Black Mediera just arrived!

[Claymango]

Thank you "Plant Creator" for sending such a well packaged quality plant....another blind Fig Purchase based solely on forum feedback. I immediately placed it in the Window and misted down the leaves... seems like the 3 buds it has are about to push through as well, this baby seems like it's ready to take off!!!

[COGardener]

Nice specimen. Looks like a great score.

[Brian M]

He's a great seller. I have been buying some nice trees from him. Highly recommended.

[Claymango]

He's a great seller. I have been buying some nice trees from him. Highly recommended.

even With a 100 percent feedback, I guess one can still be cautious on varieties being true to name, glad another forum member can vouch for his trees.

[Hershell]

I've had good results so far buying from him. They have always looked good.

[Harborseal]

Do any of you have a tree old enough to be sure it's the right one?

[Bijan]

I do not think eBay gives you that long to post feedback.

[Claymango]

Touche Bijan... I guess a 100 percent rating wouldn't be able to reflect a mislabeled variety huh? Seems other people here have had some fruit already from their purchases though where we can at least get forum feedback.

[bigfig]

my 2 cutting of black mediera are doing great leaves look like the ones in your photo . i got mine from WILLC...

[Claymango]

Guys I'm getting a little worried about my Black Mediera. I recently cupped my first ever rooted cutting "Col de Dame Noir" with decent root growth...It's barely been 5 days and I can see roots on all sides of the cup (The Dip N Grow Pretreatment may have boosted that a bit)

My issue is I have had this cupped BM for over 2 weeks and I do not see any roots anywhere in the sides of the cup... Is this cause for panic? I have read that Black Mediera is toughh to root and grows rather slowly... There very well may be some roots under the soil medium, I just hope "Plant Creator" didn't sell me a plant that leafed out without rooting??? I'm sure he didn't, many forum members have given great feedback on Plant Creator, I'm just a little worries.... I mean my first ever rooting attempt is exploding with root growth.

[WillsC]

BM is a royal pain in the butt. You really have to be sure to keep it a bit on the dry side especially when young like the one you have. I can see in the picture the soil looks way too wet in my opinion. Once they grow a bit they get easier but too much water at a young age with any fig is bad and especially so with BM.

[Claymango]

Thank you WillSC... I've been over watering way too much. Altadena Mara advised me to get moisture checker so I picked one up at Home Depot and started checking moisture levels....Dear God!!!! Almost everything in the house was about to break the Wet meter...Hopefully it's not to late to recoup, current moisture levels are being kept in the middle around the "moist" level or in between the "dry/moist level"

[Altadena Mara]

Those moisture readers are nice for people who have just starting to root figs. i thought I could feel the moisture level by just picking up the cup and guessing from the weight. The meter showed that I guessed wrong sometimes. I'm waiting now until the moisture level is a 2 or below for watering.
One Valle Negra had sprouts and then its roots turned brown -I'm guessing from too much watering- a level 3 was still too wet for it. I dug it up today and saw a few new healthy roots emerging from the bottom node, so have re-potted it in a drier mix. The dead roots fell off. I don't know whether to cut off the bottom node and start over with three possible healthy nodes or take a chance on more new roots forming next to the brown roots in the old node.

[greenfig]

The best way for me to get the BM going was to plant it in the sandy soil in full sun when the roots were about 1 inch long in my coco box. That was about 6 weeks ago (note I am in a zone 10b), when the sunshine was still moderate. I planted in a similar way about 15 cuttings and the BM is one of the strongest growers with a very thick green stem. You cannot overwater the soil and it has plenty of the sunlight. The only better grower is an RdB, that one is on steroids for sure.
I lost 2 cuttings of other varieties though and I think they were planted too deep. From what I see, it is better to let them dry a little than get them drown. Another big plus was not to worry about the gnats and the sun adjustment.
Basically, given good conditions, the BM rooting and growing is no worse than any other fig. I think the problem is the people. You want to really have it in your collection and baby the BM too much. Too much touching, too much watering, too much protecting.
Just my cinco centavos.

[moonlight]

Woening I would not put it in the window right a way, young fig plants are sensitive to window light ! That is my experience.