@ThaiFig

  He is not obliged to answer you...you are not a customer...and People not obliged to acknowledge a pest...
I think when you tell us how much are you getting paid to be on this Page...then he might answer you...How many cutting of Ponte Tersa...

I trust the project, and I am shocked how impatient people are. If you wanted firm deadlines then go pay premium, I am happy to pay cheap and stay patient. I see it as all the labor James is doing is labor I don't have to.

If anyone has ordered a barada that they want to get out of, I would gladly take over the order.

I think it is long overdue that some people be temporarily blocked from posting because they repeatedly redirect the topic and every post is negative, sometimes shrouded in fake optimism but the negativity in the same comment overwhelms the optimism. We don't need someone repeatedly telling us what can go wrong. Just....stop.

@arachyd
Individual censorship should not be allowed.  If an individual is too toxic, they should lose membership.  Disagreement is not a crime.

When a thread becomes toxic it should be locked.  This has happened before.  This thread has not been our best.  Disagreement is always difficult because invariably, if left to run, it will lead to personal attacks, which has happened here.  As I have stated here before, being a customer does not allow exclusivity in comment.  If it is posted, it is open to statement/comment by any forum member.

In my opinion, this thread should have been closed much earlier.  James lack of response to email/PM efforts has been one of the contributing factors which led to individuals posting their comments.

I am sure this post is going to result in a flurry of disagreement, which is fine.

I like this thread a lot, it's sorting out for me the good, the bad, and the ugly. I really appreciate that and have a better sense of where to do business, make trades with etc.

Me too.
Thanks for pointing that out.

Doug

Honestly, this thread gives me gas along with my figs..

I would imagine James is constantly working on his project and not online. Looks like there's a lot of money involved in setting this thing up

A few things.

James first mentioned that his double walls were inflated in November last year.  This is his second mention of that

A back up generator and/or propane heat is a great idea

Shipping figs from Kansas any time in Feb would result in the death of the fig.  It could easily be below zero F on any day in Feb.  No matter what James does anything shipped will be loaded on an unheated truck where it may spend a night if it's going to MCI and 2 nights if DEN.

Personally, I'm fine with waiting.  Orders increase linearly, figs grow exponentially.

I don't get the excitement, aren't these due to ship in the fall of 2017?  And go check his website to see what he says about how he survived the freeze...

Some people previously placed orders for 2016, some for spring 2017. All you can place now on his website are for fall 2017 delivery. Would guess this is James' way of not adding any more to what he has committed to for 2016 and early 2017. We all know he is behind in orders, this appears to be a good way to allow more time for new orders. Anyone who doesn't want to wait until fall 2017 has other Vendors or eBay to turn to.

The people who google search "fig cuttings for sale" get James website as the first result.  When they click on it they see "Fall 2017 Fig trees for sale."  There is no information on the website telling someone that the 2016 trees have never been shipped.

One thing about James update was not clear to me, when he mentions that he's behind few varieties and maybe they will not be ready until fall, does this apply to 2016 orders or just for 2017 orders? For my part, I had in my order 2 Figo Preto (which is one of the varieties that is mentioned), the other Preto was for my father, but I email James today I said to him that I can take one Preto instead of two, the same goes for Black Madeira. I told him that I can change them for another varieties which doesn't have the same problem.
Please don't tell me that Preto and Black Madeira are the same, I respect everyone who thinks that, but I want to try them In my climate and reach my own conclusion.

I just canceled a substantial order with James. It included a good number of the high demand varieties. Reason is shoulder surgery, age, and other health issues.

James gave me a prompt refund and was totally professional. He even apologized. I didn't deserve that but it was appreciated in any case.

Good luck to James and all his customers..!!

Goodluck Steve

Patience is all what it takes to get the trees. nothing else will help james to complete the project.. Quit worrying too much. if the trees not being shipped within the deadline, then ask for a refund for those who cannot wait any longer. That's all :)

I believe in James because he is a Black n Gold Fan!

