Black Madeira

[jmaler]

OK, I'm in. It seem like I need to have a BM. Oh wait that didn't sound right.

How about a few trusted sources for Black Mediera.

Are online sellers better than ebay sellers?

[Rafaelissimmo]

Ma-dei-ra. An island off of Africa. Belongs to Portugal. UCDavis is good source but they did not have cuttings this year. Order now for next year! I have a cutting (just one) if you want it pm me.

[jmaler]

I thought to order from UCD it had to be for research or something like that.

[jmaler]

I am reluctant to try a cutting of this cultivar, especially since some senion members have noted how difficult they are to get started and keep alive early on.

I have started dormant cuttings for Alma, Black Mission and Texas Blue Giant, but these probably are the easy ones.

I probably should look for a BM plant with a goodly amount of roots and some top growth.

But hey, thanks for your offer.

[Gina]

(Title spelling corrected so this thread will show up in searches for 'Black Madeira'.)

[figherder]

Good luck. I only know of 1 online seller and they are out of stock and have been. Maybe in the fall they will have some.
With ebay you have to be careful. The bidding can get crazy and typically reaches 100 or so. depends on the plant I guess and who's bidding that day. Some of them have been cutting that dont have a lot of new growth on them but have leafed out. You really just never know what your getting. A well rooted plant or one that has just been up potted from a cup.
I have paid decent money for some plants on ebay. I have had better luck buying plants from people on the forums. usually well rooted in tree pots 9" tall and ready to up pot. Loaded with roots, leaves and decent growth on the new branches. 20-30 bucks depending on variety and they are nice and healthy. Some stuff on ebay is better than others.
Some advice I would give it to look at the plant you are buying. Make sure it is the plant that is for sale and not just a stock photo. If unsure ask the seller if thats the actual plant for sale. Then check the database and make sure it matches pics in the data base. Small variances are probably ok. Figs grow a little different depending on location. Check the condition and overall health of the plant in the photos. Look for plants that have at least some green stem growth or new growth on them. IMO they will be more established and have a better chance for success. just rooted cutting with a few leaves I would pass on. Just my opinion though. Plenty of them sell for 80-100 bucks which seems crazy to me but if you have to have it and have the money then take your chances. . Even crazier is in a week or 2 there will be more up there for sale. A few weeks ago i bought a beautiful RDB, well rooted and growing nicely for 9.99. No other bidders. A week or 2 later there was another from the same seller that went much higher. Patience will save you money.
Look at the list of good sellers and also the seller to avoid. I think to make the good sellers list you have to be a member here. However, in many cases the plants they sell tend to go higher in price because they are on the trusted sellers list. I have bought from several of them. no complaints. Ther are other sellers out there though that dont get as much action and still sell legit plants that are very good. Some I have bought several from. Others I am still testing the waters. LOL.
Your best bet is to try and get cuttings from people on the forum. Either trade or buy. Root them yourself and save lots of money.
Online nurseries like justfruitandexotics have some very nice trees. I bought 2 smith trees last december. 3- 3 1/2' tall and now they have multiple branches, well leafed out and are ready to uppot to at least 5 gal containers. Great fig trees of an excellent variety that large for 30 bucks. Compare that to what you get for 70-100 on ebay.

There are lots of online nurseries out there. Many varieties are available in anything from 4 inch pots to 3 gallon. 6 bucks to 30 or so. Some are tissue culture and FMV free. I have heard that wont put out fruit the first year. For me thats ok I want the tree to grow the first couple of years anyway. Last Dec i bought a tissue culture VDB for like 7 bucks I think. Came in a little 3x3 pot, looked smaller than a pencil with 2 little leaves on it. Its now up potted to a 2 gal pot and doing great. I will attach a photo of the smith and VDB..
Sorry for the long winded answer. LOL. ok looks like I cant upload the photos. I will look into it and try again after I get it worked out.

Cant upload the smith photo but heres the 7 dollar vdb.. I see Rafael offered you a cutting already!! Very nice. Just saved ya 100 bucks LOL.

[jmaler]

Thanks for the great reply. It is very informative. You mentioned VDB. Is VDB the same as BM?

[drphil69]

No, VdB and BM are not the same. VdB is an excellent, readily available fig that is also said to be hardy. BM is rare, excellent fig that ripens late and needs heat to ripen to excellence. At least that's my understanding.

[figherder]

There's my 7.00 vdb .

