Steve i went from 3 gallon in June  to 25 gallon container(small plant on right) in August last season with this airlayer pictured below.

One has to be carefully not to over water it or you make mush out of the roots stop the plumbing
system and likely kill the plant.

Pictures below

I agree Martin, BM seems to be able to handle more drought than other trees, it's one of the few that if I don't water frequently that it doesn't seem to mind.  It just seems to eat up the heat and not worry too much about water.

Martin and Chivas - thanks for your comments.  I'm actually going from 3 gallon (not 1 gallon - post above corrected) to 15 gallon.  So I think I'll go ahead with it but be careful with the watering.

I had a one year old thoroughly rooted BM in a milk gallon container. The next year I moved it to what they call a 20-pound pail, about 4 gallons.  At the end of the season I pulled it to check the roots and take some pics to sell on eBay. Keep in mind I was photographing the sides with the most roots to make the sale. These roots are pitiful compared to every other fig I’ve grown. I see more dirt than roots. I never did sell it.

And I fert every 10 – 14 days. My 1^st BM (Thanks Jon) lived in a 12” clay pot the second year. The next year I moved  to a 15” clay pot and then a 20” clay pot. It now lives in a 20 gallon plastic tub. I can't be sure but I think it did better in a clay pot.

Hmm. One thing I didn't mention is that the larger container I hope to move the Bl. Madeira up to is a SIP.  That could be another wrinkle if this variety is more sensitive than most to moist soil.  Does anyone have experience with B.M. in a SIP?

Steve sorry cant help you with the SIP i like to keep the plants in a simple regular containers which
work fine in our yard.

My BM from KK is in a 5g SIP.  It LOVES it.  The soil mix it is in is 50% pine bark fines, 40% Miracle Grow, 10% perlite along with a few scoops of limestone and a couple of capfulls of osmocote.  I do however use only ro/di water with nearly 0 TDS, as opposed to my town well water.

My BM seems to have taken a turn for the worst.  Stopped watering.  Pot was paper light.  Started taking outside for a few hours at a time each day in warm daytime temps.  Began watering again with 5-7 sprays from spray bottle every other day.  Poked finger down into soil to feel for moisture first.  Looked like all was going well until a few days ago when last leaf started curling up and dying.  It's holding on but doesn't look good.  Only hope is terminal bud had brown membrane on top which dried up and fell off last night.  I hope that means it's growing a little.  Fearing the worst.

 

danny, 

instead of spraying for watering, water well once, and leave it alone till next watering. when you spray the top of the pot, the water usually doesn't penetrate deep down to the roots.

i would suggest this. get a bin, fill it with warm water to about 1/3 of the pot's height. add very weak MG fertilizer. bottom feed the BM by letting the pot rest in the bin for about 3-4 min. once 3-4 min is up, pick it up. tilt it at 45 angle and wait until all the water drains out. wait till next time the pot is almost dried and do it again. do not leave the plant in direct sunlight. nice shade will do until it recovers. 

another thing.. don't wait till the pot is paper light. i know i probably said to wait till it's very very light, but some of the potting soil will become hydrophobic once they are dried to a point and will not soak up water. you want it to be almost dried, but not to a point where it will repel water. 

Thanks Pete.  Since I sprayed today already I'll give it a shot tomorrow morning.  Appreciate the advice.

An update on my B Mad.

Watered all of the 1 gal's, including BM, from the bottom using a very weak MG fertilizer.  All of the 1 gal's took the water up great.  Over the next couple of days a few got lighter and most didn't.  The BM was one that didn't.  I stuck my finger down into the soil and felt something hard.  Started moving the soil and found a peat pot.  I forgot the BM was started in a peat pot!  A few months ago I was on the 'peat pot train' and realized that it was not working out for me.  Thought I had removed everything from the peat pots but forgot that some had made it into 1 gal's.  I usually stick my finger down the side of the pot to check for moisture and never felt the peat pots.  Turns out 8 of the 1 gal's were still in peat pots.

I ran to the local nursery and bought some Howe Professional Growers Mix (Really nice stuff!).  Added a tiny bit of concentrated manure and a little perlite.  Removed the peat pots from the 1 gal's and slowly peeled them away from the root balls (None of them actually pushed roots through the peat pots!).  The roots came away from the pots easy enough and although confined they looked pretty healthy.  Repotted and gave a big drink to each.

BM had one long, thin root that came out of the hole on the bottom of the peat pot.  I'm now guessing that it was not enough to support the top growth and that's why all of the leaves fell off.  There is still about 2 solid inches of green leading up to the terminal bud which looks really good.  Looks like it's pushing another bud too.  Maybe it's not too late and she'll make it.  Feel like an idiot.  Have my fingers crossed.  Thanks for listening.

old jiffy peat pot used to work great. the roots will easily penetrate the peat pot and they will grow well. however, the new design is making it hard for the roots to come out of the peat pot. i noticed this last yr when the design changed. most of my last yrs cuttings have roots circling inside of the peat pot until they break down. believe it or not, this shouldn't be a big issue unless the cutting is having specially hard time putting on the strong roots. 

