Just back from 2 days at USDA / UC Davis, taking pictures and evaluating fruit. Took about 2500 pictures, which will come later. They have had a very cool summer, and the season is somewhat late, though the temps hit 110 yesterday, at the peak of their first real summer weather. Very interesting to see what was ripe, and what will be late, and what is ripe there but not ripe in my yard, and vice versa. Met a local grower and chatted a little about industry practices, etc. The cooler weather has definitely inverted ripening order for them, as well as me for some varieties.

Snuck a peek and taste test of some peaches, nectarines, grapes, and mulberries as well. Don't want to be a one-trick pony.

Jon. anything stood out ?
also do they have Bursa on trial at the USDA / UC Davis? if yes how was it?

Based on what you tasted, if you put an order together, which would you order?

Please include grapes and the others you tasted in that pretend order!

Thanks for sharing with us!
Suzi

Most of the grapes we Concord hybrids, so nothing special. There were some native grape species that were smaller than the head of a hat pin, when full-sized. They maintain a lot of these things for future use as breeding stock  in the event of disease issues. We saw Wing Nut, which they are currently hybridizing with something else, trying to develop a better walnut rootstock.

DMOR0017 Illinois Everbearing Mulberry was very nice. Small, stain a lot, but sweet, smooth flavor.

I don't have my notes on the figs with me. I do remember that 160-50 showed no signs of ripening any time soon, so must be very late.

There Violette de Bordeaux was ripening later, with smaller fruit than my Vista, which DNA tests the same.

Im at the airport heading back home from ucdavis. I took lots of photos along with jon. I was more focused on what stood out as far as taste and ripening. Jon took pictures of all the varieties including the trees so that should be good.
I only got to taste a couple grape varieties, didn't keep track of the names. The peaches were excellent, I might be getting a couple scions with my order.
Among the best figs I've tasted were 187-25, black ischia, zidi, yellow neches, white tx everbearing, calvert, and several more including a hybrid that was the pretiest tree in the orchard.
It was fun hanging out with jon and darcy.
This picture is taken with my phone. More photos and info to come.

Jon, Bass can you give me an idea of the tree spacing they use. Thanks, J.A.

Thanks for the National Clonal Germplasm Repository fig report,  Jon and Bass.  I will be using some of your notes this Sunday. . .

Sorry, my fellow Figs 4 Fun folks, I forgot to post this earlier:

Fig and Grape tasting, 10 am, Sunday Aug 29, at the Wolfskill Experimental Farm, Winters CA.
Please bring your favorite fig dish, and RSVP to:  johnvalenzuela@hotmail.com

The Festival of Fruit in Pomona was great this year, and I was pleased to see a few of our friends from the Germplasm Repository at Wolfskill, Howard Garrison (figs), Jeff Moersfelder (pomegranates), and Bernard Prins (grapes).

Howard, the fig collection manager, announced to a few of us the time and date of the Fig tasting, as above.

Many of us have enjoyed the tastings in the past, with several fig (and grape) varieties to taste fresh, knowledgeable researchers sharing interesting info., and Howard's fantastic barbequed figs- (stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped with Prosciutto ham, skewered with a rosemary sprig).

Howard has a request for us this year: he asks that we bring our own favorite fig dishes to share with everyone at this event. Recipes will be complied for a fig cookbook he is working on with Ken Love.

Of course, please come even if you have no fig dishes to share- for my climate in Novato, not far from San Pablo Bay, this date is too late for the breba crop of figs, and too early for the main fig crop!

Howard has also asked me to give him an estimate on how many of us CRFGers will be coming, so please RSVP to me as soon as you can at:
johnvalenzuela@hotmail.com

See you there!

JV

JA,

I am guessing about 15ish feet between trees, and maybe closer to 20ish between rows. They are planted more or less at what would be a commercial orchard spacing, I would guess. There are 338 trees, minus some that have died, and a few not planted. Most are duplicated, so there are probably 140ish varieties in the field collection. Some have died and been replanted, but the newer plants struggle to compete with mature trees, some of which have 18" diameter trunks. I tried to take a complete set of pix of the trees, and will get them posted as time permits.

See Sue's 2008 pix for an idea of what it looks like.

They have had a very cool summer (until we got there - 112F in Sacramento Wednesday), much like I have had, and it has affected the size of the crop, ripening times and order, etc. A commercial grower was touring the collection when we were there, as well. He grows Kadota, Mission, and Calimyrna. Calimyrnas are always the latest, but this year are the first to ripen. Similarly, here Vernino is always the last to ripen, but this year is near the front of the pack, after a cool summer. Go figure.

John,

We left a few figs for you this Sunday, but only a few.

Speaking of commercial figs, this year was a really good one for store-bought Calimyrnas. I usually don't buy them because they're never ripe. But this year, I found a few that actually were ripe, and they were surprisingly tasty. 

Yes, Calimyrna is a good fresh eating fig, even though it is grown for the purpose of drying. At Davis they were a few days from being ripe. The commercial orchards on the east side of the central valley had a little more heat, and were a couple weeks earlier.

Hey, Jon, sorry to be away for so long, just been a busy (and crazy) year.  Wish I had more time to visit when you came by but you were busy anyways.

I was curious, though, what you found out about the fig at the park down the road from me.  Is that anything I should be checking out now that things are going dormant?

Harvey, There were at least two fig trees. One near the entrance and one by the water. They both are light green figs, but nothing really special. Probably a Kadota seedling or similar. 

Harvey, we did find the trees, and as Bass said, they were nothing special, so we decided not to bother taking cuttings.

I did learn a few things a bout chestnuts and alfalfa. Always fun to see other people's orchards and what not.

I'll confess: I came back to help research what varieties to put on my GRIN request last night! :)  Both this thread and Bass's were very helpful!

Hopefully, we'll get more heat next summer.  We're definitely on a cool cycle as we already had our sixth day of frost this morning out of the past seven to eight days.  Quite a few records set in the past week for our area.

A week after you guys visited I almost killed myself with a bad fall from a ladder, but I only spent 8 hours in the hospital and amazed myself and doctors by not breaking any bones.  I've still got quite a few aches, though, especially with this cold weather.