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Subject: Looking for an ID confirmation Replies: 6
Posted By: Posturedoc Views: 411
 
Two years ago a fellow forum member sent me a small fig start out of Gene Hosey's collection (cuttings originally taken right from Gene's old townhouse garden). He had it identified as Scott's Black, but I'm thinking the color is just a tad off for that. After studying Gene's old East Coast Figs website (shout out to Harvey for pulling these files off of the Way Back Machine) I narrowed the list to 15 or so possibilities. On search number three I think I got the proper ID, but I'm throwing it out to the forum for your opinions.

The fig was very sweet with little complexity and no seed crunch at all, a honey fig in my experience. I gave it an 8/10, and I'm definitely a complex fig lover. It could have remained on the tree another day, maybe two, though it might have been too sweet for me by then.

The two leaf shapes are equally distributed on the tree, with one trunk having almost all three lobed leaves and the other the three plus large thumbs.

I think it's Panevino White. What think the rest of you?

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Subject: Question about Encanto Farms Excell Replies: 6
Posted By: Posturedoc Views: 664
 
Jon, I just ran across this post from a 2007 thread about Hollier:

Posted 01/05/08 #18 
gorgi,

That is what is so frustrating, sometimes. Did you screw up (mislabel, swap cuttings, mix up tags, etc? Did the person sending the wood to you screw up (mislabeled, from wrong tree, mixed up wood), or did the person your donor got their wood from screw up? And so on, for the past 100 years, or more. Or were the descriptions made by someone who screwed up somewhere, or always had the wrong wood with the "right" name? That is the point of all the pictures I take. Whether correctly labeled or not, I KNOW what it looks like - and hopefully someone comes along at some point and says "this doesn't look right" or "it doesn't look like my so-and-so". And then there is the whole cultural/environmental affect that makes them look different in different places.

My Excel definitely doesn't look like the one at USDA/UC Davis - so I guess I collect some more excel cutting, and try to determine which one is the "real deal". The one I have is still a great fig, but I wonder if it is really "Excel".
__________________
While this may be common knowledge to others, I was unaware that your Excell, accession 2305, was different than UCD's Excell. When it fruited for me for the first time last year the fruits did not resemble what I'd read about Excell and I wondered if I had mislabeled my cuttings or otherwise screwed some things up. I also have a labeled Vista Mission that came as cuttings from you the same year as the Excell that resembles Excell 2305 - I am now sure I managed to mislabel that one, all due to a nasty windstorm a few years ago that blew plants out of pots, scattered many labels and disappeared others, leading to some confusion for somebody who did not then have a properly generated list of his figs. Anyway, thanks to that post I now understand the mystery of my Excell. The doubly good news is that I picked up cuttings of Excell from a CRFG exchange in January that I expect is the UCD variety - the leaves seem a better match for that Excell at this point in their young lives.

Now that I've digressed for a period, I can get to my question: Have you or anybody else ID's Excell 2305 as another variety at this point? I expect not, as it still appears in the F4F Varieties pages, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Subject: Top 10 figs Replies: 10
Posted By: Posturedoc Views: 1,484
 
This isn't your normal top 10 list. Over on the F4F Cuttings thread the following question was posed to Jon. I though it deserved its own thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by drivewayfarmer
Jon ,
Do you have a top ten list of figs that "just don't get no respect"
That is the excellent ones that get passed over for the hot rare thing ?
Ones that make you say , "I can't believe these haven't been snapped up already" ?


I have 22 different figs, not all of which have fruited for me yet, so I'm not in a position to come up with 10 varieties and anyway, I doubt I'm qualified enough to develop a dissed fig list, though commonality and the breadth of distribution among us fig collectors will probably be the biggest single factor in which figs make such a list. All the same, here are a few names from my own varieties that may have a shot to make that list.

Hardy Chicago - Last season's HC's were among my top two for taste.
Lattarula/Italian Honey - Consistently productive, nutty, sweet and juicy for me
Brunswick/Magnolia - Large and figgy, but not too sweet for me
Celeste - Small sugar bombs of goodness.

My single favorite fig is VDB - though my first two not-quite-ripe fruits from Cole de Dame (UCD collection) suggest I'll be crowning a new king if I can get them to ripen fully - and judging from the number of posters here who have it, it's pretty common at this point. However, just naming it likely still causes those collectors without one to swoon with the the thought of adding it to their collections, so I can't add it to my list.

 

Subject: In ground trees not producing fruit Replies: 4
Posted By: Posturedoc Views: 837
 
Last June I planted in ground in a very sunny spot a Brown Turkey and what I believe to be a Lattarula (I got two of these from Paradise Nursery as "Mystery Figs" before they closed shop. They matched the description of Lattarula when they fruited for me, though I recall Herman suggesting those trees were Italian Golden Honey or something to that effect in a thread last year. I digress. I'll try to anticipate as many questions as possible, so my explanation/question may get lengthy.

The trees were likely in their fourth leaf when I planted them in soil that is likely low fertility with good drainage. I top dressed them with a couple of inches of compost at planting and again at leaf drop just before I covered them. They handled winter after being covered with the burlap/tar paper/ leaf method with a little tip dieback and have absolutely flourished this year grown as bushes. The BT is probably 3'x3' and the Lattarula slightly smaller. The BT was late producing main crop figs, putting them out beginning a month ago and still doing so now. There are many. The Lattarula has no fruit as I type this. Interestingly, the sister plant, which I kept potted and root pruned hard in late winter also has no fruit though the remainder of my older potted trees, several of which I also root pruned hard, have fruited, though I think at a later date than in the past couple of years.

The area I live in, Reno, NV, is listed Z5/6, depending on your microclimate) had an unusually cool and wet three week stretch in June that must certainly have affected growth of the trees. Other than that, it's been hot as blazes and dry as a bone for most of the summer to this date - normal for Reno. I have not fertilized the in ground trees at all other than the compost addition described above and water them deeply every week or two. Both trees have produced every year I've had them. Though I usually have had brebas in addition to main crop figs, I had no brebas this season, which I attributed to their first winter outdoors. I also, following the Herman Method, pinched out growth of many - not all, but I did pinch all of the fastest growers - of the branches four to six weeks ago, though mostly on the BT, since it grew faster than the Lattarula.

Perhaps the vegetative growth is too rank and that has affected fig production. I will post a couple of pictures tomorrow or Wednesday if I remember to take them, so others can offer critiques/advice after visual inspection. I suppose it could all be due to the weird stretch of cool late spring weather, but that didn't seem to slow their growth much outside of possibly delaying actual fig production. What say you of greater experience?

Neil