Go Steelers!

Steve,

 You are a standup guy...I hope you have a full recovery...
Mark

Oh boy!
I had to take few breaks to go through the last few pages of this Bull Cr#p.
Don't you people have any shame left in you?

As I said in the beginning: Shut up and let the man do his job.

This thread must be broken.

I'm proud of everybody.

We had an ice storm this past week, but we missed out on anything too severe and sailed through it in fine shape.  I have 2 generators (I bought an extra one just for this storm), and had strategically positioned them ahead of time and built shelters for them, but they weren't needed.  We only lost power for about 15 minutes, and by the time I had completed the switchover to generator power, the electricity had returned, and I was able to switch back over and turn off the generators. 

Here are some updated pics from our winter operation.  The first pic shows the progress we're making on a 2nd 'grow room' area.  All of the grow lights in this area should be operational by late tonight or tomorrow:

 

The rest of the pics are from a neighboring tunnel that already has grow lights wired up.  The newly rooted baby trees are flourishing under the grow lights, and the established trees in 3gal pots that had previously slipped into dormancy are breaking out now, too:

 
 
 
 

Yesterday I checked on the 1,200 3gal trees that are overwintering in some other tunnels, and they were all alive and well.  They have all slipped into dormancy now, but with temps soaring into the 50F-55F range outside over the next week, I suspect they're going to start waking up very soon.  When they do, they will grow very fast, and should yield a large crop of air-layers (and some hardwood cuttings below the air-layers) by sometime in March.  Those air-layers, along with the thousands of rooted cuttings that we're growing right now, should be enough to cover the large majority of trees that have been pre-ordered.  So as soon as it gets warm enough to start shipping trees this spring, there will be a lot of boxing and shipping going on.

It should be noted, though, that there are some varieties that were in especially high demand and have been slow growers.  These will be delayed beyond March (possibly until late summer?) and include:

I-258
Figo Preto
Maltese Beauty
Abebereira
Bass' Favorite
Galicia Negra
Ponte Tresa
Black Madeira
Martinenca Rimada

If you have a chance to get any of those varieties at a good price from another trusted source, I would urge you to do so.  All of those varieties are worth having more than one of, so if you can get a good deal on any of them, I'd jump on it.  Then when our trees arrive at your door, you'll already have backups of some of the best and most expensive varieties.

Regarding cuttings:  in an effort to save tons of soft green wood that is usually lost, I am pursuing a strategy of air-layering just below the lignified/green boundary.  The goal is to save all of the green wood by having it remain as the top of the air-layered tree after it is separated from the mother tree, and to then be able to harvest lignified cuttings from the mother tree beneath where the air-layer was removed.  This means that many cuttings won't be able to be harvested until the air-layers can be removed in March.

Cuttings season was further complicated by the fact that our trees slipped into dormancy at many different times due to having about 6 or 8 different types of environments (outdoor versus indoor; heated tunnels versus unheated tunnels; pit greenhouses versus above-ground greenhouses).  Since all cuttings have to be ready at the same time for them to be shipped out together in orders, and since I want all cuttings to be fresh when they're shipped, the options were to either leave them all on the trees (where they could be damaged, depending on the environment), to prune and refrigerate them (which contradicts my desire for freshness), or to prune them and plow them back into the propagation operation.  I decided on the last option because it seemed like a good way to save and create more wood while still preserving the original cutting; that is, once the green top of the resulting rooted tree is air-layered off, the original lignified cutting (now a baby tree trunk) can be reclaimed.

Some people who live in exceptionally hot areas have asked that I send their trees right now so that they can get established in-ground before the intense heat arrives and kills them.  Most of these trees aren't ready yet, though, and the ones that are maybe ready are still tiny and would probably get beaten down by the elements if they were planted outside right now.  Since it may be too hot to plant the trees later this spring/summer, I am open to the option of growing the plants here for those people, and then shipping the resulting bigger trees later in the season if the person is willing to pay the extra shipping cost involved with shipping bigger trees.