Really Weird Questions For Y'all

tlcmd · September 14, 2007

Because of the late freeze here in piedmont N.C., our fig trees were killed back. Over the summer, for each branch that died, 2 replaced it. Our trees are loaded with small unripened figs and we were concerned that they might not mature and ripen before our first frost.

My wife read "somewhere on the net from a blog in San Francisco, California"' that if you used a matchstick Q-tip and dotted the blossom end of the unripened fig with olive oil, it would mature and ripen within 5-6 days. (It also repels ants from the figs.) She did this with 2 branches as a trial, thinking that some joker somewhere was chuckling at all the people who would take a Q-tip and treat their figs. Darned if all of the treated figs doubled in size, matured and ripened in 5 days. The rest of the figs on the tree have not.

My questions: How come? Has anyone else ever heard of this and/or tried it? Does anyone have an explaination for this phenomenon?

September 14, 2007	#1
tlcmd Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Greensboro, N.C. Posts: 132	Really Weird Questions For Y'all Because of the late freeze here in piedmont N.C., our fig trees were killed back. Over the summer, for each branch that died, 2 replaced it. Our trees are loaded with small unripened figs and we were concerned that they might not mature and ripen before our first frost. My wife read "somewhere on the net from a blog in San Francisco, California"' that if you used a matchstick Q-tip and dotted the blossom end of the unripened fig with olive oil, it would mature and ripen within 5-6 days. (It also repels ants from the figs.) She did this with 2 branches as a trial, thinking that some joker somewhere was chuckling at all the people who would take a Q-tip and treat their figs. Darned if all of the treated figs doubled in size, matured and ripened in 5 days. The rest of the figs on the tree have not. My questions: How come? Has anyone else ever heard of this and/or tried it? Does anyone have an explaination for this phenomenon? __________________ Harmmmmmmmmmoniously, Dick "If only Longstreet had followed orders......" "Show me something more beautiful than a beautiful woman and then I'll go paint it." Alberto Vargas Last edited by tlcmd; September 17, 2007 at 02:10 PM.