Profichi Crop in Hot Climates

A

aalwatani

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I have acquired a couple of caprifigs (Yanonali aka GxY, Girsch, and 2 seedlings) over the past two seasons with the hope of hand-pollinating my figs. From the beginning, I’ve been wondering if it’s even possible for the profichi crop to set and ripen, given that the trees where I live never go dormant due to the mild winters. The lowest temperature we experience is around 8ºC (46ºF).

I am also only aware of one variety that sets brebas (called Spanish Green). Does this mean the profichi is unlikely to set since it’s the breba equivalent? Is there any published information or evidence indicating that caprifigs do not require low temperatures or dormancy to produce the profichi crop?
 
This is a good question. Not sure if I can truly answer it. But I will try. So far I have came across only a couple people whose trees would not produce profichi. These people live in very tropical areas. The fact that you do have a variety that does produce breba. That makes me think your Capri will produce profichi. As for the people in the very tropical areas. I did mention an idea to them. Not sure if any tried it yet. So not sure if it will work. But I told them to make a "cold house" for them. Basically a insulated shed with a A/C unit to force the trees to go dormant.
 
GoodFriendMike said:
This is a good question. Not sure if I can truly answer it. But I will try. So far I have came across only a couple people whose trees would not produce profichi. These people live in very tropical areas. The fact that you do have a variety that does produce breba. That makes me think your Capri will produce profichi. As for the people in the very tropical areas. I did mention an idea to them. Not sure if any tried it yet. So not sure if it will work. But I told them to make a "cold house" for them. Basically a insulated shed with a A/C unit to force the trees to go dormant.
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Thank you for the input Mike, that was my logic as well. I hope it works and I will try to get a couple of tested and known persistent caprifigs in the future to add to my collection and increase my chances of getting profichi.

A while back, I have seen a video on Youtube showing success in growing Apple trees in Florida. I did not watch the whole video, but I will try to find it and share it here. Surely the technique would apply for fig tree dormancy.
 
From what I see here with our Mediterranean type climate, some figs retain all leaves, some a few and some lose all , but the crops continue. Figs seem to only go dormant if they need to and I don't believe it impacts on any crops. I had several trees here that retained figs over last winter to ripen in spring, and the same this year. With Caprifigs, the Mamme is the overwinter crop, as long as that is retained, and the trees put out overlapping crops, the cycle will continue with wasps, so I see no issue at all.
 
This is an interesting topic indeed. I discussed the matter with Pierre Baud last year, and he consulted a world expert on Blastophaga psenes, Finn Kjellberg. His answer was basically that caprifig plants would not produce profichi in tropical climates, since they require a chill period before they can do so, in the same way as brebas do. (As far as I remember, Finn speculated that the cold period causes a hormone change in the plant which in turn gives rise to a different type of syconium.) If this is correct, there would never be a future for the Blastophaga in the tropics under natural conditions. However, figs are full of surprises, so I decided to test all this by arranging for a large selection of caprifigs to be grown in the tropics to see whether any of them produce profichi. This experiment is ongoing.
 
This is true, in the tropics, Profichi are rarely seen, and for that reason, they look for a Mammoni crop that produces pollen. There are 2 topics here now, there is hot, and there is tropical, both I believe are not the same?
 
I have actually discussed constructing a well-insulated 'cold shed' with some growers in Thailand - especially as it should be possible to build one using solar power. However, they said it would be expensive to build (for some reason solar panels are relatively expensive there). I still believe it would be a worthwhile project though, if only to produce a small amount of pollen for use in hand pollination. Establishment of a fig colony in the tropics would otherwise seem to be out of the question though, unless against the odds one of the caprifigs does produce profichi.
 
Depending on the climate, wasps may survive happily in just Mamme and Mammoni, unless it has been trialled already, and known to fail? I believe Roeding made the comment that wasps should survive in Hawaii, the Philippines and elsewhere, but I have never read that it has been tested.
 
Rob said:
Depending on the climate, wasps may survive happily in just Mamme and Mammoni, unless it has been trialled already, and known to fail? I believe Roeding made the comment that wasps should survive in Hawaii, the Philippines and elsewhere, but I have never read that it has been tested.
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I don't see why they could not survive. Seems all they need is another fig to enter and lay eggs in on the Caprifig tree. As long as the Capri has figs. It can support the wasp.
 
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