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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > Mystery Fig Caught Growing Wild ...ID?
 
 


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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
I caught this fig tree growing behind other trees and weeds on county property in the wild.  Took me a while to find it again because it is well hidden.  I took pictures for your expert ID.

It is on a pretty steep hill, and I'll be wearing tennis shoes and gloves when I go out tomorrow at 5:00 AM to take some green cuttings for preservation and reproduction.  I'll take as many as I can, take off all leaves but the tip, stick them in a big container in damp perlite / potting soil with a large water bottle stuck around them as a mini greenhouse, and try to get them to root as green cuttings.  May take a month or two.  When they go dormant, I'll repot into individual 3 gallon pots, and cross my fingers they bear fruit.

I was lucky to find a few figs on the ground.  They were soft, but when I cut them open, they were not ripe.  They appear to be a white variety.  Some of the leaves are HUGE!  The tree is loaded with figs.  It is a wild fig.  One of the cut figs has a strange shape.  That is because I cut out the bird pecking expecting to enjoy a sweet breba, but evidently birds or wind knocked them off the tree prematurely.  There is no visible irrigation, and the tree is doing fine.

Both figs were soft and pithy lacking flavor of any kind.

If you have any ID on this fig, I won't give it a name.  If you have no clue, I might call it "Highland's Wild White,"  For now, it's "WildOne."

Suzi

Tomorrow I will post more pics of Catherine's Nacido Fig under that topic.  I messed up on the shoots I took (not enough roots for the abundance of leaves), and learned that I did the whole thing wrong.  She welcomed me back, and I have permission to cut as many green cuttings as I can, as long as I make her more trees!  I already gave her two VdB, so she is a happy camper!

Attached Images
jpeg WildOneFullTreeHidden.jpg (515.41 KB, 131 views)
jpeg WildOne.PartialView.jpg (454.01 KB, 141 views)
jpeg WildOne.Leaves.jpg (445.25 KB, 113 views)
jpeg WildOne.Figs.jpg (361.49 KB, 123 views)
jpeg WildOne.Figs.Quarter.jpg (230.53 KB, 115 views)
jpeg WildOne.FigsCut.jpg (268.83 KB, 170 views)


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Zone 9b, Southern California. "First year they sleep, Second year they creep, Third year they leap!"  Wish List:  I wish all of you happy fig collecting!  My wishes have been fulfilled!

TONYSAC

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
It def looks like a white with a possible honey color inside if you wanna trade your unknown for mine let me know 
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Anthony
Garden city park, Long Island NY 11040 Zone 7b : 5 to 10 (F) (Nassau) FIGS4FUN1@aol.com Im here to help Crazy80z28 on Ebay
Wish list... Hmmm more room.
hoosierbanana

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
It looks a little bit like pictures I have seen of caprifigs.
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
I'm about to go on my stealth mission. 

I doubt it's a caprifig because we don't have the wasp, and that tree is fully loaded with breba and new main crop figs forming. 

I'll be happy to trade the surviving plants once dormant with any of you, but I'd really like to taste the figs to see if we have something or not.  Some of the leavers are a foot long!  I'm thinking Adam and Eve...;

Suzi
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
OK, back from my stealth mission.  I managed not to slide down the hill by hanging on to some big limbs, and managed to hang on and stick 20 tip cuttings with leaves removed into some damp potting soil. 

Today, I'll pot two per pot with a soda bottle greenhouse over each, and let them alone for about a month.  Then, I'll gradually let them get used to air by removing the lid, then the greenhouse, and slowly introduce them to partial shade.  Then full sun.  They can grow till dormant.  I will separate them, and give them their own pots until I decide what to do with them.  Some tips are monster size!  Others are teeny.  Some cuttings have old wood, some are just all green.  It will be interesting to see which do the best. 

I need to cut up some Coors cans to label all of them! 

Yikes!  I repeat this process this afternoon over at Catherine's, but at least hers are on level ground!

I did take pictures, but for some reason my phone didn't send them to me.  I'll try again later.  Took a pic of a leaf that is 11" long, and all the 20 tips green and perky in one 1 gal pot!

Suzi
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hoosierbanana

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
It is hard to tell from the pics, but if there are male flowers near the eye then it is a caprifig. Here is a picture fignut took awhile ago female on left, male on right.
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
Well, I didn't see any flowers next to the eye of any figs that looked anything like that picture above.  Hmmmm.

Here are the photos of the cuttings and one of a leaf.  If anyone can identify by that leaf, it would be cool! 

Also, will the tips on a woody stem grow faster than the fully green stem tips?  I cut all the leaves off to reserve energy for roots.

I have to go to Home Depot for more perlite, soil and pots!  They are all in one pot sitting under plastic until I can get them all a proper nursery in which to grow!

