Are you offering the named varieties shown also or just the unnamed ones? And, if you are offering the named varieties too, would you consider mailing them for postage and handling? I tried to find figs this year and everyone was out. I saw some at Home Depot, but they looked like they had been ran through a shredder before being put out for sale and looked half dead. I did manage to get a Brown Turkey, but I really want a few more varieties. I am especially interested in a Hardy Chicago, a Celeste, and any good named varieties that would be reliably hardy in zone 6b/7a.

I'm also looking for some hardy named varieties of pomegranate if you happen to have any. I have three plants of 'Wonderful' but would like to find at least one more hardy variety.

Well heck, Brandon. Just ask me around January, and I'll send you dormant cuttings from my Hardy Chicago.

If you get something going with Brandon to ship some to him, I'd love to get in on them too and split the shipping cost with Brandon ..... if Brandon wouldn't mind.

Frances

That would be OK with me if Sandsquid is willing to ship. I don't mind paying for the package and gas to the PO either.

Oh, and Amazin, if I can remember (and don't get a H.C. from Sandsquid) I'll email you in January. Thanks for the offer!

These will be up for grabs in spring-time. But I'm sure I could find a few extra's in the vegetable drawer to mail you folks out that way...

In a few weeks/months(?) once my in-ground plants drop leaves and go dormant... I tried taking one cutting today and it was still oozing sap/latex.

Send me a mailing address to beadwindow (at) gmail (dot) com

Hey Squid --

What varieties do you have in the ground? I'd love to find LSU gold and/or purple.

What I'd consider "keepers":
Italian Honey
Peter's Honey
Jacks Quarter Pounder
Marseilles
Quantico
"Mystery-X"

there are quite a few getting ripped out due to non-suitability in this climate.. powdery midew susceptibility, splitting and souring in rain, etc.

Ooooooo, I'd like to sign up for cuttings of either or both honeys, and/or Marseilles. :-)

Will let you know soon as they go dormant so I can make cuttings... The "new" cuttings going "out East" to you two will mail tomorrow!!!

Thanks Sandsquid! I'll keep a lookout for them.

I lied, the didn't go yet.. will try for today, which should put them there on or before Saturday.

They went out in the mail Wednesday morning Priority Mail.
Should be at least 2 of each for you to split up.

They are already "wrapped in slightly dampened (with diluted rooting hormone) paper towel.

recommend following these procedures:
http://figs4fun.com/Rooting_Bag.html

and here:
http://figs4fun.com/basics.html

GRRRRR!!!!!

I came home today to find that my heating mat that was under my fig cuttings out in the (unheated) garage had DIED sometime between the last time I checked-on/watered my cuttings(Friday) and today.

Looks like all my cuttings are DEAD, DEAD DEAD!!!!

I'm not giving up on them, I've had some come back from a much worse death than this, but... Brandon, buddy, and Krikit darling.... I'm counting on you! (No pressure though, eh?-)

Whatever you get to propagate for you, I may need cuttings of back next winter.

Squid -- I usually start all of my fig cuttings outdoors, in the middle of the winter, with no protection. Most of em do just fine. Don't panic yet!

sandsquid,

Thanks so much for the cuttings. Mine are sprouting little leaves, but I haven't checked for roots yet. I'm hopeful though. Sorry to be so late replying - my computer has been on the blink.

Frances

Sandsquid, I'll add my thanks here too! I hope our reimbursement was enough to cover all of your shipping and handling expense.

Sandsquid, any sign of remaining life in those cuttings yet? I had some Brown Turkey cuttings lose their leaves twice last year before arising from the ashes the third time. After that, they did fine. I think I might have let them dry out too much before their roots were established.

I wanted to ask you about some of the names. One variety is labeled "Marseillas VS Blk". I can find "Marseillas VS" and "Marseillas Black", but they seem to be different cultivars. Any ideas? Another is labeled "143-30". Based on what I can find and your list above, should it be "UCR 143-36"? Finally, there's one labeled "278-28". I'm guessing that should be "UCR 278-128". I'm thinking my guesses are reasonable, but I'd rather know for sure if possible.

