R/Latte, Split Personality; ...Paging Dr. Ficus

[Bluemalibu]

I'm growing out a cutting that I received last year labeled as Raspberry Latte. It has grown great for me over the space of the last eighteen months, but I need to tap into the collective knowledge of our forum members to give me some guidance.
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This is the 7' plant as of today...
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The vast majority of the leaves on the thirty or so branches are spade shaped, and all new growth is rose-colored. (Buds, petioles and branches)
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.............But there are four limbs that branch off of the scaffolding, which each bare fingered leaves. There are no limbs with mixed leaves; they either are all spade, or are all fingered on each branch:
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But, each of the scaffolding limbs can have either, or both, types of leaf-bearing branches.
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................All of the spade-leafed branches bear fruit that is double formed.
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......................While the finger leafed ones produce regular shaped figs:
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.So, is this twin personality a characteristic of this cultivar? Is one of the two pictured leaf shapes the usual leaf for R/L ? And, what of the doubled figs... is one of the split personalities a Dall'Osso wanna-be?
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....Inquiring minds want to know!

[Ficus_Vitae]

Yes, this is absolutely a raspberry latte.

[Jamie0507]

Laura is this you?

[Ficus_Vitae]

Yes.

[eboone]

Blue, mine is entering it's 4th year. Mine has both style leaves and the reddish color of the leaf stems, buds is typical. And last year was the first for me to get fruit, and many were double just like the ones you posted. I had not noted any association between the type of leaves and the doubled figs, but I will pay attention once my figs get larger than the rice grain size I noted this weekend.
It seemed to me that the earlier leaves were more likely to be the spade shape and the later ones were the 5 (and less common 3) lobed appearance you pictured above, but I really did not pay daily attention to that

edit: my source was Jon at Encanto Farms, who discovered this as a seedling variety

[JeffyjeffC]

I was just wondering if you or anyone pinches there RL to encourage fruiting? Thanks for the advice, I have 2 cuttings that survived so it will be a while before I even think about getting fruit off of mine.

[Jamie0507]

Blue the titles of your posts are always so catchy! Lol! This is definitely an interesting observation, lets stay tuned to see what others bring to the table about their experiences over the ripening season.. Unfortunately I do not have Raspberry Latte to offer an opinion, but Im definitely interested to see what everyone has to say 😉

[Bluemalibu]

You are too kind, Jamie. I'll get an airlayer started on a branch that isn't throwing the doubled fruit. (That is, unless you would rather have the wackier edibles... LOL!! )

[strudeldog]

I really don't have any spade shaped leafs on 2 plants 1 potted 1 in ground. I see both double and normal fruit on my potted plant. I don't recall if it had spade leafs in prior years, My in ground plant not showing fruit yet.

[ross]

My Rasp Latte (Kk) matches exactly. Haven't had the non spade branches yet.. everything has spade leaves. Can't say if the fruit is Dall'Oso-like yet because it's forming now, but all the Kk photos I've seen on F4F and on ebay show that his has the Dall'Oso mutation.

[Bluemalibu]

Hey there, Laura, Jamie, Ed, Phil and Ross... thank you so much, guys!

I hate the thought of perpetuating misidentified cultivars, and this tree will have lots of scion to share this winter, so I really appreciate the confirming input from you all. ( I'll post a reminder to myself to send some cuttings of this Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Latte tree to you, Jamie... to help you join in the fun.)

[Ficus_Vitae]

Yes, this is Laura Miller!

[Ficus_Vitae]

I've met so many wonderful people from ourfigs, I gotta see what it's all about!

[Bluemalibu]

Please don't let word of that slip out, Laura... we've tried to maintain a facade of our being just a bunch of crotchety ol' grumps over here! (So that we might enjoy all of the wonderfulness for ourselves... LOL!! )

[BrooklynMatty]

You met wonderful people here? Are you sure???? Some funny looking people indeed

Btw. Welcome to the fun zone

[figgysid1]

My RL trees are on their second year. I think I'm going to remove all double/deformed figs from now on. Most double figs dropped or were weird, skin in the middle, thicker skin. The leaves are single spade or 5 fingers, sometimes switching back and forth on a single branch.

The fruit are mostly wide and flat bottom, with closed or open eye. Black fruit when ripe, dark red berry flavored interior, large size 70-80 grams.

Pics of different leaf types and fruit shape.

[Bluemalibu]

Thanks Sid. It's good to know that I shouldn't allow the plant to waste its energy on the doubled fruit. If the tree continues to keep up its pattern, I may prune away all the branches that are producing the doubles... or, just use the robust root foundation to support a better cultivar.

[DBJohnson]

Quick question on this variety--is it early, mid, or late ripening? The figs are reportedly huge, but if they are late-ripening then there's little reason for me to pursue this one.

[eboone]

Bryant I only got a couple edible ones last year due to splitting. I'm in 6a, mine started late Sept with the fig shuffle starting mid April

[DBJohnson]

That might be doable. My plan is to have almost all of my figs in-ground by the end of next year. That means winter prep, but my winter storage options are quite limited...and building a new barn isn't in the cards anytime soon.

[Sarahkt]

Raspberry Latte is known for having these two different types of leaves. I rooted several cuttings of it and one had mostly spade leaves and another had the other kind. I kept one and gave the others away and the one I kept grows both kinds of leaves. I was gifted another later on and it shows the same characteristics.

