Encanto Farms Nursery > Categories > Black Mission TJ

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greenfig

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In February 2013, out of curiosity, I tried to germinate some Black Mission seeds that I bought at a Trader Joe's (hence TJ).  3 seeds germinated and all grow happily! Please see 2 below.

They have been in the full SoCal sun since the day 1. For them, it either live or die, they must grow under the local sunny and dry conditions. 

I have no idea if they ever produce any fruit and what it is going to be (I hope at least black), but if they do, how long would it take?
2 years, 3?

ForeverFigs

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greenfig...probably by the third year your trees should be producing some nice figs...a lot of folks say they get decent figs the second year(I have had some in year two, but they didn't have much flavor)...as far as what type of figs you will get from seeds remains to be seen...they could revert back to some other unknown variety, and they may surprise you and be really good, but I've heard that is not always the case...hope the 'surprise' works in your favor...good luck. 

greenfig

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Thanks, Vince! I have no problem to wait for a "surprise" fig! In the worst case, it may be a pretty plant.

Grasa

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those look very nice! Someone told me that seed sprout turns into male figs, well, if that is the case, you can always graft another onto it.

greenfig

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Hmm, there are must be some females from time to time or otherwise figs would fail bird or animal propagation. But grafting works for me too! If I wait long enough, I may get something like this http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/figfig-bark-graft-6364290

twobrothersgarden

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Those look really good, hope you get some figs from them.

Herman2

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If you know for sure your fruits were Mission Black,then you will get
one third Common females,one third males,and one third female needing pollination,to ripe.

greenfig

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Herman,
"Black Mission" was written on the dry fig packaging at TJ so I assume they are Black Mission.

I also assume that your 1/3 rd quantities is a general probability of the outcome. i.e. if we would have 3000 seedlings then 
1000 approx. would be Common females (that's want we want), 1000 approx. of males, and 1000 approx. of pollination figs.

Since I have only 3 seedlings total, there is no way to tell what is there since the sample pool is too small.
They can be one of each or all 3 could be Common females (keep my fingers crossed).

Am I correct?

greenfig

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Here is a seed 5 months after it was germinated. This is one of the 2 you could see at the top.
It is 3.3 ft (1m) tall with the pot, with huge leaves, grows like weed.  
Should I trim it or just let it go? I think by the fall it is going to be 6 ft easily.

And that's in a small pot!! I can only imagine its size if planted in the ground!

rcantor

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I'd let it go for a while, even fertilize it and get some side shoots.  The bigger it gets this year the more likely you are to get figs next year.  Looks like it's ready for a 5-7 gal pot.  What soil do you have it in?

greenfig

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I had to repot it twice already. A black nursery pot #1 was full of roots. I was surprised to see how happy it was.
The soil now is 1/2 organic compost and 1/2 organic fast draining soil I got from a local nursery. I also added some lime to balance the pH.
So it has enough food there to reach the stars!

I was thinking about a 5 gal, maybe will do in a week or so.

rafed

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They look flawless!
I hope they fruit for you.

Good luck

greenfig

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[QUOTE=rafed]They look flawless!
I hope they fruit for you.

Good luck[/QUOTE]

Yes, thanks, that is THE question here! Will they fruit???? 
I hope the next year I will be sharing the cuttings :)

rafed

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If it's meant to be they will.
If not, then you tried and no one can take that away from you.

Best of luck with them and please keep us informed.

greenfig

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Thank, Rafed, for your kind words!
I hope the figs can sense them too and won't let me down!

cis4elk

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Good work, looking great!

greenfig

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Here is a fall update on my Black Mission seedlings, they are 10 months old now and going dormant. Curiously enough, one has some beautiful yellow leaves and the other one is still green. The yellow-leaf fig has quite a few embryos so I might see either a lot of figs or new branches next year!
As you can see, they have grown tremendously. I would say they gained more in size since Feb. staring from a seed than my figs from cuttings.
The roots of a yellow tree grow through the pot's holes, it is a 3 or so gal pot.

bullet08

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that's a nice progress. i might have to look into playing with seeds.

aphahn

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Very nice. Did you do any pruning, or did they grow as a single trunk on their own?

greenfig

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No pruning, I let the Nature do the work so they are a single trunk trees. I pruned the 3rd one (not pictured) at about half height of the yellow and it started 2 new branches. It may develop a nice shape.

aphahn

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Interesting, I remember reading a paper at one point that talked about forcing seedling trees to grow as a single trunk (during a long season) so they would fruit the second year. Sounds like there might not always be much forcing involved.

I can't wait to hear about how the fruit turns out.

greenfig

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Thanks, Andy. I started about 50 different seedlings this year (about 3 months ago) and they all grow as single trunk trees. They are between 2 and 5 inches tall. I will take photos and start a new thread to show them.
I was going to offer the leftovers to people but we had a strong wind and my seedling trays were thrown upside down so l lost the track of the seedling origins :(

If you or Pete want any, I can ship but I cannot tell which is which. I only can tell that it maybe one of the following: Panachee, Black Lebanese, VdB. They are about 2" tall.
I've got about 10 bunches of them, 5-7 seedlings in each..

aliok1

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Tohumdan yetiştirilen incirler yarı yarıya erkek yada dişi incir olur.Umarım biliyorsunuzdur...

aliok1

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Figs grown from seed figs in half would be male or female.Hopefully you know ...

greenfig

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Not 50% /50%. The ratio is much worse if you want to get an edible fig.

aliok1

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İncirin çekirdekten üretilmesine ender durumlarda başvurulur. Bu masraflı ve külfetli, ancak hastalıklara dayanıklı anaçlar elde etmek için veya incir ıslahında yeni çeşitler bulmak için yararlanılır. Aslında incirin genetik yapısı  heterezigot olduğundan, çekirdekten yetişen ağaçların meyveleri ana ağaca benzemez ve çoğu yabani tipte olur. Bu sebeple bunları anaç olarak kullanmak ve üzerlerine standart çeşitleri aşılamak gereklidir.

aliok1

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from the nucleus to produce figs are referenced in rare cases. This costly and burdensome, but to obtain disease-resistant rootstocks or figs are used to find in breeding new varieties. In fact, the fig is heterozygous genetic structure, fruit of the trees of the main tree that grows from the core and most of the wild-type would not like. For this reason, use them as rootstocks and varieties thumbnail to instill standards is required.

greenfig

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Agree, it might be best to use the seed-grown fig for the rootstocks but it is a pure fun to see it growing from a tiny seed to a 6 ft tall tree.
I am determined to wait until the next year to see what would show up!

Jerry_M

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How are the seedling trees doing?