Fig seedling community project

Bofig

Bofig

Well-known member
Ok so these guys are certainly taking off and I’ll do my best to document them on here or my YouTube. I’m thinking of letting them grow in bigger containers until they harden up a bit and separate this spring into 3” square pots. At that time I want to share the excessive amounts. I just hope these do well over the next few months with some hitting the 4-5 true leaves already

I know millennial gardener and others have done some experimenting on YouTube but what I want to do different is spread some seedlings out in the community for something dirt cheap so my supply and shipping cost is covered. There is hundreds of seedlings and I can’t see myself growing them all alone. Let it be called a community breeding project. As a whole the experiment will be a beneficial to all fig growers.

You can name it whatever you want if it ripens figs lol. I think my only restriction would be don’t sell for stupid excessive amounts but anything good isn’t completely free so there won’t be a complete sales ban.

Give me your thoughts and others doing the same seedling mess I would have no qualms hijacking my thread to share your work as well 😂IMG_0855.jpeg
 
Brace yourself for an ignorant newbie question: So these seeds come from figs you have pollinated? An they won't have characteristics identical to the parents? But they could be better, or similar, or worse than the parents?
 
ohiobruce said:
Brace yourself for an ignorant newbie question: So these seeds come from figs you have pollinated? A they won't have characteristics identical to the parents? But they could be better, or similar, or worse than the parents?
Click to expand...
Yep all my own seeds and pollen from my own capris. It’s a crapshoot on genetics with I’d say 30-60% of being a delicious fig, could be higher or lower but that’s the goal is using the size of our community to find out the real chances of getting a good new variety.
 
ohiobruce said:
Brace yourself for an ignorant newbie question: So these seeds come from figs you have pollinated? An they won't have characteristics identical to the parents? But they could be better, or similar, or worse than the parents?
Click to expand...
Yes, the seeds come from figs that were pollinated. Because they’re seedlings, they will not be identical to the parent. Each one is genetically unique. They can turn out better, similar, or worse than the parents—but statistically, most won’t be exceptional.

The chance of getting a common fig from seed is roughly 20%, and the odds of getting a truly good one are much slimmer. Think of it like this: if Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, or Muhammad Ali had offspring, what are the chances any of them would actually be better than their parent? It can happen—but it’s rare.
 
Bofig said:
Ok so these guys are certainly taking off and I’ll do my best to document them on here or my YouTube. I’m thinking of letting them grow in bigger containers until they harden up a bit and separate this spring into 3” square pots. At that time I want to share the excessive amounts. I just hope these do well over the next few months with some hitting the 4-5 true leaves already

I know millennial gardener and others have done some experimenting on YouTube but what I want to do different is spread some seedlings out in the community for something dirt cheap so my supply and shipping cost is covered. There is hundreds of seedlings and I can’t see myself growing them all alone. Let it be called a community breeding project. As a whole the experiment will be a beneficial to all fig growers.

You can name it whatever you want if it ripens figs lol. I think my only restriction would be don’t sell for stupid excessive amounts but anything good isn’t completely free so there won’t be a complete sales ban.

Give me your thoughts and others doing the same seedling mess I would have no qualms hijacking my thread to share your work as well 😂View attachment 16920
Click to expand...
Those are so cute!
 
Topfigs said:
Yes, the seeds come from figs that were pollinated. Because they’re seedlings, they will not be identical to the parent. Each one is genetically unique. They can turn out better, similar, or worse than the parents—but statistically, most won’t be exceptional.

The chance of getting a common fig from seed is roughly 20%, and the odds of getting a truly good one are much slimmer. Think of it like this: if Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, or Muhammad Ali had offspring, what are the chances any of them would actually be better than their parent? It can happen—but it’s rare.
Click to expand...
Chance of common female is 25% and a persistent male is 25%. The persistent gene is dominant but egg lethal so can only be passed on by the male tree. What I’ve found in the fruit world is yeah it may be low odds to have something exceptional above the parents but at the same time the fruits end up somewhere in between the parents for quality almost exclusively.

One thing that has led to this false idea of hard to find something good was the use of crab apple pollinators and saving seeds from commercial apples. If you’re using two good parents then the chances of bad figs from seed would be almost zero. When commercial breeding states the hard to find something good they mean it is hard to find something good that is different from something already out there.

