After Dennis’s snakebite experienced, I was wondering how people protected themselves from dangerous insects and spiders while gardening.

When potting up a tree, I usually first wash the spider nests from under the rim of the new pots that have been in storage and also from the inside. Today two black widow spiders washed out of two pots and were not happy campers as they ran off into the grass.

A teacher at a school where I worked had a Brown Recluse spider drop on her in her garage and bite her on her cheek. It left a wound that looked like a close range gunshot wound. She rushed to the ER and they were able to save her face and her life, but it left an ugly scar.

What safety practices do you follow, if any? 

Is Estella's Bebera Branca (from Point Loma , CA) different from Lampo’s Bebera Branca? Was anyone ever able to get cuttings from her trees after she passed? The new owners had removed Figo Preto. 

Thank you all for your help in ID-ing my Unknown fig tree.

Sas, Thanks for the pictures and flavor description. I thought I might be over critical and negative in my review but was trying to be honest. It was good to hear someone else’s opinion on their flavor. They aren’t that bad if they’re the only ripe fig around and you’re hungry. Some people’s descriptions of certain figs on the boards seem exaggerated, but I haven’t been eating figs for that long so could possibly be wrong.  

tennesseefig, I wonder why they call it Italian Honey? I have honey in my coffee every morning and for me honey has a very different flavor sweetness in contrast to Marsellles’s sweetness of white sugar. Pete’s Honey last year tasted more like honey.

This fig tree is a wonderful producer, almost continuous over the year, with figs of a smaller size than breba and main crop hanging on the tree after leaf fall through the winter. I thought it might be a Capri fig, but the birds finished off the fall crop within a week of ripening- I think in February.  I wasn’t eager to eat them myself, thinking little sleeping fig wasps might be inside.

Richie, I got a ladder and looked for some ripe breba with sugar spots but just found one shriveled up. I’ll spare you the picture. Perhaps some others will develop the spots. 

I picked my first eatable breba of the year today from my unknown fig tree. Could this fig tree be a Marseilles? Is anyone else getting ripe breba from their Marseilles now?
We discussed the ID of my unknown fig in a previous post: (http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/my-old-unknown-fig-tree-7420245?pid=1287624745

I’m growing a Marseilles EL and the ribbed breba, ripening time and leaves look very similar to my unknown fig tree. The unknown breba’s taste is moist, crunchy with a very bland, watered down white sugar taste like a soft drink diluted with melted ice where all the flavorings are missing except the white sugar. The main crop is similar in appearance and taste except sometimes it may be pink inside.

      
My first eatable breba from this morning.

 


My Marseilles EL tree with an almost ripe breba. 

There was some discussion that Abebereira was the same as Berbera, or Bebera Preta. You might have better luck finding it under that name. I bought a Berbera tree last year from Will's Figs. 

There are “5 fresh Abebereira tree Cuttings” for sale now on eBay but they are a little pricy. The other names and info on it are posted there as well: “Abebereira originates from Madeira Island, Portugal.  The mother tree in the U.S. resides in Point Loma , CA and has been grown since the 1950s by an older Portuguese lady.  A large purple/black fig that produces two crops per year in warmer climates.  During peak season, each fig can weigh over 100 grams.  This fig is also known as Bebereira & Bêbera Preta in Madeira Island, Portugal.”

I bought a Garnet Sash pomegranate a few years ago because information floating around the Internet said it was Parfianka renamed. Turned out it wasn’t. The fruit doesn’t even turn completely red when ripe and the flavor tastes about the same as store bought. It's beautiful in bloom now with brilliant orange flowers. Ed Laivo of Dave Wilson Nursery says it can be good, so perhaps it just needs time. I lost the tag on my other pomegranate tree, forget what it is. Both are bushes in fifteen gallon pots.  
Garnet Sash/Parfianka Mix Up: http://www.bobdunn.com/dunnbob/wordpress/2011/02/goodby-to-the-pomegranates/


 

1. A weeping sport of an Italian ****? Berry (?)(:28) large, purple brown
2. Unknown stock plant (?) with air layers (1:24)
3. Parese (?) White (1:44) popular among Italians
4. Black Mission (3:29)
5. Royal Vineyard (3:33)
6. Kadota (3:40) honey fig
7. ??? candy sweet –not honey (3:49)
8. Malta (4:24)
9. Petite Negri (5:41)

San Pedro near Long Beach CA was settled by Portuguese immigrants and is supposed to still have a large Portuguese community. Some friends of mine lived there for a few years and enjoyed the rich cultural diversity of the various immigrant groups attracted to the fishing industry around the Los Angeles Port area.

