My neighborhood was once half dairy farm, and the other half inhabited by German farmers. We also have Voiture Hall #217 in our neighborhood, which had deep-rooted French/American/WWI history, along with culinary history, in a building dating back to 1920-1921 (building burned down 10/2/10, and fig tree is now gone). We have lots of old, bizarre fruit and nut trees, herbs and shrubs growing all over the neighborhood, some are heirlooms, some are immigrants, some have histories that died with their owners decades ago.

Satellitehead,

I'd love to try them if you have enough cuttings to go around.

C.J.

Sat,

I would love to partake in preserving these heirloom trees. Imagine if they could talk!

I would love to add some to the Figs 4 Fun collection. Have already replaced some lost trees in other collections from things people shared with me at an earlier time.  It was a little weird - sort of like returning endangered animals to the wild.

Thanks for everyone wanting to help by taking these in.  All out for now!  If I've touched base with you by PM or email, rest assured these will be going out on Monday, along with any other cuttings I've been saying I'd ship out to others over the last few weeks (I'm a little slow lately)

For what it's worth, I have pictures of the two distinct leaves from the Unknown Voiture #217 fig, taken at my first round of taking cuttings in the fall, when leaves were dropping. 

I had one 12" rooted tip cuttings start to break the terminal bud this week, so I suppose We will see which leaf style it starts showing, since both of these are very different looking.

My Unknown Voiture #217 cutting taken back in September broke terminal bud last week.  Again, just sharing pics of the leaves.  They're still really young, thick and tough, hence the lime green color, I might replace this photo with a better one in a couple of weeks.

That one's looking good Jason, I hope mine do a well. They're is baggies now. Somehow my collection keeps growing.

"gene"

This Voiture #217 cutting in the last post has really come along.  After lots of very vigorous growth, I moved it into a pot on Saturday eve, and here's a pic from this morning (below)

FWIW, the Voiture cuttings have constantly popped out breba, so I know this variety, whatever it is, has a breba crop.  The first batch of cuttings went into bags early November.  One cutting showed roots within 3 weeks, but this one (pictured) didn't bother sending out roots for almost 8-9 weeks, which seems to be "the norm" for this variety; suuuuuper slow to root.  I tossed out a few cuttings early on due to my impatience and mold growth (prior to me scrubbing/bleaching new cuttings), and regret it in retrospect.  With this pictured cutting, the roots were nice and thick once they began showing, and they were in high abundance.  They filled the entire cup in just 3 weeks to the point it was becoming rootbound, so I repotted in a ~1gal terra cotta pot I had laying around for the time being.

I really find what your doing here very interesting and wonderful Sat.  I think its great your giving these old trees another good chance in life.  I like your detail and your histories, very important and good to share.  Thanks much. Ciao

This is totally unrelated to any fig I've put up on this page, it's just another tree in my area that was (before now) unknown.

I mentioned a tree above at Avondale Ave/E. Confederate Ave in SE Atlanta.  This tree was incorrectly reported to me by a neighbor as a cutting from the "unknown Hobart" fig, but clearly it is not true if you compare these figs to the actual Hobart fig in the next post! 

The figs pictured below are a typical Celeste for this area.  7-8 on the sweet scale, 3-4 on the juicy scale (could have sat on for another day or three), 2 on the richness scale.  Smaill void inside, strawberry-ish flesh.

Ok, finally, I have pictures of some fruit from "Unknown Hobart", which could be Marseilles or any number of other bright-green figs with a large open eye and strawberry-ish pink pulp.

It indeed appears that it IS a green fig with a large open pink eye (5mm - 7mm), pinkish/strawberry pulp.  The fig is about mid-size, just smaller than a typical Brown Turkey, but larger than Celeste.  This fig didn't seem to have a breba crop.

I found a ripe fruit on the ground this morning that was much more of a bright neon green color, but it was still a little sappy so I didn't eat.  I broke in half to take a photo.  I will snap off a photo of a leaf and fruit in the next couple weeks as more ripens.

Jason,

Here are a few photos of your unknown progeny in zone 8b.

Any photos from the parent tree of Voiture or Schuyler?

JD

Voiture #217


Hobart

heya JD

can you post more pics of your Voiture tree? i love the leaves of Voiture so much, yours are spot-on for the variety, but they look much more vibrant than mine.    

these 'unkown Voiture' trees really take off down here in the southeast, i guess this tree likes the heat and humidity, eh?  mine also leapt like crazy, i hope you will get fruit next year, i would love to see pics of one. my trees slowed up a lot, probably due to neglect with me travelling and the bad rollercoaster weather we're having.

and on that topic .... 

the unknown Voiture tree ... where do i start? 

i have nothing but bad news.  for some reason, the lock on the 8' chain link fence surrounding the abandoned lot was off/broken during a recent neighborhood cleanup so i went into the lot, hacked my way back through overgrowth to get to the southwest side of the building, hoping for something ripe or close to it on the tree.  i could barely even find the tree.  i had to work through brambles just to cut down a wild thorny tree that was covering it up, and once i got through that, i found a Mimosa had been basically blocking any light from getting to it (damn foreign invasives piss me off!). 

no fruit was ripe, and as developed as the tree is, it only had maybe a half dozen figs total - none fallen on the ground, and it literally had a total of maybe three dozen leaves amongst the dozen or so branches, it was looking really sickly, like a bundle are large grey sticks as big around as your arms and 4'-8' tall with 2-3 leafs at each tip.  over the winter, i cut off several branches as thick as a human finger to send to you, Jose, Jon, Bill, Gene and a few others, IIRC, and there were no new shoots, it was like the tree isn't putting out new growth.  none of this is good news.  sad to say, it seems this unknown Voiture tree has a death sentence which will probably be served in the not-too-distant future.  