My goal in breeding is to find some better male figs as much as good females, this will be very helpful with how many are into hand pollinating now. Many of these new figs coming from waspland are almost identical to something already out there but we still drop hundreds every year acquiring the newest fad. Maybe this seedling project can have lots of members grow, test, and release the hottest new figs each year.

Lastly I would encourage anyone who hasn’t to watch some millennial gardener videos on the subject. It seemed as though he had unexpectedly high odds for common females and also had lots of them tasting quite good. This made me feel like while not every fig will be a superstar, they could still be the next workhorse variety we all need.
 
You can quickly wind up with more fertilized seeds and seedlings than you know what to do with. I crossed Enderub with Panache, VdB, HC, Marseilles just to taste the caprified figs. Saved hundreds of seeds. Only growing out a few Panache and VdB crosses. I think bud grafting to a young tree might be a good way to grow them out.
 
Since the pollen is mixed it puts a damper on a true breeding project. But it would be interesting to see what everyone gets. I do believe you have more than a 25% chance of getting a good fig. Most past studies only bred for certain things. Many for a shelf life and ability to transport. Others trying to get a fig that tasted like Sari Lop but did not need the wasp. Which of course was a complete failure. I will be keeping a close eye out for everyone's progress. So please post it here. :)
 
Bofig said:
Chance of common female is 25% and a persistent male is 25%. The persistent gene is dominant but egg lethal so can only be passed on by the male tree. What I’ve found in the fruit world is yeah it may be low odds to have something exceptional above the parents but at the same time the fruits end up somewhere in between the parents for quality almost exclusively.

One thing that has led to this false idea of hard to find something good was the use of crab apple pollinators and saving seeds from commercial apples. If you’re using two good parents then the chances of bad figs from seed would be almost zero. When commercial breeding states the hard to find something good they mean it is hard to find something good that is different from something already out there.

My goal in breeding is to find some better male figs as much as good females, this will be very helpful with how many are into hand pollinating now. Many of these new figs coming from waspland are almost identical to something already out there but we still drop hundreds every year acquiring the newest fad. Maybe this seedling project can have lots of members grow, test, and release the hottest new figs each year.

Lastly I would encourage anyone who hasn’t to watch some millennial gardener videos on the subject. It seemed as though he had unexpectedly high odds for common females and also had lots of them tasting quite good. This made me feel like while not every fig will be a superstar, they could still be the next workhorse variety we all need.
Click to expand...
I’ve been looking for away to get my daughter to spend some more time in the greenhouse, if I get four from you and name them after the Hogwarts houses I think I might have a chance🤞🏼
 
Thanks for the explanation. Sounds like the pawpaw world. A lot of us buy seeds from orchards that grow known cultivars and then see what we get. I have a few trees from those seeds, but it will take a few more years to see what I have.

The shorter time to payoff with figs would make it more interesting to me.
 
Bofig said:
Ok so these guys are certainly taking off and I’ll do my best to document them on here or my YouTube. I’m thinking of letting them grow in bigger containers until they harden up a bit and separate this spring into 3” square pots. At that time I want to share the excessive amounts. I just hope these do well over the next few months with some hitting the 4-5 true leaves already

I know millennial gardener and others have done some experimenting on YouTube but what I want to do different is spread some seedlings out in the community for something dirt cheap so my supply and shipping cost is covered. There is hundreds of seedlings and I can’t see myself growing them all alone. Let it be called a community breeding project. As a whole the experiment will be a beneficial to all fig growers.

You can name it whatever you want if it ripens figs lol. I think my only restriction would be don’t sell for stupid excessive amounts but anything good isn’t completely free so there won’t be a complete sales ban.

Give me your thoughts and others doing the same seedling mess I would have no qualms hijacking my thread to share your work as well 😂View attachment 16920
Click to expand...
Dude this is amazing. If this is in spring count me in, i tried seeds and failed, do you have the crosses written down? Did you use persistent capris? Do you beleive millenial that most become common because of self aborting? From what ive read this is why lsu used the caprifigs they did because they were known to produce common females? I could be totally wrong but seems it worked for millenial. i have a pretty ridiculous indoor setup/small cold frame greenhouse/and can test hardiness once it gets to that point in zone 6b. This is amazing.
 
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