If you have “the wasp”, Zidi would also be a great choice for your area in addition to Panache. Mine is starting its second year and hasn’t fruited yet, but from a 2005 report, it’s a taste choice favorite (93%): very large, sweet, berry flavored, dense texture, thin skin, easy to peel.  http://figs4fun.com/links/figlink293.pdf

The “Giant Black Bursa” is one I’ve read good things about. It weighs in at 90-120 grams and is supposed to have the same delicious flavor as the famous Black Bursa fig from Turkey. The claim here with pictures is 235 gr.:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/jumbo-bursa-figs-235-gr-really-my-hand-in-the-photo-not-baby-hand-7034184?highlight=bursa&pid=1287599863

I was watching a cooking show on an Internet Indian TV channel and the cooks went shopping at a market in Bulgaria (I think). There were large apple sized figs there for sale that looked just like the ones in the pictures posted on this forum. 
This variety hasn’t been officially imported into the US yet but is sold privately and on eBay, which is closely monitored by "Big Brother", the US Agriculture police.   

Some notes I took from the boards say the taste of the fruit of BG is very similar to Strawberry Verte and Adriatic JH. Adriatic JH has a breba crop whereas SV and BG do not. AJH will ripen better in a cold climate and be good to eat before it is dead ripe, but the flavor of BG and SV are best at peak ripeness. BG can take the blistering heat of the desert better than other fig trees.

All three of those trees are vigorous growers for me. BG especially grows fast and has to be cut back more. The cuttings root easily. Here is a picture of some BG cuttings that fell behind some stuff and I didn’t find them for weeks, possibly months. If there was ever a tree that refuses to die, it's BG. 

   

I hope this info is helpful for you. I started out with such great luck last year with:

• Fresh cuttings dipped in Rootech rooting hormone. Dip and Grow 15x didn't seem to work at all.
• Top wrapped in Buddy tape
• Put directly into cups with 50/50 perilite/coir rooting medium
• Given bottom heat with a thermostat controlled heat mat
• Watering with bottled water

 Then around late March to April, nothing was rooting. Even a few rooted/sprouted cuttings had roots that turned brown and died. Everything was molding. I think the problem was:

• The Rootech hormone becomes toxic once it ages after being open a few weeks.  
• The cuttings were older, had been sitting somewhere for a while
• I didn’t pre-moisten the perilite/cour but watered it after the cutting was in the cup until water came out the bottom to flush it. The rooting medium then was too wet and compact.

This year I’ve experimented with the cuttings in moist paper towels and sphagnum moss boxes but found there was around 50% molding with some bought cuttings, even when treating the cuttings with: antibacterial soap, Physan 20, Oxidate 2.0, and/or 10% bleach, soaking in water. At least there is one cutting that roots out of two, except for a few varieties that seem hopeless. Fresh cuttings off my dormant trees still rooted at around 80-90%.

 I’m going back to what worked for me last year with the cuttings now showing green sprouts but no roots, except:

• Pre-watering the rooting medium until it’s just moist and lightly putting it around the cutting to avoid soil compression. Very light watering only when dry.
• Pre-treating all the cuttings with Physan 20.
• I lost the Buddy tape over the summer, so won't be using that.
• The Rootech gets thrown away after four weeks.
• The heating mat will only be used if a cup looks too wet for some reason and needs to dry.

Does the Smith fig have a umami taste to it? I have two Smith trees but they haven’t produced figs yet.

Ben B. has a video on YouTube called “Smith Fig” where he eats two Smith figs and describes the taste as “umami”.

I had never heard of “umami” and Googling came up with the info that:
“Umami (oo-Ma-mee) has joined sweet, sour, salty and bitter as an accepted taste.”
“Marmite turns out to be a rich source of what we now know as umami.”
http://tulsafood.com/uncategorized/umami-the-science-ingredients-cooking-with-the-fifth-taste/

 I tasted some Marmite I have in the fridge for cooking and it possibly could be a very subtle taste with some figs. Has anyone else noticed this? 

 I bought an O’Rourke from Petals from the Past last year because I was told on the fig forums it really was the Celeste Improved (Improved Celeste). This seems to be correct. The leaves emerging now are one lobed, three lobed, and a few with the three lobes with "thumbs" . The first year fruit were very good. I’m looking forward to more this year.

I also bought a Celeste Improved from Almost Eden. The leaf is different from the other CI and all the new leaves are three lobed with the top "thumbs". There are no one or three lobed leaves. It hasn’t fruited yet so I really can’t say what it is. 

All my trees are leafing out now so it's too late for cuttings.