Encanto Farms Nursery > Categories > Fig Breeding

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bluesguy

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Posts: 81

I started my fig breeding program today. I took pollen from the fig pictured, which is called "Enderud--An edible caprifig with very good flavor from the Riverside, CA program. Named for Julius E. Enderud, one of the researchers. Carried on the UCR Davis inventory as 228-20." I have read elsewhere that it was one of the figs Condit favored when breeding for common figs.

The four plants I put the pollen into two figs each were Hardy Chicago(EL) and three local unknown varieties which have demonstrated hardiness here in Salt Lake. One is a white, one is a small black and the other is small bronze figs. Anyway, the pollen was put in today, and so it will be a while before I know what happens...

I thought everyone would enjoy the pictures of the edible caprifig. It was about 2 inches or slightly longer, and it had a good though crunchy taste. I think it has ripe seeds, and I might try to germinate them too, not sure what the chances are of common figs though from a selfing of a caprifig. Anyone else know?
Bass

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Posts: 2,428

Tom, what did you use to remove the pollen?
bluesguy

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Posts: 81

Just used the pollen that fell off when I tapped it over a piece of paper. I had three other figs besides the one pictured on the 2nd year cutting. I got about 1/8 of a teaspoon from the 4 figs together.
hoosierbanana

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Posts: 2,186

This is from WaynesWorld:

[quote]The following table shows all the possible crosses between homozygous (GA/GA) & heterozygous (GA/ga) male caprifigs with homozygous (ga/ga) female figs. Possible types of gametes from parents are indicated within brackets [ ], and the sex and genotypic ratio of progeny are shown in blue:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
                       
Seed Parents
                		                       
Pollen Parents
               
                       
Homo Caprifig (GA/GA)
[GA] only
                		                       
Hetero Caprifig (GA/ga)
[GA] and [ga]
               
                       
Homo Caprifig (GA/GA)
[GA] only
                		                       
All GA/GA Male
                		                       
1/2 GA/GA Male
1/2 GA/ga Male
               
                       
Hetero Caprifig (GA/ga)
[GA] and [ga]
                		                       
1/2 GA/GA Male
1/2 GA/ga Male
                		                       
1/4 GA/GA Male
1/2 GA/ga Male
1/4 ga/ga Female
               
                       
Female Fig (ga/ga)
[ga] only
                		                       
All GA/ga Male
                		                       
1/2 GA/ga Male *
1/2 ga/ga Female *
               

* = Most likely genotypic combination: Homozygous female tree x heterozygous caprifig.[/quote]

It looks like a quarter would be female. I am not sure they could have been pollinated though. Did the tree have the first crop, profichi? pollen needed to be transfered from a profichi to those mammes in order to make seeds because the female flowers are receptive before the male flowers have matured. If they are viable seeds then they could be clone or apomictic seeds. They should sink in water if they are viable.

I think it is great that you are doing this, you might end up with a great cold hardy fig and new edible caprifig varieties with better genetics for breeding more cold hardy figs.

Best of luck
bluesguy

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Posts: 81

Just thought I would check in with some pictures of the first pollinated fig to have ripened. It is a Hardy Chicago from EL in its second year in the ground. It has made maybe 40 fruits this year, and about 6 have ripened nicely with more in process.

These pictures are of the pollinated one and one I had left alone. The pollinated fig is the one with the longer more tapering neck before the stem. I washed the pulp and got about 50+ seeds that sank in the water. I didn't try washing the pulp from an unpollinated one, because I wanted to eat it instead so I don't know if it's seeds would have sunk or floated.

I haven't tried germinating them yet, I will wait and see if I get more seeds from other figs before I set that system up.

Thanks to all of you on this forum for inspiring me to learn more about these plants/fruit.
GregMartin

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Posts: 550

Hi Tom, did you have any luck with germination?