that most of these grafts stay dormant until next spring.
It has come to a point that if i receive only one cutting of a difficult to obtain variety i prefer to graft it instead of trying to root it and risk loosing the variety.

According to my good friend J. Lucas this fig is the Portuguese Brown Turkey (main crop)
A very large fruit,  flavored  and sweet... and from a very prolific tree.

 
 
 
 



Francisco
Portugal
 

The wasps did some work there :)

Violeta 2016  ( aka Preto - aka Black Madeira - ....)
One of our best Common figs.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Francisco
Portugal