[drphil69]

Want to double your money? ;-)

[figherder]

hehehehehe.. I just took another couple photos. For some reason the photos I take on macro are corrupted.. Thats what it says here anyway.. Anyway, looks like it wants to fruit...................... I do have a couple of pother cuttings rooting, if you need a plant, give it a few weeks and hit me up.

[drphil69]

Thanks, I have a VdB which I thought had bad fmv (and it might), but repotted and found out it had bad RKN. I have cuttings from Wills as well. That is a great bargain at $7.

[Claymango]

Harvey C is arguably one of the best and most reliable sellers on Ebay and on this Forum for a huge Variety of Figs Including BM...

[figherder]

I have sevral cutting I got from him and several plants from wills. actually I think I have one arriving today. Both are great sellers for sure.

[WillsC]

Thanks for the great reply. It is very informative. You mentioned VDB. Is VDB the same as BM?

No.......very different.

Another variable with BM is how badly infected with FMV it is. I have 4 BM in ground now and they range from fairly bad FMV to almost none to one plant that has absolutely no signs of FMV and never has shown any. All 4 came from different sources. The ones that show almost no FMV or very mild FMV grow SOOOO much faster than those with it. If you can I would strongly recommend getting one from a healthy mother plant.

[Rafaelissimmo]

Best advice: Have Wills grow you one from his healthy tree!

[figherder]

In 2 months I have spent somewhere around 1000 on fig trees. I dont know exactly and dont think I want to know. LOL. Wills and Harvey are 2 that I watch carefully. . Its funny how I buy trees I didnt even know I wanted. LOL. The RDB thats arriving today looked so good i couldnt pass it up. LOL. Funny thing is I bought one a couple weeks ago and have cuttings rooting as well. If I was married my wife wouldnt be happy but imo you cant have to many fig trees .

[drphil69]

Hmmm... you might be interested in a little organization called FGA... Fig Growers Anonymous... ;-)

[figherder]

Sign me up. LOL. For my birthday today I made sure I had some decent gifts. LOL. Thursday and Friday I got in. CDDG, BM, Red Lebanese Bekaa Valley, Grise Olivette, RDB, and Scotts Black. Next week I have 19 more arriving, maybe 20-22 depending if I win any auctions this weekend. However I am finished after this week, well unless something else pops up that I really want LOL

[ako1974]

I started 2 BM cuttings this year. The first one rooted in about 3-4 weeks. It has leafed out well and looks healthy, but hasn't grown much since those 3 leaves. It has 2 buds that want to do something, so I'll wait and see. Maybe a warm summer will coax them out. The other one leafed out pretty quickly (well, 1 leaf), but had no roots for quite a while. This past week - after about 8-9 weeks - roots have just started. The leaf has fallen off, but it has another closed bud. Hopefully, it keeps trucking throughout the growing season.

[Rafaelissimmo]

Here's even better advice: ditch the BM pursuit, and get a healthy Preto, BM's healthier sibling, and avoid fmv altogether.

[drphil69]

I had a difficult time rooting the one Preto cutting I got this year. Thankfully God has taught me patience. It took 16 weeks to show roots, put out 2 leaves and stalled for 6 more weeks. Now it has 5 small leaves, still in a cup as roots are few. I started it beginning of November.

I was/am excited about Preto, then I found out it is a late ripener... I guess I need a greenhouse or to move south!

[Rewton]

Phil, I'm not very far south of you and my Figo Preto was able to ripen most of its figs last year even though we had a late Spring, a not very hot summer and a somewhat early Fall. So you should be ok by growing it in a container and doing the fig shuffle. The other thing is that mine is stored in a detached garage. In a somewhat warmer garage it would perk up earlier in the Spring.

[Rewton]

Rafael, that is exactly what I did. However, I actually found that my Black Madeira was only ever so slightly slower growing than the F. Preto. Everything else was indistinguishable and I don't have room for duplicates so now I just have the F. Preto. (Though I kept a couple B. Madeira cuttings that I tried some grafts with.)

[ako1974]

This path of growing figs seems to be very winding

[F. Bennett]

Here's even better advice: ditch the BM pursuit, and get a healthy Preto, BM's healthier sibling, and avoid fmv altogether.

Agreed. I haven't tasted BM but have heard the same. My 3 Pretos are strong growers and haven't showed fmv in the 3 years I've raised them. My daughter and I just planted a 3rd year tree in the ground yesterday to see if I'll get stronger growth compared to the SIP it came from. I hear Italian 258 is also similar to these two but an earlier ripener. Can anyone confirm? It will be a year or 2 before I can taste I 258 beside Preto.

