Tag Archives: Figs

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Cutting Success and Unknown Figs

About 3 months ago I planted the cuttings that I had taken from both plants last fall. They had spent the winter in a ziplock back in the veggie tray of the fridge. They went into moist soil with no rooting hormone, heat or anything. They cups were kept in the milk crates and left in the shade. The past month or so they have been eased into the sun where they are now getting about 5 hours a day. Every one of them rooted. Not a single loss. I’ve been slowly finding homes for them. I really didn’t expect to end up with so many making it but am glad they did. Now to find them some homes.
figs_2

A coup of years ago I purchased what were supposed to be 2 Brown Turkey Figs from two different suppliers, one local and one via the Internet. Looking at the fruit below it appears that at least one is mislabeled.

figs_1

I’ve scoured the net and I’ve seen photos of brown turkey figs that appear quite dark and others that appear lighter. The green fruit above will end up with more color than it has now (green/brown/gold) while the darker of the two will get quite purple and be much smaller. The mature leaves are a bit different too. The purple variety has more angular leaves while the green variety has more rounded leaves. Anyone have any ideas?

Getting Back Into It

Another year has come and the decision on whether or not to have a garden this year was one I pondered for the first time in a long time. As evidenced by the dearth of posts from the latter part of last season, my free time has been drastically curtailed. I’ve decided to cut back a bit this year focusing mainly on the existing fruit and some tomatoes, eggplant and perhaps some beans if I am feeling particular daring.

A couple of weekends ago I took a ziplock bag of some Brown Turkey fig cuttings out of the crisper that I had cut last fall. Half of these I treated with dip n grow and placed in cups of vermiculite in my cutting bench and turned the bulbs on. Half of these were covered with the tops of soda bottles sans the lids. I just checked on them and a couple under the covers are working on some small leaves and others have green buds. I’m sure there are no roots yet. The ‘soil’ temp is right around 72-75F

Today I took some cuttings of the female arctic kiwi that I purchased last year. She needed a trim and I got about 9 5″ cuttings that I treated like the figs above. The stems weren’t as large as I would have liked but I thought what the heck. I have no experience propagating either figs or kiwi so I don’t have a clue how this will turn out.

Last night I purchased some tomato seed. 5 varieties in all. Two of these I grow every year (Big Beef and Celebrity). I decided to try Jetsetter and two smaller varieties, Florida Petite and Florida Basket. All were purchased from Tomato Growers Supply. I’ve ordered from them before and have never been disappointed either with their selection or their seed. I and a fellow gardener at work have been asked to give a talk on gardening later this spring. Since many of the staff live in nearby condos I thought I would try the two cherry varieties as Fl. Petite boasts of growing in a 4″ pot and the 40 day to harvest I couldn’t pass up. Fl. Basket is supposed to work well in hanging baskets. I should have time to get these planted and some good sized transplants ready for our talk. The Jetsetter is an indeterminate variety that sounded promising with its disease resistance. Stay tuned.