It seems that Black Madeira's roots need room to roam.

I rooted a BM cutting this winter and put the rooted cutting in ground this spring, then took this picture on June 8th, at which point the cutting had put on 3 trunks maybe each a foot long:


I took this next picture today, 2 months and a week later, at least 5 trunks, 3 of them multibranched, 2 of which I pinched off the tip a month or more ago, one of which I pinched off the tip 2 or 3 weeks ago. Maybe 20 or more feet of growth here, not all visible. Am cloning the three main trunks. (A Gino's Black bush - small clone last year - is sprawling into the photo from the right.)  
 
 
Above, the Gino's Black bush, with a rooted cutting of Violet Sepor being cloned on the right and one of the Black Madeira clone attempts on the far left. Clone attempt of Gino's black behind and left of the base of the yardstick.

The Black Madeira is maybe 9-10 months old, maybe 20-25 feet of total growth. It would be tight to try to dig it up and fit it into a 20-25 gallon pot, though I think could be done. Anyway, I won't. Am cloning off the three main trunks (which are each 3 foot tall well-branched trees in their own right) and will see how it grows back from the ground after this coming winter. The cutting was about 7, maybe 8 inches long in the shape of a little y, relatively thick.

The Black Madeira has been trying to put on a few figs but I've allowed only one to stay on. The Gino's Black is growing about 15 figs. Comparably aged cultivars like Gino's Black in pots have put on twice as many figs or more, for me. The ones planted in ground (good ground) as many have noted, would seem to prefer to grow and grow.

Very impressive, congrats.

Impressive is an understatement. Are there any signs of fmv? Would you be so kind as to share what kind of fertilizer regimen you are using? Thank you for the post.

Wow nice growth ... My BM started in March refuses to grow

Very healthy plant. What was the source of your BM?

You can see in the first photo it looks like there is no FMV, which is exactly how it looked in life, when quite young. Then, what you can't see in the second photo because of the angle is that there are FMV markings all over the place, including some distorted leaf growth. Still growing like a weed though, with a kind of muscular growth that I can't say I've seen in other cultivars.

It's a good composted garden bed, red clay not too far down. It's a raised bed, essentially. I use Jobe's organic fertilizer, both the tree spikes and the granular form, which I think is more intense than the tree spikes. I also give it some back to nature fertilizer, liquid gold. And as with all my figs beds I toss house scraps into them, mostly only coffee grounds out front there or other innocuous food leavings or liquids. Plus more and more as much as possible I pluck comfrey leaves all summer, supposed to be loaded with nitrogen, and toss them torn up into the beds. Put a bunch of pine bark in there too. That bed has gotten extra attention, which if I had the resources I would extend elsewhere.

If you take a look at my recent post on Binello / Gallo, you can see a mere two foot tall tree that, though carrying a bunch of figs, got almost no attention this summer - a bare amount of mulch and some water, not much, not enough, and little or no fertilizer. That's why I call it robust - given what it got this summer and what it endured this winter, in a way that seems as impressive to me as the Black Madeira growth. The Binello / Gallo does receive direct sunlight from dawn till 5 or maybe 6, quite a long stretch. The Black Madeira receives direct sunlight from dawn till 3 at latest (unlike the Binello / Gallo though it is close to concrete and the house which absorb and radiate extra heat and/or block some wind).

Thanks for your response. I guess it makes sense that there is no fruit this year-this is a classic case of rampant growth at the expense of fruit. Next year, watch out, you may have a bumper crop, but watch the nitrogen. I hope you have a long growing season!

Tony,
Thanks for sharing the pictures and info.
The BM looks like it put on a lot of good growth.

What is your plan for winterization? and When is your first frost date?

BTW, the onset of Leaf Mosaic may have been due to a nutrient deficiency, especially if the leaves looked healthy early in their growth.
What was your fertilization schedule before it was planted in-ground? Thanks.

Good going Tony. What a immense amount of growth in such a short time. The photos are real nice and your details are very helpful. Thanks.

About fertilization schedule or regimen of the Black Madeira before and after planting in ground, it's all very scattershot. I typically root cuttings in potting soil or combined with perlite. Pure perlite would probably be safest, but I almost always shortcut, use potting soil, typically organic that has some kind of fertilizer in it. Then I get the rooted cutting into the ground as early as possible in spring. Some take off, some don't. If they don't I repot them and try to baby them. If they take off in ground like this Black Madeira did and many others have done, then I apply what I can, mulch, organic fertilizer, water, keep them happy. My guess: I don't think a cutting should grow this quickly, so the rapid growth induced stress enabled the FMV to appear. It's just a guess. I'm happy to live with the tradeoff of some scarred and deformed leaves, since in return, I've got a lot of wood there, some significant lignification already, and plenty of great leaves too, and a few figs if I want them which I don't in these its first months.

First frost typically hits in October sometime, I think, could be quite early, could be very late, maybe even early November I suppose. Or early October. I don't really winterize. I mulch somewhat at ground level. My figs are all mulched during the growing season anyway but many will receive the covering additionally of unchopped fall leaves, which act sort of as a tarp. Some may get additional wood chips. Last winter, very harsh, dozens of figs in ground, nothing survived above ground. But no trees died, zero as I recall, all came back. Many did not fruit, but I learned which ones did, or might do so, and even better, next year. Will see.

So if I don't winterize, what about all this year's growth? Well, I hope to take most of it off as three cloned trees headed for pots. The rest of the growth will become a few feet of cuttings which I'll sell or trade, some already committed. And I trained one trunk to run underground then re-emerge a couple feet away where it is now growing vertically as a distanced trunk. Never tried this before but my hope is that that slightly underground trunk will survive the winter and send up multiple vertical trunks next summer to create a bigger bush. An experiment.

Very reliable source for this cutting - will check whether or not acknowledgment is okay.

Great I have some figs that grew this crazy while one has so much FMV it just started to cope with it and produce good non-lobed leaves bigger than my hand!
It took almost 9 months to cope with the virus but it is getting better. I planted it in pure sand... now mixed soil.

Good stuff Tony

In response to the query about the source of the Black Madeira cutting: it came from Vinnie Johns, who grows great figs. And for that matter, the clone that started the Gino's Black bush right next to the Black Madeira came from his sons who sell great clones. More info on Vinnie and his sons and their figs at the following F4F post and thread: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=41699400&postcount=11