© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Calimyrna Fig

Making It Grow! Minute logo

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. The Smyrna or Calimyrna fig is very crunchy, full of seeds, and gives your Fig Newton its satisfying taste. It’s considered the tastiest of all figs. In 1880, a California grower imported 12,000 rooted fig cuttings from Smyrna. The trees grew beautifully but the developing figs dropped off when the size of marbles. After years of research and effort, Capri fig cuttings, with the necessary male flowers, were imported, but still no Smyrna figs wouldn’t set fruit except with tedious hand pollination. Eventually, after years of research and effort, trees with actual figs containing the overwintering live pollinating wasps were brought into the orchards and nurtured with the utmost care. After enclosing overwintering capri fig trees with enormous tents to protect them from cold, the growers finally established the pollinating wasps in their orchards. Calimyrna is a marketing terms that combines California with Smyrna.

Stay Connected
Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.