caution: my yard has bff and rkn
reserve: no
length: 1 week
bidding ends: 12 june at 6 pm (pacific time)
shipping: u.s. only
payment: paypal
to participate...
1. post in “welcome everyone” (if you haven’t already done so)
2. reply to this thread with your bid
only bids before 6pm will be counted. any bids at 6:00 pm or after will not be counted.
pic of the exact 5 seedlings…
seedlings are smaller than they appear, the pots are made from 16.9 oz water bottles. pay attention to the elevated drainage holes.
i always sow seeds from different plants in the same pots in order to hedge my bets. the other seedlings in these pots include…
kei apple (dioecious)
jackfruit
pepper (variegated)
pomelo
mangave (x2)
surinam cherry
wax apple - my hybrid (variegated x black diamond)
all the seedlings have been in these pots for way too long and urgently need to be potted up. there’s barely any medium left in the pots so they dry out very quickly, even with the elevated drainage holes. however, i always try to acclimate shipped plants for around a week before repotting them. shipping is always stressful for plants, and so is repotting. too much stress at once should be avoided. also, i don’t advise separating any seedlings when you first repot them. i’d wait until the 2nd repotting. i don't use any "cides" (ie pesticide) so please thoroughly inspect the seedlings for pests like scale. lastly, always gradually acclimate to more sun.
the mothers of the palmata hybrid seedlings are either dfic 0023 (cross between palmata and carica) or n1 (pure palmata, in theory). no idea who the fathers were but they were probably carica. the seeds came from mike fons (figfair.com), except i did add my own dfic 0023 seeds to his.
since the palmata hybrids are seedlings, there’s a 50% chance that they will be male and produce inedible figs. in terms of breeding though, male figs are essential since they contain the pollen that’s needed to make entirely new varieties of figs. but even if the seedlings are female, there’s no guarantee that they will be parthenocarpic (ripen without pollination). if they aren’t, then the figs will only ripen with pollination.
what inspired me to auction these seedlings is the growing popularity of palmata hybrids in the subtropics and tropics, particularly their use as rkn-tolerant rootstock for carica. in thailand, ficus ‘iraqi’ is by far the most used rootstock for carica. in florida, “grow in the flo” posted on youtube a video of his iraqi growing in the ground in orlando. seems like its growing quite well, same with his other palmata hybrid in the ground, alma.
“grow in the flo” regularly posts in this private florida fig group on fb started by roy boone. joining roy’s group is a really good idea if you’re in florida and interested in figs. he shared in his group a video of his iraqi, cherry cordial and yellow long neck in the ground. cherry cordial is in theory a palmata hybrid as well, and he was happy enough with its performance to plant a second one.
if you do some basic searching then you will learn that there are several reports of palmata and its hybrids being susceptible to rkn. perhaps its the case that a happy palmata hybrid might be somewhat better than the average happy carica at outgrowing rkn. carica’s native climate is mediterranean. none of palmata’s native habitat is mediterranean, as far as i know. palmata only naturally occurs in areas that receive summer rain. so all else being equal, palmata hybrids should do somewhat better in summer rain climates, which is most of the world.
however, i don’t get the sense that very many varieties of palmata hybrids have been grown in places like florida or thailand. if someone told me that less than 30 unique palmata hybrids have been grown in florida i wouldn’t be surprised. so the chances of finding a better palmata hybrid for florida, in terms of climate, should be decent. maybe the fruit won’t be so great but that’s the point of further breeding.
the reason that i’m auctioning these 5 seedlings rather than selling them at a set price is because i have no idea what the demand is for palmata hybrid seedlings. well, i’m not completely ignorant. i’m pretty sure that the winning bid will be somewhere between $5 and $500. if i had to pick a specific amount i’d go with $35. what’s your best guess?
this auction, like virtually all plant auctions, is basically a survey with one question and one option…
1. what should i propagate?
a. $_____ ficus palmata hybrids
“what should i propagate?” try to describe the importance of this question. try to articulate how many times this question is asked and answered every day around the world. we answer this question whenever we buy a fruit tree at a nursery. we answer this question whenever we buy fruit at the supermarket. our answers determine what farmers grow. our answers determine how limited land and labor is divided between artichokes, figs and yangmei.
@lopresti, are you going to buy any california grown yangmei? there are currently 19 packs available.
we will be able to see how long it takes the yangmei to sell out at the price of $45.98/lb. this will give us some idea how urgently consumers want more yangmei to be propagated. urgency is a function of spending money. this is not the case on social media. on facebook and youtube urgency is a function of how many thumbs up something has received. as a result, the type of content society wants most urgently propagated is… baby shark.
money and votes are completely different things, so their effectiveness at measuring urgency must be completely different.
right now you have the option to give this auction a thumbs up. but you also have the option to bid on it. while i will see and know both measures of urgency, it will only be the bids that truly help me answer the question of what i should propagate. and since the bids are public, they won’t just help me decide what to propagate, they will help all of us decide what to propagate.
its worth repeating with emphasis: the bids on this auction will help all of us decide what to propagate. with this in mind, let’s consider some numbers. you win the auction with a bid of $35, but the most you would have been willing to bid is $500. in this case you got a really good deal. there’s a big problem though. this auction is a survey that helps all of us decide what to propagate. a winning bid of $35 will result in far fewer people propagating ficus palmata hybrids than a winning bid of $500. at $35 dollars mike fons probably won’t think twice about eating the figs from his palmatas and palmata hybrids. but if the winning bid is $500, then mike will probably sow or sell the seeds instead of eating them. this big difference in behavior is why good deals aren’t really good deals. “consumer surplus” is the same thing as pretending your urgency is less than it truly is. so future you will end up in a world with less palmata hybrids than you truly want.
on other fig forums, i always hear people venting about the high prices of rare varieties. what’s funny is that these same individuals often follow their complaints by noting they will just wait for the inevitable price drop. they fail to recognize the fundamental link between prices and production: high prices serve as the primary incentive for growers to increase propagation. as the resulting supply expands, the prices naturally fall. anyone who wants a rare fig should celebrate when others are willing to pay high prices for it.
the reason that so many people complain about the high prices of rare figs is simple. right now on figbid there isn’t a single auction that explicitly asks “what should we propagate?” imagine if this wasn’t the case. if every figbid listing asked what we should propagate, then i don’t think that any fig grower would complain about high prices. everyone would understand that their survey answers (their bids) would influence what fig growers propagate.
i have many figs besides palmata hybrids that i could propagate. and many other fruits besides figs that i could propagate. its rather inefficient to create an auction for each option in order to learn what we should propagate. here’s a far more efficient system for answering this question. just tell me what you want us to propagate, give me a donation of any amount, and i’ll put your answer on my website’s homepage… junglegroves. anyone who visits my website will be able to see your answer. if they value your answer, they can move it up the page by donating for it. currently at the top of the page is… not figs, its yangmei! so naturally i had to buy a pack from weee to sow the seeds. well, i didn’t have to, but it’s impossible for me to overlook this plant propagation priority of my friend andrew.
