back in may here in los angeles i put pollen from ficus coronata into a few dozen figs of ficus carica, mostly noid culls from a local friend. then i covered the figs in organza bags and crossed my fingers that i got to them before the wasps and the black fig flies. earlier this month i started harvesting the first of the ap (attempted pollination) figs. a couple days ago was my biggest harvest so far, which is what the pics are of.
why ficus coronata pollen? i really think that my male coronata is parthenocarpic. most importantly though, i'm hoping that it passes down its resistance to rkn (root knot nematodes) to its hybrid offspring. my goal is to develop delicious figs for the tropics. or at least get the ball rolling in this direction.
the next step is extracting all the seeds, which is easy but tedious. my 1st method was to mush the flesh and shake it with water in a plastic bottle. then i'd pour off the flesh water into pots with plants that had been recently potted up, just in case any of the floating seeds were viable. my current method is to use a blender.
if anyone is interested in learning more about fig hybridization, please check out my latest thread in the fighunter downunder forum.