sadder still, it is virtually impossible to extract the tree because it's got asphalt all around the base and it would take hours of cutting down trees to get a vehicle to it.  this will probably be the last year it's alive due to overgrowth or demolition of the property.  it's hard to get into the property since it's normally locked and it's also really sketchy (i won't go without packing a weapon, it's that sketchy).  sad fact is, you, and a couple others i sent cuttings may soon have the only proof this tree ever existed.  i hope it is something good, for sure.   

i am going to make one last trip over there in winter to take one last batch of cuttings to send out to anyone interested, but with the lack of growth, it's going to be a mixed bag of slim pickings.

all i can tell you after plucking off the largest fig (i knew i wouldn't be back soon when/if it would ripen) is that the outside of the fig seems like it will be red or darker and the insides are likely to be somewhere between reddish, ruby or brown, and i believe the figs will probably be medium sized, 90g-120g is my guess based on the couple samples i had available to look at.  the one i grabbed was about 65g-70g and it looks like it was about 2-4 weeks from being ripe if it could get sun.  you figure sun and swelling, juicing up, that's where i get the 90-120g estimate.

on the other hand, i can certainly take a pic of the Hobart parent tree, it's readily accessible, will try to get one this weekend.

Jason,

T-7 and counting...I trust all is with your wife and your baby girl. Continued blessings. There is nothing more precious and powerful.

Will do on the photos. My list says that I have four scion in 1 gallon pots but I only recall seeing two (2) that are significant.

I've got some trees for you as well. Check your PM.

Stallion has matched Hobart for growth, and it has also been the most prolific of the scion that I have. I knocked off 4-5 figlets from each 'tree' this week. That is the third time this summer that I have done that. Here is a photo of one before I pinched most recently. Hopefully good figs next season.

As I read your post, I couldn't help but think F4F should be renamed FIREARMS for FIGS. The bits (jokes) on that one are endless.

JD

I enjoyed reading this thread.

@Martin, I like the history of it - the history of a small neighborhood in Atlanta :)  Our neighborhood is around 200 single-family homes as pictured here - my neighborhood is pictured in the colored block labelled "Boulevard Heights".  Within the 4 x 3 blocks which it is made up, I can show you at least 3-4 trees per block, we have 25-30 trees in the neighborhood.  Lots of Celeste and Brown Turkey.  I cannot tell you why this is the case, but half of the trees in our neighborhood were planted by Mexican families, and of the houses that are still "in the family", most of those houses have 2-3 trees each.  I would love to understand this some day!

@ JD, so far so good.  The baby is putting a good deal of pressure on my wife - she's fine, baby's fine, but we've had a scare recently which has led to me "Driving Miss Daisy" all over town.  In short, the baby compressed the artery/vessel that allows fresh blood to get to the brain, and no fresh blood to the brain = convulsion, seizure or fainting.  You see this in the UFC/MMA style fighting, guys will seize on the mat after being choked out.  Fortunately, she's taking off work soon, so ... eh.  She doesn't like to talk about it, so don't bring it up ;)

No pics on the Hobart parent tree today, too overcast and threatening rain.

Oh, I went to help a neighbor fix his lawn mower the other day - walked into his backyard and found he has a Celeste.  Was at a friend's house last week that has a huge fig tree in the full-shade canopy behind his house... he wanted to show me how badly the bamboo from his idiot neighbor was taking over his backyard.... so we walked back, and the tree had 6 merged trunks, and each trunk was as big around as my thigh (I'm a former skateboarder, I've got some tree trunks for thighs).  I was climbing around in the tree!  It was that big!!  No clue about the variety, though.  It is a sweet and milky smelling tree, will be keeping an eye out on it.

Thanks for that link Jason.
Wish your family the best . Congratulations !!!
Quick story
Dughter now 17 first our first born.
Jason it was a Sunday spaghetti day here i cook the sauce all day with some meatball and sausage in it.
That evening i was hungry and all of sudden my my goes calmy " Marty my water bag just broke" she was calm i was hungry i quickly took piece of sausage out of the gravy put into italian bread and off we went driving and eating sandwhich.
I was nervous and never ate so fast several bites and gone while all the time asking her you ok you ok?

Thank the Lord baby healthy baby girl and
Worse case of heartburn i have ever had from that sandwhich.

Jason,

As promised...

I have four plants with this particular leaf type. Three are labeled Voiture and the fourth is labeled 'Unknown Purple'. Thus there could be a labeling issue on the fourth one. Note: the tree on the far left (#1, #7, and #8) was ambushed by a falling tomato plant. As a result, twisted limbs.

After reading your story, I gave some special attention to these three. While doing so, I noticed that the roots were coming out of the bottom so I up-potted all three.

JD

good growers!  what are you using for fertilizer regimen?

i pot in my version of al's gritty mix + azomite and worm castings. i try to fertilize once per week with an organic liquid fertilizer at one-quarter strength. in reality, it has been about once every ten to fourteen days.

Hi JD,

What is your version of Al's gritty mix?  Would you please tell us the formula?  Or email it to me?

Thanks,

noss

Ah, almost forgot - I don't know if this is a score or not, but I found a persimmon tree in my neighborhood today that's huge today!  I also found another yard with 3 fig trees in it a few houses down, but none look exceptional.  They have a big dog, I couldn't get too close.

noss,

1 part crushed granite
1 part turface
1 part jungle growth (2 cu ft black bag @ Lowes)
2 parts pine bark
1/2 part worm castings

I work in scoops. Thus to make a five gallon bucket of mix, one part equals three scoops. During the process, I also add

4 oz coarse azomite (via re-purposed plastic apple sauce container).

Thanks Al!

JD

Thanks Jason, much appreciated.  :)

noss