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Fig plants resilience for survival- a record or what!?

A sucker of medium size (Conadria, 12'~15" tall, 1/4" thick at the bottom) was shipped to me on July 16 (2009). It got lost in transit. I received a call on September 11 telling me that there was a package for me to be picked up. I was surprised since I was not expecting any package since there were no recent deals of any kind. I picked up the package which was literally feather light. I opened it and found that it was the Conadria sucker shipped to me on July 16 and now received on September 11 for a total of 57~58 days in transit from Montreal to Ottawa, normally a two hours drive. The packaging was with shredded newspaper wrapped in plastic bag at the time of shipping. The shredded paper had dried up with no moisture inside the package. Most of the plant seem dead with leaves dried brittle and the stem wrinkled all the way to about three inches up from the roots. The root almost looked like the dry roots on onions or daffodil/tulip bulbs sold in the fall. The only hope was a couple of hair thin roots that did not look totally dry and the 3"bottom length of the stem that did not look wrinkled dead but hard to tell if dry or not.
I was discarding it as hopeless dead wood but my wife told me that I have so many pots with not so pretty plants so why not just stick it in a pot with soil. This was the first ever input from her as far as OUR fig plants are concerned so I did what my wife suggested and potted it on September 12 after a night with its roots soaked in water. I placed the pot in a clear plastic bag.
I know I did a short story long so I will do the reverse now. We saw green spot on two nodes on October 3 and  we now have a live Conadria plant, with two good green shoots, coming to life from a stressed out almost dead sucker from a 57-days long journey! To me it is like a miracle with lesson learned that fig plants are very resilient. Be patient with dead looking or dried out plants, Nursed them the easy possible way and you may be surprised with a reward.
The picture on the right is of October 3 and the other picture is on October 13.
Thanks Michal for the sucker.
Thanks 'g' for the cuttings of Conadria you sent last winter that were killed by the fungus gnats.
(Ignore dates on pictures)

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That is one sucker without a death wish!

I agree thats one determined sucker that tells you something about how figs, seems they can survive in some of the worst conditions most other plants would not have made it that long without any water or sunlight.

Nice Save!!!
Sal

Ottawan - how can I not believe that you have green fingers. Great that you have a good supervisor.

I am delighted to hear that it had survived this entire ordeal! As Nelson pointed out not many other plants would have survived for so long.

Thats great and shows how resilient most fig  plants can be.

 never seem to amaze me! I am happy for you.  Ciao

Paully
I may have only a greenish thumb with really healthy green plants but this has been frustrating me because my other plants did not want to shed off the leaves (while dieseler in another zone 5 has already tucked away his plants). Most plants had deep green plants and the 28F~30F at nights for a week or more could not make them drop the leaves. Probably the rain water helped maintain the leaves. However, a good 25F last night with frost helped drop half of the leaves and the rest are probably just hanging loose waiting for a little gust of wind

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