most of the cuttings this winter were very strong growers. they all penetrated the new peat pots, if not went through the bottom or came up to the top. 

i still use peat pot method, and they are all in the 1 gal with peat pot. this is not a big issue for me since i bare root going from 1 gal to larger containers. at the time of repot, i would spread out the roots and cut the ones having problem. this is good time to trim the roots that will circle and girdle the cutting. 

using peat pot is a great idea when in cup stage. for those who are having issue with watering, peat pot will show you when you need to water them. also the idea is that peat pot will break down once in the 1 gal. 

but from what i'm hearing this might not be the case. it's working for me doesn't mean it will work for everyone. from pete s.'s updates, peat pot will hold water and that can kill the roots. 

here is a pix of Unk Pearl Harbor in cup stage currently. as you can see, this is very strong rooter. the new peat pot didn't cause much issue to this cutting. 

 

Pete, I remember reading your posts on peat pots when I started using them, so I started poking holes in the pots with a pencil.  I figured it would be easier for the roots to find their way out.  Not so much.  The ones that I repotted last night were all from the original batch with no holes poked in the sides.

Overall peat pots were a failure for me.  Have better success with a quality growing medium and cups.  But like you said, what works well for one does not always work well for another.

Your Unk Pearl Harbor looks great!

Pete, I have been using the Jiffy peat pots (#3) for a couple years and haven't noticed a change in them since then.  The majority of the time when I pot-up (from the 16 oz cup with the peat pot insert) to 1 gallon there are roots penetrating the peat pot along the side as you show.  I do know that there are other brands of peat pot out there - maybe they behave differently?  Or maybe Jiffy has introduced new peat pot designs in some parts of the country but not others?

danny, yupe. everyone has little different way of doing things and some works and some doesn't. lately, i have been soaking the peat pot over night in warm water to break them down before using them. one thing i really like about peat pot is when moving to 1 gal. with this method, i don't disturb the roots are all. they come out like a plug and makes it easy for me. at the same time, i'm trying to move away from peat pot method. will be using plain potting soil/perlite on few of the new cuttings to see if it will work for me. i'm thinking that now i know how to water them and when, if i let them put on enough roots, it will hold the soil mix and i won't have to disturb the roots too much.. unless the roots start to get stuck on the cup.. but few broken roots won't matter too much. 

One thing I have done with peat pots as I move up to 1 gallon is very carefully perforate the sides and bottom of the pot in a few places to make it easier for the roots to escape.  I don't know if this helps or not.

• Help with BM
• Over the last 10 years I’ve grown about 80 BM’s to various stages of maturity...
• what size of cup was your BM in prior to moving into that pot?
• ...the BM rooted in a baggie...
• My BM seems to have taken a turn for the worst.

laughing is good for you.. so is laughing so much ending up crying. x) 

I have chosen to laugh instead of cry - at times it didn't make much of a difference.

MY UC Davis BM cuttings should be famous.  The one which rooted last year has a green bud on it - it's also the same size it was when planted.  It failed to get larger (at all) over the entire course of a Summer.  And yet, it is alive.  Go figure.

With the weather we're having now (really cool) I expect the new pair of cuttings (assuming the small bit of bud I see under the microscope on one) might overtake the mighty 1 year old over the Summer - or not.

Andrew

give it good fertilizer. BM response well to fertilizer. like they say.. your mileage might vary, but i more or less double on the osmocote, and do regular dose of MG every week. it's still a slow grower, but very healthy. 

Andrew,

Here is my post on the super speedy growing Black Madeira:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/my-black-madeira-aka-the-slowest-tree-ever-6484609?pid=1279183893#post1279183893

There might be a light at the end of the tunnel. Even with the cooler weather, this tree has already put out twice it's total growth up to this year.

James,

Hi. The cutting was cleaned with a 10% bleach solution, wrapped in a damp paper towel and placed in a 1 gal. Ziploc Baggie. Opened the Ziploc every day to air it out. The cutting had no issues with mold. I was surprised when roots developed within a few weeks. When roots were about 3/4" I planted in peat pot with 50/50, UPM/perlite, and placed peat pot in 16 oz. clear cup much the same as in Pete's pic above. Cup has lots of holes. I remember the roots grew like crazy out of the bottom of the peat pot. They were very thick and healthy looking. The cutting started leafing out like crazy, too. When the roots started encircling the cup I figured it was time to move up. I removed peat pot from cup. Roots and everything came out without any problems; no breakage, etc. Potted in 1 gal. nursery pot with 1/1/1, UPM/perlite/peat. Gave it a good drink of plain water. Started dropping healthy leaves a week later.

ah ha! you change the soil mix. :) 

UPM/perlite holds less water than UPM/perlite/peat. meaning when you give them the water, you are created two different zone. one near the cutting having less water than the one outside of the peat pot. so one dries up quicker than the other. this, in theory, can create problem with roots, specially when they are very young. 

..or so i think.. 

i use exact soil mix when i'm not repotting, meaning if i'm not bare rooting the plant, i use same mix so there won't be two zone of different moisture level in the pot. 

Sometimes they just take a turn for the worst. Not your fault it happens once in a while,just happens to be BM.