Just received my Black Madeira (?) cuttings from Gluglo which were purchasd inexpesively on eBay Dec21.
There were some uneccessary harsh words regarding him a few weeks ago. All I can say is that he delivered as promised and the cuttings arrived well packaged and each cutting was placed in an individual rubber topped water vial. I'd buy from him again.

Thanks for letting everyone know your experience Rich. I thought he seemed like an honest guy and I hope he will share more information about how figs are grown in Madeira in the future.

Very nice to hear! You take care of them and make them grow for you, and update us on their progress.  It is so fun to get them going... I have to figure out what is going on with my transplanting to larger pots, I seem to 'shock' each and everyone... today I noticed my 2 italians who were so cute with 2 sets of leaves...totally wilted. No reason whatsoever that I can see. Another did the same and new shoot came up.  I just hope these do to. 

Yes,Hoosier he seemed honest and knowlegable in the few emails we shared but I think because of some of the remarks made against him we won't see him on this forum much, if ever, in the future. It's a shame to scare off a long time  grower whom, I assume, would offer his experience, knowledge (and cuttings)to those interested.

Rich, me too all of the above. 

Please add some initials to them so if you ever traded these cuttings they don't get mixed with the uc Davis variety.

Good point Bass. Especially if those are expected to be FMV free.

BTW Rich. You won't regret your investment into the BM cuttings. I haven't had fruit from my BM yet but I did get fruit from my Preto last summer. I've heard they are very similar in flavor. The flavor is unlike most other figs. Unique in a good way ;-) .

Bass, They are already marked to keep track of these from the expected UCD cuttings and the 2 BM cuttings previously bought from another forum member.

Again my point from a deleated thread last night. Those are not black maderia. Bm is only from ucd they are a black fig from maderia.

I missed the other post that was deleted. Were there any pics of leaves and fruit of this tree? If so, did they match? I would like to think that there would be other plants that are out there of BM that are healthy. Where did UCD get theirs. This tree is not a hybrid, so sources of this tree from other locations are very possible. The more the world gets closer together, joined by the internet, the more that it's possible to locate. I'm not saying what you have is correct, but could be possible. Why was this deleted? Such info of this fig tree, should not be deleted. Right or wrong, this info will always be important to us.


luke

No there was never any pics of leaves or fruit. The only thing ever posted was a few cuttings with immature leaves.

I don't understand why new comers are being so obstinate about the Black Madeira.  You did not get Black Madeira.  Maybe it matches in the future but for now it is not BM.

Luke the guy that sold these stole Jon's pic of black mission nl said its the true black Madeira. Basically went around and took names of Portuguese figs we have here stole pics lied to his customers broke import laws and is pulling another mifigfun problem. New people think they are getting a deal so they are buying them.

And it wouldn't matter any way if the fig is similar to black maderia it's not black maderia.


Here is an email I received on this subject from a European fig collector

MADEIRA BLAK variety, not the same variety as the BORDISSOT NEGRA, probably a very similar variety,may even have similar genetically dendrogram, originally from Portugal, but agronomic descriptors do not match, the fig tree has only unilobuladas and trilobed leaves, is later, has drop of honey the ostiole, known the first century before Christ, mentioned by Pliny and Colummela in Roman times, known as African Ficco, also African Barnisoto, Barnissote noire, Bernissou, Bertino, Bouriansoto, Brogiotto fiorentino, Brogiotto nero, Brosciotto, Bourjansoto, black Burjassot, Della brand, Paris, Violette de Solliès, Burdassòtta, Bajasote, Boujasote, Bragasote

So for simple minded people bm is an unknown possible sport of a known variant.

The Black Madeira at UC Davis was donated to them on 15 Jan 1988 by C. Kennedy. I wonder if there may be a small chance he or the one one he got it from (and so on) got it from someone on Madeira Island?

The only ? is which one that is all.  Suppose to be at least 5 blacks on the island.

The fig with the official name of Black Madeira held at the USDA GRIN Davis station came from Madeira to San Diego County by a lady many (50?) years ago and eventually sent to Davis by Todd Kennedy (CRFG cultivar registrar).  Preto also came by the same manner from a lady in San Diego County many years ago.  They are reportedly similar though I've read comments that Preto is slightly earlier.