Attached Images
jpeg WildOne.Leaf.jpg (350.40 KB, 37 views)
jpeg WildOne.GreenCuttingsX20.jpg (492.29 KB, 67 views)


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TucsonKen

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
Just for fun, and if you want faster results, ask her if you can go back and make a couple of air layers--one for you and one for her. Since you're in La Quinta (hot & dry), you might want to make a pretty substantial ball of rooting medium, quite wet, and well-sealed, to prevent it drying out and killing your new roots). In a month or two you'll have trees of just about any size you care to try for. I did a four-foot tall branch last year for some friends, and it's now growing in their yard and doing great.
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Ken
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
Ken, these aren't Catherine's.  These are wild figs in a county owned lot.  My air layers would be gone in this case.  I can't just watch them!  I'll settle for the Cuttings!
Suzi
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hblta

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Posted Reply with quote  #10 
Hi Suzi,
the inside of your figs looks a lot like some unripe ones that one of my trees, a celeste,  dropped last year. They were soft, kind of rubbery, dry inside, pretty much tasteless.
You might have to wait for ripe fruit for a positive ID on the tree.

Grant
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Grant
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #11 
Grant!

This is great news!  I hope you are right!  Let it be Celeste!

Suzi
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #12 
Since I did all this research on Ray Given's site, which I love due to the great information there, I believe my mystery wild fig leaf is a "C" variety which means it is Alma or Stanford Caprifig.  I hope it's Alma, and not Stanford Caprifig, because I don't think we have the wasp.  Time will tell.  Alma is on my UC Davis order this year, so it would be really cool if it turns out to be Alma.  I know the fig fruit insides will be white or honey colored, and the outside is green.

Any info on either of the two varieties would be great!

Suzi
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rcantor

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Posted Reply with quote  #13 
From Sybil, former owner of Paradise Nursery:

Alma Gold - Possibly my favorite fig.  It is the first to ripen here in VB as a gold/green fig, continues throughout the summer and finishes as a deep bronze fruit in the late fall.  Our most prolific and continuous producer.  Rarely splits or sours and produces hundreds of figs every season.  Makes insanely good fig jam!  (Yep, it is the same as just Alma - we added the Gold at the nursery so folks would know what it was like.)
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Zone 6, MO

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Galicia Negra, De La Reina - Pons, Genovese Nero - Rafed's, Sbayi, Souadi, Acciano, Any Rimada, Sodus Sicilian, any Bass, Pons or Axier fig, any great tasting fig.
DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #14 
Bob, could you post a picture of Alma's leaf?
Suzi
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rcantor

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Posted Reply with quote  #15 
That was Sybil's photo.  Mine are babies so the leaves wont have their mature shapes yet.  Jon has some photos here with very different leaf shapes.
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Zone 6, MO

Wish list:
Galicia Negra, De La Reina - Pons, Genovese Nero - Rafed's, Sbayi, Souadi, Acciano, Any Rimada, Sodus Sicilian, any Bass, Pons or Axier fig, any great tasting fig.
DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #16 
We have at least 9 survivors, 3 showing active growth with tiny little darling leaves, and the rest with a very green growth tip looking ready to leaf out. 

They are happy to be outside in partial sun/shade under the canopy of the grapevines, and are showing their gratitude to me for killing the fungus gnats!

I'll have plants to share with any adventurous here, since this is a truly unknown fig tree.

I will say it was fully loaded with figs, and in late August, I'll go back and see how the figs look, and hopefully taste.
Suzi
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Dan796

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Posted Reply with quote  #17 
Please put me on your "adventurous" list!
That's a real beauty!
I can't remember where I saw the picture of a huge fig leaf like you've just posted with 10"-12" leaves. The variety was in China.
CA has a lot of immigrints from China. Could the fig come from there maybe?
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #18 
Dan, you are on the "adventurous" list.  I can't testify as to the cold hardiness of this breed.  It grows in a subtropical climate, so you'll have to do the "fig shuffle" with it.  One of these two (aren't they just so cute?...blury but cute), has your name on it!  Mine is on the other.

There are others, ready to pop leaves, but they haven't yet done so.  I'll PM you when they go dormant, and we'll figure out when I should ship bare-root or dormant.

Suzi

PS, I loved reading about your personal miracle!  God is very Good!!

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jpeg 2012-07-25_2.babies.jpg (90.60 KB, 25 views)


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Dan796

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Posted Reply with quote  #19 
Why thank you Suzi!
And God bless you!
After all the reading I've done on here,
it looks like I'm going to have to do the "fig shuffle"
Rather I like it or not! LOL
But, it will be worth it!
The guy came and gave me an estimate last night.
It will cost 3,000 dollars to have my tree professionally removed!
The neighbors are out there trying to cut some of it right now.
I better go check on them  "good ol' boys" to see if anyone needs an ambulance - yet!
 Thanks again Suzi !
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Dan~ WV zone 5-6
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ediblelandscapingsc

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Posted Reply with quote  #20 

Suzi did this plant end up a Caprifig or something good? I'd love to hear an update.
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DesertDance

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Posted Reply with quote  #21 
So far this tree bears no figs.  Maybe next year.

Suzi
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Zone 9b, Southern California. "First year they sleep, Second year they creep, Third year they leap!"  Wish List:  I wish all of you happy fig collecting!  My wishes have been fulfilled!
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