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Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 24, 2023 4:45:02 GMT -6
I've been growing two varieties of figs for the past couple of decades; 'Brown Turkey' and 'Black Mission'. The later was a favorite of both Diane and I. Of course the fruits are a dark purple.
For some reason I regularly propagated (and still do) the 'Black Mission' from cuttings, which I've shared with family and friends. I even sold a few on eBay. I received my start of 'Black Mission' by trading a carnivorous plant for it. At the time I wasn't too keen on the deal, but once the plant began producing - I was sold.
The 'Brown Turkey' rarely produced fruit, and has recently collapsed and died.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Jan 26, 2023 10:54:11 GMT -6
Does anyone else grow figs? Is it possible, where you are?
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Post by macmex on Jan 26, 2023 11:00:00 GMT -6
Dorothy Bowen (Mulberryknob over on Gardenweb) used to have fig trees in Stilwell, about 45 minutes from me. She and her husband Glen maintained a wonderful garden and small orchard until they moved out West to live with family. They had figs which produced almost every year. I got a start from them, twice. Both times they died inside of a year. Both times it was the cold that got them, even when I protected them. One of these days I may try again, though I know not to try in my main garden. That's simply too exposed.
Growing up in NJ we had two really large fig trees which we kept for many years. Dad had us boys help him in late fall to ball the roots and lay them down in a trench to overwinter. They produced wonderfully.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 1, 2023 20:55:49 GMT -6
Most fruits, and other plants commonly reproduced vegetatively, do not come true from seed. Even saying that, can be misleading, since most of these plants are quite heterozygous - which boils down to being very genetically unstable when sexual (seed) reproduction is involved. Which made me smile and chuckle when I saw seed for Fig 'Black Mission' being offered on eBay. It's quite likely the seed did come from that cultivar, but it isn't very likely to even resemble the parent or even be edible, for that matter. An exception to this are some plants that can produce seed by apomixis via agamospermy. Dandelion produce much of their seed this way and some citrus can do it also - if you find a seed in a navel orange it was likely produced this way. Plants grown from these seed are basically clones of the mother plant.
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Post by community gardener on Mar 2, 2023 10:07:28 GMT -6
I just received some fig cuttings, me and the kids are super excited to see if they take root. I remember we had a fig tree in our yard as a child, so I am excited to see if we can grow our own. I received a chicago hardy, vista, panache tiger and hilda's honey green. I may get some different varieties later to see what does the best in zone 7a. Wish me luck!
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Post by macmex on Mar 2, 2023 11:29:34 GMT -6
Tucson, thanks for all the great info!
Community Gardener, I know I used to root fig either by sticking the cuttings (long cuttings) as far into the soil as I could and letting them root, in early spring. Or else rooting in a pot with damp sand and a plastic bag over the top, to conserve moisture. One would remove the plastic when the cuttings budded out.
One of these days... I'm going to try again. We love figs.
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