Gluglo's "Black Madeira" may be another variety or strain, only time will tell.  It may even be slightly better than the others.  It's probably best if it gets his name attached to it which may be a good thing "Glugo's Figo Preto", etc. would work.

While comments directedly towards Gluglo were indeed harsh, it should be noted that most of the criticism was because he had eBay listings using the photos owned by others without their permission and some of those photos were even of other varieties.  He also listed an auction for RdB, a French variety, but took that down.  I still think he had valuable information to share and communicated with him in a friendly manner and he has posted here not long ago.  I think someone new needs to spend some time to know what sort of selling practices are considered acceptable.  Doing anything to cause confusion about varieties is always a source of frustration.

And Todd Kennedy has done great things for figs but he did loose the names on all of the Italian series of figs. So Italian 258 could be borogatto nero for all we know. And until some one dishes out the 100$ to DNA test we will never know

This is the way to do this.  I like how this thread is going today. This is good and very constructive.  On that note, I think I may have a solution.  I'm sure everyone wants the true variety but doesn't want to pay an arm and a leg to get it.  If you truly want to solve this, here is one solution:  people with the true cuttings can take just a single three node cutting (not three 9 inch long cuttings) and ask for shipping plus $5.  Spread around the real cutting instead of muddying up the fig with a fig with a fake name.  Make it so cheap that people wont buy the fake one off ebay and will come here to buy and it will uphold the purity of the line.  Then one can say "my line comes from Dominick on F4F and I have the true line!" (or whoever wants to step up and fix this problem)! There is a solution instead of us all bickering and being mad because I truly believe as others have stated that there is going to be people that just sell bad stuff and don't care. I think it's up to people who are really passionate about this like Dominick and others to protect these figs, which is a great thing.  Instead of complaining about what we should or shouldn't do, we need to come up with solutions.  I think this is one solution.  Bringing awareness is only part of the solution. 
Best wishes to everyone that this continues as a successful constructive conversation.  We are not always the teacher, sometimes we are the student. It is my hope that we can come together and fix this. 

Ethieus,

Well said (your entire post). I agree about keeping things pure. I also agree that peoples initials should be attached to certain strains of figs. For example, I have "Black Madiera UCD" in a pot in my greenhouse. I got the cuttings straight from them. I also got a plant from a man who got cuttings from them. Tracing the lineage is important.

Some still have the initials but it is getting neglected unfortunately.

I hope these trees grow well for you and you able to show us these trees, since there is a lot of unrest with these particular cuttings, it would be nice to see how they are to compare to UCD Black Madiera, maybe it's the same, maybe it's worse maybe it's 10 times better and ripens earlier so many unknowns that we cannot think about are exciting to see what this Unknown Madiera has in store for you, I hope they all root for you and produce lots of excellent figs.

Lets see what the figs come out to be, I have several unknowns from friends that brought the original parent tree from the Azores. The seller may have re used pictures from others, but at least it maybe an interesting tree to have. Curious how they made it through customs.

Newandawg and I who purchased these cuttings have decided to call them FIGO PRETO FRANCISCO  to avoid conffussion with the famous Black Madeira from UCD. We suggest that others who have bought them from GLUGLO also refer to them as  FIGO PRETO FRANCISCO. Perhaps in the future this fig can be identified more accurately. Sound reasonable guys? 

Sounds good. But Maybe UNK Black Madeira may have been easier.LOL

Francisco is Gluglo's Christian name. We didn't want to use Black Madeira at all in the name because  it hasn't been proven  (and probably never will) to be related to the one and only Black Madeira UCD.

Vince, I totally disagree(here we go again, so sad). That's one of things that upsets me today. We have become a country of being politicaly corect. It is truely sad that we can not say what is true with out sugar coating it. People are debating the issue here, not throwing knives. Now if you hate me, oh well. I'm not picking sides, i listening to the facts and go from there. There are major things that have been done wrong here, not out of spite or to upset anyone. There is somewhat of a code to go by or unwritten rules to follow in the fig world. Using someone else's photo's to sell a fig is being underhanded. If you grow this fig, you should be able to show your own picture. The reason behind this is, they go on the fig site and steal the pictures of the most searched out fig and post the picture and put up for bid on ebay. Now you buy these cuttings and 2 or 3 years later, you find out there just brown turkey. Now your pissed and search out who's picture it was of the fig. Now even with this said, maybe the guy thought he was doing nothing wrong. Only time will tell.

luke