Holy cow!  Now I have something to show my wife to prove I'm not crazy for having 8 bins going!

That is a serious operation, there.

Hello, my very first post! I had been using the forum for info for quite some time (actually more often then not when using Google I was brought here for the info) but recently just joined. Completly separate to that, and before I saw this post, I stumbled on the website James created and saw this offer. Blindly, I ordered 2 of the varieties left (at this point most have sold out). I figured, what the heck! Dr. Monticello was one that I chose. I don't know much about it and info seems sparse but what I did see looked very promising, and the whole point for me was getting something I could never find at my local nursery. After seeing the scope of the operation this effort has required I am truly thankful for the opportunity to pick up a couple plants at such a reasonable price and also feel great that business is going to someone who loves figs and is part of the larger community. So often business is done by the larger companies with only bottom line in mind and consequently the attention to detail and passion for the plants are lost in the process. I am excited and steeped in anticipation! Well done, and thx!!!

Hi James,

Just curious what your success rate is on a rooting operation this large. 

Roughly how many don't root or fail shortly after rooting or leafing out, and how many fail after being transferred to the greenhouse?

Hi TGO, thanks for the nice comments :)

Dr. Monticello's is supposed to be similar to Black Mission from what I've read, but I haven't tasted it yet to know first-hand.  I have 2 young trees growing in-ground, 1 outside and 1 in a greenhouse, and am anticipating the first fruit from them this season.

Its a WOW for you James. 

I love seeing these updates and knowing that somewhere in that mix is the tree that I ordered from you. How do you plan on shipping these trees? Overnight/two day shipping? Also should I be expecting a email from you when my tree has shipped? I only ask because I will be sure to keep an eye out for it when I know it's coming my way.

Good question, Datesnfigs! I just realized that July is my family vacation month. Yikes!!!

Meg, ask him to hold your delivery until August.  Your neighbor may or may not actually water your plants.  Even if they're reliable anything could happen with them.

Could they choose to pay additional shipping for a later shipment of their desired tree?

All sounds good to me, James!

James. Could there be a fourth option to wait till all trees are ready? ;)

Great to hear about all your new varieties. Is it July 1st yet???

Frank, that sounds reasonable. Who knows, she may just become a fig enthusiast herself :-).

There are figs everywhere you walk in my greenhouses now:

 
 
 
The floaters are getting big, and will soon move into another tunnel where they can spread out and be up-potted (a lot of them are still in the clear 16oz cups they were rooted in).  I've been extremely cautious about giving them fertilizer, for fear of overdoing it, and it's obvious by their light green color.  That should change pretty quickly, though, when I up-pot them and give them a good dose of composted manure.

 
 
Here's a look inside my aquaponics tunnel.  The trees that are planted in the gravel are growing really fast right now, as are the 5gal trees that are hidden from view.  The lanky 1gal plants were potted up from an indoor cloner the day before; they look ten times better now after getting a few days of good filtered sunlight (this pic is from last week).  I think I'm going to move the cloners out into the greenhouses this spring so the cuttings they're rooting will get more light and lankiness won't be an issue on subsequent batches.

 

Hardy Chicago

 

And here's one of the resident frogs busy on bug patrol :)

 
Overall the figs continue to grow well. There aren't any personally assigned plants at this stage, just a sea of fig stock. We're only just now getting near the halfway point (timewise) of the project, so there's still quite a while to go, and as is the case with propagation projects like this, most of the growth will occur in the last half of the time, since plant growth is exponential.

Two greenhouses are full right now, and I'm getting ready to unpack one into a 3rd greenhouse over the next week or two, which will make for 3 full greenhouses. Shortly after that it'll be time to start trimming and airlayering the legions of mother trees in order to create the 2nd generation, which will in turn be grown out into most of the small well-rooted trees that will be shipped.  (If only 1 generation were needed, this would have been a 3 month project; but it was always scheduled to use 2 generations, which is why I gave the 6 month estimate of July.)

On a final note, I wanted to say thanks to Ingevald (Byron) for visiting last week.  He's one of my favorite posters here, just a really interesting and nice guy, and it was a lot of fun getting to spend half a day with him.  Thanks Byron!  For those who haven't seen it, he wrote a really nice intro to figs back in 2009 that was helpful to me when I first started out:  https://lawrencefruittreeproject.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/article-growing-figs-in-kansas.pdf

James,

You just continue to impress. I placed another order before I saw this today.

Ditto ...

Thanks, Phil  :)

Thanks, George :)

A lot of folks requested that I try to find particular varieties for them.  Here are the ones I've been able to get so far:

Albacor Comuna
Albacor de Molla Blanca
Bakio
Baleares Plot 3
Barada
Bisirri #1
Black Provence
Blanche de Turquie
Blava (Campenera)
Blaveta (Campos)
Bombarral
Borda Barrquer
Bordissot Rossa
Brooklyn Dark
Calvert
Carolina Beach 1 Unk
Celeste (Belleclare)
Coll de Dama Gegantina
Dark Portuguese
Dark Syrian
De la Gloria
De la Reina
De la Roca
Dels Ermitans
Emalyn's Purple
Falls Gold
Figo Sofeno Escuro
Galicia Negra
GM 125
GM 149a
GM 171
GM 172
Golden Riverside
Grise de St. Jean
Gros Monstreuse di Lipari
Hardy Hartford
Italian 253
Italian 358
Italian 376
Janice
Julie's
LaRadek Brown Turkey
Lemon
Manresa
Maroc Noir
Martinenca Rimada
Maryland Berry
Mega Celeste
Melanzana
Napolitana
Naragansett
Natalina
Neveralla
Noir de Barbentane
Pananas Purple
Panevino White
Papa John
Paradiso
Pasquale
Pernette Noir
Peterson Prolific
Pingo de Mel
Planera
Ponte Tresa
Princesa
Raspberry Latte
Red Israel
Royal Vineyard
Salem Honey
Santa Cruz Dark
Sierra
Strawberry Teardrop (UCR 184-15)
Tashkent
Tauro
Tres Num Prato
Troiano Calabrese
TV3
Unknown Dark Greek (Navid's)
Unknown Owensboro
Unknown White Italian
Vernea
Verte
Victoria
Violet Patlican
Vasilika Sika (Vasile's strain)
Vutata
White Adriatic
Wuhan
Yellow Lebanese (Bekaa Valley)
Yellow Long Neck
Zingarella (Gypsy)

There are still another 20-30 requested varieties that I haven't been able to get yet, so if you don't see your personal requests in the list above, that's why.  If/when I do get them, I'll add them to the 2017 listings on my site with the others.

We have about an acre of open land left.  This season I'm going to plant in-ground figs in 1/2 to 2/3 of that open area, and I've just about convinced myself to add a 30' x 12' x 96' tunnel dedicated exclusively to potted figs. 

But I must admit, I'm starting to think more and more about the empty 10-acre field for sale/lease that's adjacent to our property...

You must sure have the hookup getting these rare varieties.

@GreenFin
>>> But I must admit, I'm starting to think more and more about the empty 10-acre field for sale/lease that's adjacent to our property...

My advice ... DO, do go for it!

My brother down-under in Aussie-land, a while back, has had a similar opportunity, but for some reason ($$?) did not buy; now he regrets it very bad.
He and his two sons have a sustaining 'cut-flower' farm that could have been expanded.

From above, as for us, opportunity coming, we did buy a 7 acre farm/property next-door to my son in more-South NJ.
In a year (or 2), we will be living there enjoying our 4 young  grandchildren, plus some other good stuff ...