I have a Zidi fig tree that I'm planning to prune soon.  I don't know how many cuttings I'll get from it, but rather than throw them away I'd prefer to send them to people who want to grow them and live where the wasp lives (California?). 

The tree has been in the ground for almost three years, and last fall set its first large crop of wonderful dark figs.  The tree was very vigorous for me, and has large attractive leaves that show no sign of FMV.  The figs are a little larger than the ones on my black mission tree, didn't split at all, and had a wonderful rich flavor.  I live in inland San Diego County, and it gets hot here during the summer and fall, so I can't say how zidi will do/taste in a cooler climate.

I've never offered cuttings before, so let me know if this is out of line, but I think I should charge $5 per cutting, plus $5 shipping.  I hope that'll keep me from getting more responses than I can handle.

PM me if you are interested

The Zidi is a dream fig...

PM sent...

Hi!  I sent you a PM right after you posted this.  Did you get it?

Please excuse my ignorance. I'm in an area that won't be seeing the blastophaga any time soon, so I have no experience with Smyrna figs at all. I've always been curious though...Assuming one is in a warm enough climate, how would you know if you have the wasp present to potentially pollinate your trees?

Could the wasp potentially survive in a closed greenhouse environment?

I'm also wondering....Has anyone every tried to manually pollinate Smyrna figs in the absence of a wasp? Fig growers can be pretty innovative people so it wouldn't surprise me if someones done this...

Thanks

What area of San Diego do you live in and how many figs dropped last year?? I just bought some Zidi cuttings from Harvey on a whim and was wondering what my chances were of getting a ripe fig from Zidi Thanks!

Zidi is killer. It's big too. Gotta get them before the ants.

Toronto Joe, everything you've said is possible.  The starting point for both is to get some caprifigs and grow them until they produce 3 crops on a regular basis.  Then you can take the pollen from the profichi crop and pollinate your figs by hand or create an environment that never goes below 32 degrees and have someone send you some wasps.

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/arbimg10.htm#lifecycle and down, plus lots of other pages on the site.  You can skim over the non carica Fici

 Maybe something came up with the OP,   several members have PM'd, and none have had a response.

If in the correct environment , it's a must to try and grow these delicious Smyrna figs.
Also great once dried - (just like any fig of similar type)

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/zidi-a-fig-to-remember-7020872?trail=50&highlight=zidi

Francisco
Portugal

To those who PM'ed me about getting zidi cuttings:

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.  I've been out of town - family emergency stuff, and I haven't had time to deal with the cuttings, or even the PMs.  I'll reply to your PM's with an email address for PayPal soon, and get the cuttings out soon after payment. 

I think I'll do some searching. Thanks!

I'm assuming they could be present in my family's areas around southern Italy but on my visits there I've never noticed anything that seemed to be a caprifig or noticed wasps

There has been posts on fig wasp in S. Italy.  Even in Sardinia and Switzerland.
Unless you are dissecting a capri fig at the right time you won't see them since they are really tiny.

Thanks Pino and Francesco.

Again - I'm not expecting to find any near me in Canada. I just find this interesting and educational.

If I was in a region that have the wasp and came across an unfamiliar fig tree, are there things I could look for to determine if the fig is Smyrna type? At first I thought that perhaps a large eye might indicate this but it seems many common figs have a large eye...so maybe not...

Around my family's immediate areas, there are three types of figs that are most common. All of them I know to be delicious so not caprifig. I assumed I would have seen a fig tree with fruit that they considered to be not good for eating...So I assumed no caprifig there. Of course it might be on the farm next door and I wouldn't know...

Thanks for all the great information.

As Francisco (with an "i"  :- )  said, if your family looks around their area now and sees a fig tree with fruit on it, that's a caprifig.

@TorontoJoe,

>If I was in a region that have the wasp and came across an unfamiliar fig tree, are there things I could look for to determine if the fig is Smyrna type? At first I thought that perhaps a large eye might indicate this but it seems many common figs have a large eye...so maybe not...

-------------------------------
By the time persistent and/or caducous figs are receptive, the synconia is small (approx. 10mm in diam) and the eyes are very 'tight' close...wasps have the means to lift the bracts and sneak in.
The only chance is by pollinating time, the chaser to notice any evidence that the tree is showing a few pollinating aids by means of strings/rosaries/collars/netbags of profichis with wasps,  hanging on various limbs...Some farmers may leave those aids on the trees and much later, even through the winter, being already completely dry/rotten this could be a tell tale of the type of tree you are looking at. On other areas with well established wasp colonies, farmers do not bother to interfere.. There are enough insects around to go after the receptive figs everywhere. So no particular evidence to help and identify the tree.

@rcantor

Bob,
Thank you for the 'translation' of my name

Francisco

Fascinating. Thank you!

I've got payment from those of you who wanted zidi cuttings.  I'll cut them and ship later this week.

Thanks!

I shipped cuttings last night to everyone (in the U.S.) who asked, so you should have them in two days, three if outside California.

I hope they all grow for you, and do well.