Not a single cutting from my fist tortured batch has even given the slightest notion of pushing buds or roots, most have rotted...

I've got a few of the "new" cuttings I found in a baggie in the fridge I planted up last month and they are sprouting new growth.
I don't know about roots, but I'm NOT touching them until I'm SURE they have good healthy roots, like I see roots being air-pruned out the bottom of the rootrainer sleeves

at least it looks like (based upon whats sprouting growth, I'll have a Hardy Chinese, 278-28 and perhaps a Blue Celeste....

As far as designations, I copied what was written down on the tags that came with the cuttings I got.

The important one of note are the "Sal's (Gene)"
A small to medium unidentified black fig with good flavor. Well-adapted in Northeast.

The DiPaola family who own the Belleclare on Long Island introduced it. It is extremely hardy. Plants are vigorous.

Belleclare has closed it's doors now but even when they were in business their plants were highly prized.

The "Gene" designation means it came from "Gene" who lived a few miles from Belleclare and got a bunch of their last remaining plants and chopped them up into cuttings to disperse far and wide in hopes of propagating and ensuring the survival of the strains.

You folks having any success with the cuttings I mailed out?

I think so, but they're not home free yet. Some of them had grown visible roots that I could see at the sides of the pots, so I removed the covers. When the top of the soil appeared dry and the leaves started to wilt just slightly, I'd add water. Then some of them started loosing their leaves. I transplanted six of them over the weekend and found the problem. Even though the soil had drainage, it was staying wet at the bottom. And the root systems were still very limited so there was a very fine line between being too wet and not wet enough. After replanting, I recovered them. Hopefully they will all pull through. Only one lacks leaves right now. It may be a goner, but I'm still babying it just like the others to see what happens. I'm still hopeful!

Hey Sandsquid,

Here's my report:

Archipell, & 278-28 have no foliage but tiny roots -
Quilbeau Blk had roots, was leafed out but then the leaf wilted and it doesn't look good now
143-30 and Desert King have a couple of nice leaves and decent roots
Marseilles Blk looks the best of all of them

I don't have any that are labeled "Sals Gene"

Sorry,
Frances

Frances, Don't you have two more? "Marseiles VS Black" and "English Brown Turkey" maybe? You should have eight cuttings. I divided them up and thought I was really careful not to mislabel any of them. I didn't end up with two of anything.

Mime have been a dismal failure.

I don't know WHAT is going on... I'm following my same protocol that always has given mt at least 90% success, and getting nothing!

I'm ready to put the out in the unheated garage on top of a heat-mat and under a fluorescent grow ligthts and just let them fend for themselves instead of babying them.

Perhaps they will respond to the tough love routine better???

I'm thinking I'm going to need to ask you folks to layer off a few shoots for me this summer if you don't mind.

Sandsquid,

What kind of problems are you having with your cuttings? Are they loosing leaves or just not growing or what? Your picture above looks like you have very well draining soil. Do you think your cuttings could be drying out?

I will be happy to try to layer some shoots for you if mine do well enough to produce shoots.

One thing I was wondering about is the possibility of getting cuttings infected with Fig Mosaic Virus. I know some places assume that the virus is so widely spread that there is no need to try to contain it at all. Other sources claim to have non-infected plants. I don't know where you got your cuttings, but I wondered if you had any ideas about whether or not they might be infected. I would like to try to avoid getting the virus, but I'm not sure how successful I will be or even really how best to avoid it.

Brandon,

I did get 8, 2 were of the Archipell but I only listed it once above. I did get Marseilles VS Blk, just failed to put the VS when I listed it. Then I have one more that I lost the name to - it may very well be English Brown Turkey - sorry!

Cool, I was kind of freaking out there for a minute. I was pretty sure I brought them all, but I wanted to make sure I didn't do something wrong or misplace some.

The source of these fig cuttings is highly regarded collector who is vigilant about FMV. All samples are grown for 2 sometimes 3 years in quarantine before being moved to his main collection.

Wow, that's very good news! Thanks Sandsquid!