Breba from St. Rita

[Rewton]

St. Rita is one of a handful of figs in my collection that very clearly has exhibited fmv symptoms. I have it and a couple others isolated away from the others that are more healthy. It was obtained via a trade as a rooted cutting during the Spring of 2014 and is growing in a 5 gallon SIP. A couple months after I got this plant I noticed the main trunk was struggling with fmv but a faster growing sucker looked much better. So I lopped off the main trunk and let the sucker take over. The plant that you see in the photos is the sucker as it is currently. It’s been a decent grower even with the fmv. This fig (and a few others) also has insect damage as I have described and Rafael has also observed - see links below:

http://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/24335-apparent-insect-damage-on-fruit-and-leaves

http://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/24253-fmv-infected-fruit

This evening I carefully looked at affected leaves from several different plants with a 40x eye loupe and didn’t see any mites so perhaps it is some other insect. One thing I did observe is that adding a couple different fertilizers (miracle gro and espoma iron tone) helped a lot as the new leaves have much milder symptoms (less splotches and better looking leaves). But I think it is more than just a nutrient deficiency.

Anyway, with that aside the plant has about 5 breba on it. St. Rita (5), Violette de Bordeaux (2) , Adriatic JH (2), Lebanese Red (1) and Bari (1) were the only plants to hold some brebas for me this year. The flavor of this particular breba was mild (mild sugar, mild berry) with just a bit of seed crunch. The texture was gel-like. It was a very pleasant fig overall. I am expecting that the main crop will be much better.

[Rewton]

By the way, some have speculated that St. Rita might be a Mt. Etna fig. For me, it was one of the best producers of brebas out of about 15 varieties in containers. I don't have any known Mt. Etnas in containers so I can't compare. My in-ground Mt.Etnas had too much cold damage to produce brebas. Can anyone comment on how productive Mt. Etna's are for producing brebas? With respect to the leaves there are some similarities but Mt. Etna leaves seem to have more serations (or bumps) projecting out from the individual lobes and St. Rita's lobes are a bit smoother.

[Rafaelissimmo]

Steve that fig looks good. The pith seems a bit thick-do you think it could have benefitted from a little more time ripening?

[twovkay]

Steve, my Hardy Chicago in pot has a few brebas (3-4), my inground tree doesn't. But my HC (inground) also gives me figs late, so would be interested in finding out when your St. Rita main figs will ripen.

[Rewton]

Rafael, I think it was pretty much ripe. There was no latex when I picked it. Maybe I'll try letting the next one get a little bit more ripe just as a experiment.

Von, it is hard to compare ripening times on container vs. in-ground trees. I think the main crop started developing relatively early on the St. Rita so I would expect the main crop to start ripening relatively soon - certainly by mid-August.

[figgary]

Hey Steve, for what it's worth, my St. Rita shows fmv pretty bad also.

[Rewton]

Gary, the fmv is one strike against it but if its flavor is unique it might still be a keeper over the long haul. I suspect it would do much better if it was planted in the ground.