Thursday, January 24, 2019

My Top 8 Frankenfig - Fig Grafting

This winter I purchased a new grafting tool and I've been going nuts with it. Well this year I plan on grafting over unproductive varieties with more desirable varieties.


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Well instead of just grafting any old variety. I've decided. use varieties from my top 10 list from 2018.



Link to my Top 10 Figs



Luckily I have White Genoa with the perfect shape to add on 8 varieties.



From my list I grafted the following Varieties.


Some folks may question why I grafted at the tips instead of at the base. Well it's because not all grafts take and if one fails I'll have enough branch left over to create another graft on the same branch.

If I started at the base and it fails. That branch is gone forever.

1. Black Madeira KK
2. Golden Riverside
3. Vincenzo
4. Black Zadar
5. i258
6. White Madeira
7. Col De Dame Noir
8. Takoma Violet

I'll send updates on this tree this Summer.


4 comments:

  1. What is the brand and model name or # of your new grafting tool Ben? I presume you like it?
    Thanks!
    Keith K.

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  2. I havent given it the stamp of approval yet, we'll see how well the grafts will do. I think it's convenient and super easy but I do not know about durability yet, It also isn't strong enough to do hard wood. So I'm holding back my recommendation for the moment.

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  3. Hi Ben,
    This looks awesome! I cant wait to see how it turns out.
    I have a question that I thought you might have unique perspective on and I didn't see another place to post it.

    I have a friend who just bought a house.
    The house had a fig tree growing into the foundation that had to be removed.
    All I know about the tree is that the previous owner who had lived there since the 60's until he passed away (at age 98!) told his children to do anything but not cut the fig tree.
    I told my friend that we could root the cuttings and we have bagged up some the day after it was cut.

    My friend said it tasted really good (he ate one before they bought the property months back), but then revealed that it may have been his first fig he's eaten fresh, lol! He said it was either green or black or both, he remembers nothing.

    Given that I can take any cutting size for myself that I want, how big should is ideal? should I stick to 8-12" or do a 16" or even a 20" cutting? any input would be wonderful.

    Also I can ship you a dozen mystery cuttings if you like. Just let me know.
    I'm hoping it's something unique like the Igo fig that was found near here but will be pretty happy if it's just common and tasty. ;)

    Sorry for the loooong post.

    Kind regards,
    -Si

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  4. if you want some cuttings PM me on ourfigs, name is Figtron (finally set up an account)
    Or you can email me at emailforfigs@gmail.com
    Thanks for all you do for the community!

    ReplyDelete