[Q*]

You can find the trusted sellers list here.
http://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-ho...s-vendors-list
Good luck with getting the cuttings. The key is to be patient.....it seems to come in waves with bidding...sometimes they go for really high...sometimes the price is reasonable. I was able to get 3 cuttings on ebay of BM for $30 shipped in Feb. (i cut two of the cuttings in half and i was able to grow 4 plants and make one graft) Make sure you double check the source...mine was a reliable source and all the little plants are healthy with no signs of FMV so far....

[HarveyC]

I have a theory that FMV signs are often a matter of plant nutrition, with malnourished plants showing it worse.

I have Figo Preto plants from the original mother tree in Point Loma and they shows FMV right away but haven't checked lately.

I don't know how this will work out, but I have several Black Madeira grafted onto Improved Brown Turkey (Dave Wilson trees I bought, don't know the history of this variety name) which I will be selling, starting out on eBay with them when I think they are healed enough to stand the travel. My best-growing Black Madeira tree is one that I grafted onto Brown Turkey. Here are two Black Madeira trees of about the same age (grafted January 2013, potted plant bought July 2013, both planted in ground August 2013); it's easy to tell which one is grafted.



The one on the right may eventually catch up as it has about 12" of shoot growth so far this year compared to maybe 14" on the grafted one. These are just samples of 1 each so I can't say that this difference will always be the case. Gary (figgary) started a Black Madeira last year that grew very well for him.

[figherder]

Thats a huge difference Harvey. Looks like its working out very well. If so I think you will start a new trend.

[Snaglpus]

Jeff, in regards to tissue culture plants. I am still waiting to see real photos from folks who have eaten off their tree. About 7 yrs ago, I bought a tiny Verte from ebay....came from a reliable nursery too! That dude grew very fast and FMV was nowhere. It out grew my 5g pot after 2 yrs so I planted it in my orchard. After lots of green growth and 4 yrs later, n ot one fig came off that tree! The next Spring, I dug it up and placed the entire root ball and tree on the curb!

[figherder]

I heard about that after I bought the one I have. Its done well for me so far. If it doesnt fruit then it will be beautiful as an ornamental. .. I also ordered a bunch more last night. different varieties just to play with em. At 5 or 6 bucks its no biggie.

[COGardener]

Dennis, my Olympian is aTC tree I aquired last spring from Well Spring Gardens. It has not been the fastest grower in my climate yet it appears to have at last one fig starting on it. I will post pics once it puts on a little size.

[figherder]

There's a photo of the little figlet, maybe, possibly LOL.

[drphil69]

Looks like a figlet to me!

[jmaler]

I finally got my BM plant. Looking forward to its figs.

I have Preto on my wish list BUT on Adriano's site he shows Moscatel Preto, Preto (Black Madeira), Rei Preto, Relva Preto, Sofeno Preto and Tres ao Prato. What's going on here?

Portuguese translation of Preto = black

What is the story on this Preto fig tree that is better than BM?

[jmaler]

Not yet.

[Taverna78]

I may have extra one in a month. Is very small right now but I have two growing now. I can save for you if you like

[jmaler]

Thanks Taverna. PM sent.

[tyro]

Do a search at f4f for "Figo Preto",the variety is well documented.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox....post1278114639

[F. Bennett]

Jerry,
From what I recall, Preto is supposed to be a healthier strain and should ripen sooner than BM.

[sal]

In terms of being available the Black Madeira seems to be for sale on Ebay frequently. The Preto hasn't been. Is there a reason for this? Where are people buying the cuttings/Plants ?

[tyro]

Sal,

Preto was only discovered by Sue in 2010/2011?Black Madeira has been available for a long,long time.
I read access to that mother tree was denied after the owner recently died,so cuttings and air layers
are now limited to material removed and grown out by collectors from a tree only recently found.
As far as cuttings go,on ebay I've seen them go from mid $20's to over $200.Patience is definitely
a virtue over there.

Cheer's

[Harborseal]

Even though it was cold last year I got 2 crops from FP. The ones that ripened in warmer weather were good. I'm in Z6

[Altadena Mara]

My two Preto cuttings that came from Harvey on eBay rooted easily and now are in one gallon containers. A grafted BM, also from Harvey, is already twice as tall as all the other cuttings I rooted this year and is growing vigorously. With some sellers on eBay, you get what you pay for. Life is too short to waste on cuttings and trees that won’t grow or fruit (-at least it seems like that when you’re pushing seventy).
Has anyone tried grafting a Black Ischia? It seems like another fussy grower/producer that might benefit from a healthy root stock.