I thoroughly agree with Andrew's post and comments! I feel that Jame is trying to offer a service to fig forum members, allowing us to get variety that many could not otherwise afford or acquire. At the prices listed, he is not trying to start some grand business for big profits. He is offering many of us new collectors a great chance to improve our collection at the expense of his effort and time. I have ordered both cuttings and trees, and don't mind waiting. If I didn't want to wait, I could pay eBay prices.

Thank you James for all the hard work. Please ignore the negative comments, try not to let them get you down, and continue your good work.



CliffH

One thing I must say is that not all of us knew about the delay before ordering. I ordered from his website. I had no knowledge of this thread until after I ordered my trees. I look at most of the posts but any time I've read one about a deal on cuttings that is more than a few months old they are already gone so seeing this one with such an old start date led me to avoid it rather than actually read it. I do think in the interest of fair and honest disclosure in his business James should put some sort of warning or a later date on his site for the 2017 trees for customers who are not on this forum. That said, I read the good as well as the bad comments and will wait for my trees.

A huge Thank you to James for even attempting to do a project of this magnitude. I haven't read through the entire thread to see what everyone is saying but I did read a couple posts from James.
The risk is gone. If your not happy you can ask for a refund.

I didnt order until recently so my order is for next year. Hopefully by the end of next year but if that rolls into 2018 that's ok too. In fact I am going to place a 2nd order today. I'm 100% confident that eventually I will get my trees.

I've had varieties take 6 months to root, you just never know with live plant material. Have some patience and in the end this will all work out.

Wow. I just read through about 10 pages of this drama. Here is my 2 cents. Delay everything 6 months. No one gets anything. If you don't like it, take the refund. No partial orders. From what I can see, James under estimated the time involved in getting his operation off of the ground. I get it. No one wants their order in the middle of the winter so they wait till spring. There is no other logical choice. 2017 plant orders get pushed back 6 months too, and 2017 cuttings turn into 2018 cuttings (That's 1 year delay for you math majors). Problem solved. Not a perfect scenario, but a manageable one. James needs time, and speaking for myself, time is my most valuable resource. Remember he's doing this all for $10,000. It's an absolutely crazy amount of work for so little a return. If at any point you are no longer happy, take the refund. I'll let my order ride. However, I have not placed a 2017 order. I wanted to see how 2016 panned out first. I wish James all the best.

Freezing weather or not accross the US, we are talking about actively growing baby trees. Figs do not get more tender than at this stage. My figs will be put away in a shed for the winter. What would I do with these baby trees if they were delivered November-February? They would not be lignified. I don't have a heated greenhouse. Wait until March in my area. IMO

If freezing weather is a concern have your package sent General Delivery then you can pick it up at the post office.

If the wood has lignified and trees were left to go dormant and wouldn't it be easier to ship the trees? I mean call me crazy but assuming the temperature is 30+ degrees I'd much rather receive a dormant tree than a live one. There is way too much which can go wrong when shipping a live tree.

Around my neck of the woods the only time of year the temps get below 30 degrees is Jan/Feb. So if the trees are ready by Nov/Dec then they should probably go out then. But if you ask me I could totally wait until March/April to receive my trees as they really won't be doing much growing between now and then.

As for me and my figs, I'd rather they wait until May after the last frost date.  Mail can sit in the truck for days with no climate control as has been mentioned.

All I can say is I ordered 20 Fig Plants for 2016 and I am NOT in a hurry to get them! I trust James all the way. : )

Here in Phoenix, I can take delivery all throughout the non-hot season. The middle of the calendar winter would be fine, even desireable--I can get them potted up into grow bags, ready to move outside well before Valentine's Day. As a matter of fact, receiving them after mid-March would not give them enough time to settle into their new home and put on roots before it gets too hot out

This is cool! So are they all sold out for this year?

Sorry johnnyq627! I was reading at work and skimmed through! Wishful thinking maybe some were available! Thought it was a awesome idea!

Quien es Babylon?!

Who do you think is Babylon? I have a good suspicion! : )

Speaking of fancy names for the same old thing, in our local newspaper I came across an article on figs. Bensonhurst Purple, I was intrigued, that was one I had never heard of. After reading thru half of the article there it was "also known as Chicago Hardy". Reading on, his number 2 and 3 recommendations were Brown Turkey and Celeste. I moved on to the funny paper.

This thread keeps getting seriously off topic. It should not be about questioning who anyone is in real life or any of that. It has nothing to do with the topic and the situation with the fig trees people ordered.

My apologies,

I don't mean to derail this thread. I was just having a little fun. 

The first roots appeared a few days ago on some of the cuttings that I'm rooting in humidity bins, and today I saw the first roots poking out of one of the air-layers.  I've got many stacks of tubs about 5 deep with about 40 cups per tub, and I've got a ton of air-layers set.  I've still got a lot more cuttings to do, so today I started clearing out the space to stack a few dozen more tubs in one of my greenhouses. 

My neighbor decided not to sell his land, and a couple of other nearby possibilities didn't work out either (one had already sold, the other wasn't interested in selling yet).  I have an option that is about 25 minutes away, has water and power, and already has an electric fence around it to help keep out the wildlife.  I could probably put up 3 large greenhouses inside the electric fencing, and many more outside it, but I'm hesitant about investing so much into a property that is so far away.  So the plan I'm leaning toward now is to stay here on the homestead this winter and do this:

- build 7-9 new hoophouses, each approximately 60'L x 14'W x 7'H, that will cover my fig orchard and extend the growing season into late December or January;
- cover both of my 50'L shadehouses in plastic to convert them to greenhouses for the cold season;
- remove almost all bananas from greenhouses to create more space for figs;
- use heaters in some greenhouses to keep the troublesome figs growing all winter (easiest to do in my pit greenhouses and aquaponics tunnel);
- hang lots of growlights above the troublesome figs in the heated greenhouses to maximize their growth.

By doing all that, I should definitely finish all the 2016 $7 trees this winter and have plenty of wood for the cuttings sale that is due to ship out in February.   I would also have a reasonable chance of getting the Spring 2017 trees shipped out on time in the early spring, though that would admittedly require everything going pretty well.  At this point, Bass' Favorite is the one I'm most likely to be late on, since it's in pretty high demand and I only have 2 of them, but most of the other popular ones are pretty well covered (for example I have 8 Ponte Tresas and 7 Galicia Negras, and will be planting most of them in-ground inside my greenhouses to get max growth, hopefully getting 50-100 cuttings/airlayers per plant by mid-February like I've gotten from others under similar conditions). 

Thank you for the update. It is appreciated. It's also comforting to see that you always have a backup plan.