I think this variety, while tasty and having a fun back story, has also been noted by several people for not being super prolific, but I forget where I've heard that. It is certainly true for my two trees, though they are still young (<3yo).

[Bluemalibu]

Thanks Sarah!

I'm thinking that mine will become a host for a premium variety's graft.

[Bluemalibu]

--is it early, mid, or late ripening? The figs are reportedly huge, but if they are late-ripening then there's little reason for me to pursue this one.

I think that I'd be looking at a few other varieties, Bryant... if you are wanting great figs that are both large and early ripening. I wasn't expecting much from the R/L last year by way of taste on a first-year tree, so it didn't disappoint; but the figs were pretty late in the season (Oct) after a really early start to our growing season (by the first of Feb it was over 80* ) ; and the fruit were pretty small as well.

As one suggestion of a tree that you might consider instead... a W/W Black Jack sport of mine meets all of your criteria. I'm already down to the last two ripening figs, finishing up my breba harvest (pic below) on my Watermelon Wine tree, and the mains will be ripening the first two weeks in July. ...And this is in a year of really wacky weather for us. It was 66* here yesterday.
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[JMS]

I am really interested in that watermellon wine variety of yours. Is there a line for cuttings? If so, how can I get in it?

[Evdurtschi]

Hi! I got a Black Jack because I heard you speak highly of it. At least that’s what I thought. What is the WW Black Jack? Maybe that was what you mentioned and I assumed regular Black Jack? What’s the difference?
Is regular Black Jack worth keeping or just use it for grafting stock?

[Ichijiku]

bringing up an old thread here...
so would it be best to chop the spaded leaf branches on this plant and just keep the finger leafed branch? Haven’t had any fruit on this one yet.

[exquisitebee]

I'm in Modesto and have 4 Raspberry Latte' trees that I started from cuttings 2 years ago. First year was no fruit. Second year, 1 got one fig on one tree, two figs on another and zero on the other two. All 3 figs really split, so I'd recommend using the organza bags for sure!! Seems like it is going to be a slow producer. I got the spade and finger leaves on all mine too. Barb

[CoolClimateFigger]

I had heard they took a while to fruit, so mine surprised me last year, its first summer, by putting on fruit after up-potting. I left two on over the winter which started growing with the plant this spring. One fell off, the other never fully developed. It's got five or six fruit on it now. Fingers crossed.

[Brian M]

Rasberry Latte starts off a little shy with the figs. But as mentioned about the third year it kicks in and the figs are worth it a top fig.

[exquisitebee]

Has anybody had trouble with the Raspberry Latte fig splitting?? All three figs that I got this summer badly split open at the bottom.

[eboone]

Here, splitting is for me a major issue. And being less productive. And the frequent deformed figs. And occasional figs dropping off unripe.

This season, despite having more figs on it than previous 3 fruiting seasons, and giving it a greenhouse start, I have had just a few decent figs so far, one was great.

[ZomVee]

My Raspberry Latte I bought from CajunB this year loves being back in San Diego! The spade limb is super healthy, the lobed limb is kinda pathetic...

[Bluemalibu]

My tree is dominated by the spade-leafed branches as well, but they all bore the doubled fruit which are not worth eating. I'll be thinning these back to encourage growth of the fingered limbs, but in your case, I would definitely wait until the plant had grown substantially, allowing the spade leaves to nurture further growth, before doing this.

[ZomVee]

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it Doug! I was getting all excited about the spade side of the plant, but in the back of my mind, I remembered reading this thread.

[Joe123]

Blue mine is the same i got it from dan foster so i know its the real deal but when i first got it all i put out were spade leaves. No fingers. And also double figs. I thought it was strange too but now that i see your pics its just like mine. I guess its common of rl. Ive had mine for a year im in 10b. Its 4 maybe 5 feet tall. It loves to grow. Loves lots of water but hates direct sun. And still no finger leaves.

[Bluemalibu]

Blue mine is the same i got it from dan foster so i know its the real deal but when i first got it all it put out were spade leaves. ...And also double figs. ...And still no finger leaves.

Joe, if you continue to only have spade leaves and doubled-fruit produced, send me a PM and I will get some cuttings taken from my fingered branches that you can graft to your R/L trunk, to be able to enjoy the fruit that is possible with this variety.

[CliffH]

Great info in this older thread! My in ground Raspberry Latte looks just like the picture in the original post. I had not noticed the correlation between the fruit and the branch leaf type. I will start pruning my tree this year to focus on the branches with the fingered shaped leaves.


CliffH

[azfigaddict]

Nice thread. I'd have to concur that there is a pattern of more double fruit on the spade leaf branches but I see it on the fingered as well. I made this video on my in ground RL in case any one has interest. It certainly is a productive tree and well worth growing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-dlG-28z08

[Joe123]

Ok thanks blue. Is yours finicky too? I try to give it sun like my other figs but it loves shade. It also sucks up more water than others ive noticed. I have 32 trees and its the only one that acts that way.

[Mangoman]

My 1st. yr. Raspberry Latte produced Quite a few last year but I pulled them. Many were deformed as shown in many pics. This year the plant has all spaded leaves but the fruit are all normal and are ripening now. Mine loves more shade than my other figs and
also wilts just a tad if it is too hot!

[LindsayH]

I wonder if raspberry latte is prone to chimera bud sports?