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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > What is a Black Jack?
 
 


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gorgi

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
So what is a (true) Black Jack?  I am with the impression that there are at least
two versions of it! The smaller (golf ball) size, and the bigger (tennis ball) size;
which I have. Is this another case of 2 different figs with the same name?
George (NJ).
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Bass

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
George,
I'm not sure that there was more than one. Check out this popular nursery, and their discription of it. I can't help but laugh when I look at their stupid images and discriptions.
http://www.tytyga.com/product/Jack%27s+Black+Fig+Trees
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gorgi

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
I have never dealt with Tyty. From  what I heard/read, it is rather an infamous
nursery, known for its false advertising and 'doctored' fig pictures. No, their BJ
does not qualify for such a name (apart from some !?!?)...
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Herman2

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
According to what i was learning,from other people that also studied the fig,Black Jack is a Sport of Black Mission.
It has the Flavor of Black Mission,but grows on a smaller dwarf fig,and the fruits are larger in size compared to Black Mission.
I can recognise Black Mission flavor tasting it with my eye closed,so If black Jack is a sport of it ,it should be easy to ID,by comparing the flavor to BM.
Any other Black Jack that do not have the specific flavor of B.M.,or taste like Brown Turkey,can't be ,a sport of B.M.,and therefore,can't be  a Black Jack.!!!!.
This is my H O.
So if someone has a Extra large fruited black fig,that has the flavor,of Black Mission,on a Dwarf tree,Please let us Know.
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Oxankle

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
I'd like to know something about Black Jack too, as it is one of the figs I had planned to get because of its large size and quality. 

As for TyTy, they have a large ad in the current Progressive Farmer, a duplicate of one of those ridiculous pictures on the internet.  I would have little confidence in anything ordered from them.
Ox
gwarring

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
The first summer my Black Jack was in the ground, I was in love with it. The fruits did seem like a larger version of a Black Mission fig (and I had a neighbors huge Black Mission tree to compare it with). My Black Jack grew rapidly into a 6 ft. high bush. The 2nd year (last year) it continued to grow into a much bigger (14'?) bush and produced a huge amount of mediocre fruit. It would have been difficult to tell it's fruit  apart from its brown Turkey neighbor, except that the figs from B.J. were much darker than the B. Turkey. I think the difference from year 1 to year 2 was stress. I gave it more fertilizer and more water last year and it turned into a big weed. Too much love.

I pruned it hard this spring, and may try to summer prune it in an attempt to limit next years growth. Don't know if that will work with it or not - it seems to want to be a big bush. Its getting less fertilizer, and if I get my irrigation system fixed, less water this summer. If it ever gets to a point where I can stop irrigation during the time the fruit is ripening my guess is that the figs will taste more like a Mission again. But I'm not sure I buy the sport theory.

hlyell

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
Good question George.

I have a third year BJ from Rolling River nursery in CA, and I have a similar sized but second year BJ from Willis nursery.  When the Willis tree arrived last fall it had a number of figs on it that had formed too late to ripen.  However, these figs were definitely shaped like a Mission fig and nothing like a BT.  I'm pretty sure I will have figs from the Willis tree this year.  I have not had figs yet from the RR tree but might have a few this year.  Hopefully I will so I can compare the two and also compare to what people have posted in this thread.

Henry
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