Figs grown from seed?

Too long, didn't read: Has anybody outside of the fig wasp's range grown fig fruit from seedlings?

I have a hard time finding information about fruit genetics, especially with figs and apples. These subjects are popularly misunderstood in my belief because of click bait articles and old wives tales.

I just bought dried figs from the store, not imported. I've seen many people in fig groups on Facebook having success germinating seeds from grocery store purchased dried figs. However, I'm not seeing many people growing fruit from these trees. As I understand, they usually take 7+ years to produce fruit from seed.

I purchased "Mission" figs, and I think it is fair to assume that these are of the "black mission" variety, which, according to the usually correct Wikipedia, is a "Persistent (or common) fig - that [does] not need pollination for fruiting." The problem that I have with this statement is that this sub-category of figs are refereed to as "common figs", which is also the species name. The other 2 types of edible figs, according to Wikipedia, are Caducous (or Smyrna) and Intermediate (or San Pedro). According to a quick google search, all 3 of these types of figs are Ficus carica, otherwise known as the "Common fig". Being that they are of the same species, they can breed with each other, and produce what type of fig? Will Persistent figs produce Persistent seedling figs if they are pollinated by themselves? What if, since they are all apparently the same species, the seeds are crosses? Do they always take the type of one of their parents? Kind of confusing in my opinion.

This confusion makes me concerned about the pollination and sex of the future seedlings. From what I understand, some fig trees are male, which produce hermaphroditic flowers inside of the fruit that are pollinated by the wasp and house the wasp to lay her eggs without killing her, and they produce inedible fruit. The female trees produce figs that are indistinguishable to the wasp from the male figs, and they trap the wasp, break her corpse down, and produce the accessory fruit that is edible. I cannot find reliable information on how pollination and genetics work with the self fertile figs.

Despite my concerns, I am a permaculturist, and like many permaculturists, I like throwing seeds in the ground just to humor me and see what they do. Problem is, that if it's a, say, 1 in 10,000 chance that I grow a tree that produces fruit in my environment, then its not worth my time and space in my pots to try this.

Another question related, is how to induce earlier fruiting in fig seedlings? I've seen apple breeders graft 1 year old seedlings onto precarious dwarfing root stocks to get quicker results in their efforts, and I plan to do the same with apples. Should I  also do this with figs? Maybe another thing I could do is prune aggressively to put the plant in "breed or die childless" mode? Just a thought, but maybe somebody with experience in this could chime in.

To be frank, figs propagate so easily and quickly from hardwood cuttings and layering techniques, that there may not be very many people out there using seed-based methods to answer your questions.  

While grocery store figs may be large as an egg, and absolutely delicious, for me it's waaaay quicker to take a good (locally grown and owned) existing tree, lop off some apical branches with my pruners, and shove 'em in some mulch and rich earth.  Done it dozens of times.  

Actually, my very first fig propagation experiment I ever did was taking a ridiculously large branch, maybe 10-15cm in diameter, at least a meter of growth on top, and cut that with a small electric saw...  Stuck it in a big pot with compost and wood chips and organic matter, and boom!  Off it went!

I've also been able to literally walk up to a fig tree, and yank a nice, rooting sucker off its side. Bam...instant fig tree for the sharing.

We've noticed that microclimate may be a big factor in production.  The fig clone in a nice and sunny, brick-backed spot is doing the best.  A few meters away is another tree in a slightly more crowded spot with less direct solar exposure, and it isn't producing as awesomely.

In other words, it may be best to take a step back and clarify what your goals are.  

If you are looking for quick and easy clones of proven fruiting plants, consider going with hardwood cuttings.  Seeds are great, but take precious time.  But you have me curious now, for sure.

I was trying to find information on this subject too recently and couldn't find that much either.

I read a little about hand pollinating being possible in areas without the wasp, using a tool to go inside the figs.

Wish there was more available info on this, interested to see how it turns out if you give it a try!

Hi Reid, I'll try to answer your fig questions drawing back on my memories.  If you're looking for more than my memory allows I'll try and go back into some of my books for the info.

Store bought fig seedlings.  If the fig seeds from a dried fig primarily sink in a glass of water then the good news is that they were fertilized from a male fig tree.  I have had very little trouble growing up 1000s of plants this way (testing for any rare seedlings that might survive my cold winters....so far no luck on that random approach).  The bad news is that very likely the genetics of the male tree will mean that none of the seedlings will set fruit without the wasp.  This is because persistent figs (the ones that ripen the fig without pollination) are able to do so because of the "persistence gene" which has to come from the pollen parent.  Most of the caprifigs (the male plants) used are unlikely to have the persistence gene to share.  So if you want to breed persistent figs you'll need to get your fingers on a persistent pollen producing plant.  Gillette is on example though there are others out there.  

In order to pollinate your fig you will likely want to make a hole in the side of the fig to put a straw into to either blow the pollen into the fig's cavity or else push a slurry of pollen through.  If the osteole (opening at the bottom of the fig) is closed you will need to open it up enough to allow the air or solution carrying the pollen to flow through so that the pollen has a better chance of covering all the internal flowers inside that fig so they can be pollinated.  Then when you grow them up you'll find that about half the seedlings will be caprifigs, the other half will be edible fig producers.  And of the edible fig producers half will be persistent figs and the other half will require the wasp and if you don't have the wasp then those figs will form, sit around for a bit waiting to be pollinated, then will fall off without ripening if they didn't get pollinated.  Of the caprifigs, half of those will be persistent and you might find that you want to select among those for traits that might make them good plants to keep for further fig breeding work.  My numbers may be skewed, btw, not sure.  I say this because if a seed gets two copies of the persistence gene that seed will abort....maybe that doesn't change the statistics...not sure because it's past my bed time :)

Does this help at all?  Regarding the fig designations you mentioned....all the same species, just grouped by fruiting related traits....persistent, not persistent (needs polination) or sets two crops where one is persistent and the other is not (figs can set fruit on new growth, last years growth or on both depending on the variety).

That’s very helpful, and clears up a lot of the confusion, I really appreciate your insight! I’ll probably get some cuttings of those caprifigs you talked about and do some more intentional breeding work. Thank you!

according to this website you should be able to propagate  figs from seed. they have cold hardy fig seeds too

https://www.exotic-seeds.store/en/home/tiger-fig-seeds-panache-fig-ficus-carica.html