I hope I've gotten this in the right order.
After struggling for life for 4 years, it is finally looking like a tree that might make it. It started life as a small twisted sprout about 6 inches long with very deformed leaves and a nice ball of roots in 2010. I didn't think it would survive the first year. In late summer it sprouted another branch just above the soil line which in no time grew way past the original. It did put on a few figs but none ripened. The original sprout never did grow an inch. It went dormant.

2010


2011 rolled around and it came to life. The new sprout grew nicely.  The leaves although infected with FMV didn't look too bad. The original sprout had a few leaves that were more deformed than ever, but did not grow an inch. I cut off the original sprout and tried to root it but it wasn't to be. A few of the figs did ripen and looked good, but didn't have much taste to them. Definitely not figgy. Thus came and went the 2011 season.

2011
April


June


July
Figs looked good but were not.


September fig looked better but no taste



2012 season looked a little better. The leaves weren't as deformed and 8 small figs set on the new trunk and ripened but not much to talk about. Also another new sprout started again near the soil line and it had 4 figs on it. I tried to air layer it but that failed.





Now for this year 2013. While still dormant I root pruned it and put it in some fresh soil mix including some rabbit manure. I also topped off the tree taking about 10 inches off. I tried to root 2 five inch pieces but again, no go. Meanwhile the tree awakened and put out some very nice leaves compared to previous years. Figs are also starting to form. Perhaps this is the year it will do something.

Good luck with it!

UCD sent me one cutting this yr. i cut it in two and rooted both. terminal bud cutting is leafing out very nicely. the other cutting is bit slower with tiny leaf on the side.

how big is the container in the pix?

Wow, looking nice this year.

Gene, good job and way to hang in there with it. Hopefully this will be the jackpot year. I am like Pete. I have two cuttings from
UCD and one looks really good and the other so so.

Is the Black Ischia always this difficult? I got a cutting from UCD and this is making me nervous! o_O  You are so patient for that tasty fig. Great job!

Gene,

Thanks for the great post and pics. A question about the root pruning. What size pot was it in and did you just cut any circling roots or what exactly did you do?

Thanks

The tree looks great, hopefully it will produce flavorful figs this year

Gene thanks much for showing your Ischia Black it looks well .
Good luck with it.  ; )

i'm little confused. Ischia Black, i heard, is one of the best tasting fig. is it over rated?

Gene,
Thanks for the great pictures showing the progression of your tree. The description of this varieties flavor interest me but I don't know if I won't to baby it as much as it seems to need.

Hopefully this year you will get fruit that match the rave reviews.

First I would like to say that my cutting came from my friend Richard Watts. When I first got it in the dormant stage and bare rooted it looked great with the nicest root ball I'd ever seen on a young fig. I first moved it to a one gallon pot for it's first year. In it's second year I moved it up to a 3 gallon pot. In Feburary of 2012 I checked the roots and found that it hadn't fill the pot or was circling. I just removed all of the loose soil and gave it some fresh mix, mostly pine bark fines and a little peat. This past February I pulled it from the pot again and found that the roots had gone to the pot walls and bottom. I cut off about 3 inches of the bottom soil and root and cut 3 wedges from the sides. This time I potted it up in the same 3 gallon pot with some pine bark fines mixed 3 to 1 with rabbit manure. I also top pruned it to make it put out more branches. As you see, it seems to be working. At awakening I fed it some Miracle Gro plus a little triple 13. As soon as all this rain stops, hopefully in a couple of days, and the pots dry a little I will again feed it MG. I am pushing all of my potted trees this year using MG and triple 13. So far all of them have responded well. I just hoping I get to eat some great tasting BI this year.
"gene"

Looking good Gene:)  I ordered a Ischia black potted plant from Richard a couple months back for fall shipping.

@Gene -- fertilize it well. After that it should grow well. My tree behaved the same way as per your description. It came frow RW too. It cost a bit to bring it here with phyto certification & so far it is worth it. I hope you did get Gypsy(Zingarella) from him.

Gene it looks promising for you this year.
May your next update be a good one telling us how great they taste and that you had a bumper crop!
Best of luck to you!

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. This tree can be trying to one's soul, but I don't know if they will all be like this one. I think it's the FMV that really stunted it growth for it's first years. If it grows well this year I will move it up to a 5 gal pot when I see roots hitting the wall. I want to give it all the room it needs. For root pruning I did just like Martin showed in his recent post, in fact Martin is the one I copied since his seem to do so good (thanks Martin). As far as the taste, last year was a wash and I do mean a wash. I lost almost all my fig due to the excessive rain. Perhaps that is why it was almost tasteless. My other figs even though they were bland and waterlogged did taste figgy. This fig had a completely different taste that I can't describe as I've never tasted anything like it. Hopefully we have a nice dry ripening season so I can truly get to taste this fig at it's best. We are in a rainy pattern now and have been for the last couple of weeks. I just hope it gets it all out of it's system and go back to a normal pattern. The rain now is making a mess of things but the trees are loving it. I've never seen them this lush. Here is a picture of one group of my 3 gallon potted trees. The BI is the forth pot from the left. The large tree on the left is a local Strawberry ( a Louisiana heirloom) and the one on the right is a J.H. Adriatic. The one on the right behind the pots is LSU Tiger. That tree has gone hog wild this year and has plenty of fruit on it. The only tree that I've seen grow faster was my Conadria last year. This year after a hard pruning the Conadria is having normal growth.
"gene"

(just share) my Black Ischia Fig:

Patience really does pay.  And looks as though it pays really well.

nico, can you let us know about your source for the Ischia Black and the taste?

@Pete 
actually, my Black Ischia is one of some varieties that i got at the first i start collecting varities of fig---( 2009)
its from local nursery in java island (east java-Indonesia)
the taste is sweet,little juicy, "legit"(i dont know what is "legit" in english,, this word used to describing uniq sweet taste :) )
the taste is one of my favorite,,i like Black Isachia taste more than Negronne :)

thanks nico.i wonder if anyone has gotten a IB out of UCD cuttings yet...

Very nice pictures Gene! It's good to see that your patience has paid off ;) .

Pete, I have two grafts of BI that I did last year. The scion came from UCD and they are still looking pretty good. Also have one Black Mad that took. I'll get pics up sooner or later.

I had a couple of Ischia Black figs from a UCD cutting back in 2011.  Last year a Baltimore Oriole discovered my figs and the tree also had a bad year.  This year it seems to be growing great and responded to pruning from some air layers I did last year.  I'm keeping them in the greenhouse and away from the birds.   The figs had a burst of flavor at the eye which was like a preserve consistency and very sweet.

Nico, thanks for the pictures, those look great. The first one must be a main crop and the other two are of brebas. Is that correct.
"gene"