Fig Culture: Edible Figs: Their Culture and Curing. Fig Culture in the Gulf States. — John Shaqi
Fig Culture: Edible Figs: Their Culture and Curing. Fig Culture in the Gulf States.Eisen, Gustavus A.
Science
Fig Culture: Edible Figs: Their Culture and Curing. Fig Culture in the Gulf States.
Eisen, Gustavus A.
Fig
SAN PEDRO, BLACK.—Very large, elongated ovate, with no stalk, but with
well set neck; skin smooth, violet black with green neck; pulp red,
coppery, tinted violet. For table use. The largest fig known. It is not
related to the following variety:
SAN PEDRO, WHITE (syn. _Brebas_).—Very large, round, flattened at apex;
stalk and neck short; eye open; skin thick, tender, of a bright yellow
color or greenish in the shade, without bloom; pulp amber. A remarkable
and handsome fig. Only the first crop matures without caprification.
Suited only for table use. Requires moist, rich soil.
VERDAL, ROUND.—Below medium, round pyriform, without stalk or neck; skin
smooth, waxy, bluish green; eye closed; pulp dark, blood red. A small
fig, but valuable for canning and preserves; better than the Ischias or
Celeste. It does well in the Santa Clara Valley, but is inferior in the
interior of the State.
CAPRIFICATION.
This process must be practiced wherever the Smyrna figs are grown, for
without it they will not mature either seeds or figs. The flowers of the
Smyrna figs are all pistillate and require pollination, which in the
case of these varieties can be effected on a large scale only through
caprification. The process consists in the suspension of wild caprifigs,
which possess staminate and gall flowers, in the Smyrna fig trees, when
the pistils in the blossoms of the latter are in a receptive condition.
A minute wasp, the _Blastophaga_, breeds in the caprifig in large
numbers, and on leaving it crawls into the Smyrna fig, covered with the
pollen of the caprifig. This pollen, transferred by contact from the
body of the wasp to the receptive stigmas of the flowers in the Smyrna
figs, effects the fertilization of the ovules of those flowers and
causes them to form seeds and mature the fruit of which they are a part.
These seeds impart a nutty aroma and flavor to the fig when dried, and
give it a marked superiority to our common figs. Caprification is not
yet practiced in the United States, the wasp not existing here, though
both it and some of the Smyrna figs have been brought to this country
several times. The first importation of Smyrna fig trees was made by
Gulian P. Rixford, about 1880, when three varieties of Smyrna figs and a
single caprifig tree were introduced.
CLIMATE SUITABLE FOR FIG CULTURE.
A native of a semitropical climate, the fig requires a similar climate
to attain perfection. Many horticultural varieties, however, have
originated in temperate regions, and these can be grown with profit in a
climate much colder than that of the habitat of the wild fig. Figs, in
fact, may be grown in all regions where peaches and apricots succeed
without protection, and if given winter protection they can be
profitably grown in such regions near large cities which furnish a
market for the fresh fruit at profitable prices.
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