Paul, Bob, Mariann, and a few others ---- you guys understand what an application like C++ or Java and a backend database can do.  Boy if we got together...Look out world!!!  HA!  I am a System Architect.  My area of expertise is databases.  Mostly, Sql Server, MySQL, Oracle, SYBASE, and unfortunately MS Access.  It is my life.  I'm also involved in data migration also known as ETL (extract, transform, Load) of data from any source to a target.  I'm also involved in the business intelligence side of the data as well using Reporting services and designing data cubes for our business users.

This database software idea for me started when my local nursery told me the only figs that grows in the Charlotte area was the Brown Turkey.  I asked her what other figs does she carry and she said only the Brown Turkey.  I asked her why and she said she has a huge mother tree at her residence and its been there for over 20 yrs without any winter protection.  When I told her she was wrong and showed her pictures of my fig trees in my orchard...she shut up.  I ask her why lie to people and she said she only knew of the Brown Turkey so that's what she sells.  I told her my job is now to educate the Charlotte community of the hunderds of different fig varieties out there.  She said, good!  We all can learn.  Since then, the NC Dept of Arg have reached out to be for information on figs.  Some of them have even purchased fig trees from me.  They said they were excited to learn about a person in our area that's very passionate about figs.

Years ago I had 2 large Black Maderia fig trees.  Both fruited and gave me some awesome figs.  But one day, both dried up and died on the same day.  I was so upset but had no facts on the trees.  That puzzled me.  Today, I keep better notes about my figs so that this sudden death doesn't happen again.  

I'm a "fact--result" type person.  Must be the military in me (retired Air Force Major)!  I want to capture alot of data on my figs over time.  Again, everybody's data needs are different.  For me, my goal is to see how my trees are performing growthwise and fruit production over time using certain fertilizers and potting techniques for my zone.  I will be sending this data to UCD and NC Arg later this Fall.  In other words, I am building a data warehouse just for figs.
 I have over 200 varities of figs and pretty close to 1000 trees now.  Some of my trees are in shade and some are in full sun and some in partical sun.  If I have 3 trees in each of these areas.  I want to see how they perform with the same fertilizer or no fertilizer or more water or less water etc.  I have some in SWPs and some in the ground.  I want to track their growth and fruit production and taste.  A database can hold a lot of data including pictures of my trees.  I can even export a slice of data and export it to Excel and Power Pivot, I can see different views of the data about each fig.  And use Power View to present it in a presentation format.  I can create all kinds of data reports.  For instance, I can show:   2013 Growth by Date, 2013 Growth by certain fertilizer, 2013 fruit production, 2013 ripening date by zone, etc, etc.  This is a good decision support system.  The list is endless!  Without it, I would be guessing in everything I do to my trees.  The public community can easily get confused when they read one nursery tips and then another.  What I've learned is most nurseries get these facts from Dave Wilson or Monrovia and they just paste these on their web site.  At least with my data, I know its true to my climate and shows the results of my actions.

HOW BOUT THOSE FIGS!!!!!!!!