I will admit that I also purchased the "Blue Ischia" starts. I had purchased other tissue cultured fig plants last year, had good growth (3 feet in 5 months), have not harvested any figs, but did get a few developing figs on the Improved Celeste variety.


Note: these are the largest "tissue cultured" plants that I have received to date. The other plants were extremely small (not even 3 inches tall) with less than six (6) leaves each. Also these plants have been pruned to keep them small.

I explained my experience in an earlier Discussion on Tissue Culture.

I would recommend bare rooting (in a water bath, minimal root damage) and up potting to quart containers (The quart container is to better control moisture at the root zone). The plants that were not bare rooted were very slow in growth (they were root bound).

Thank you for the link Pete. I just read it and am wondering if I should pull them back up and bare root them. Maybe I'll wait a couple of weeks and see if there is any progress. 
I am going to pull up the LSU Purple cultures I got tomorrow for sure. They've been here 2 months and doing nothing. That is probably the problem.

You may have saved them from the burn pile.

Can't swear to it but I believe it is more of a cloning.

It is cloning.  There are techniques to induce genetic variation but that wouldn't be used when you want a clone.

An observation from today.
We had some 94F heat, sun was crazy...
The rooted cuttings outside under a tree were wilting a bit, the Blue Ischia next to them didn't care.
It seems they take heat happier. That is a good news to me if it continues to be like that, we are having 100 and above 1/2 of the summer.

Heat tolerance is fantastic news. They're going to get hot here as well.

I dug up the LSU Purple figs I had gotten as tissue cultures and sure enough, after washing the roots they needed to be up potted. They seem much happier now.

Noss, The roots were all twined together in a big ball, after washing and detangling they were over a foot long and just needed more space to do what roots do.

i would have ordered one if i had space for it... looks interesting. hope to hear more about it in future and compare it to UCD Ischia Black.

I would order one if everyone on the forum did take them all. LOL 

My procedure for replanting root bound plants, pictured is the Blue Ischia. I have been doing this for years on most garden vegetable plants that were root bound in starter containers.
The procedure is as follows:
1. Wash the roots in a "water bath" using agitation and water currents only (plant roots held underwater by stem, other hand creates water current by pushing water towards roots, like clapping).
2. untangle the larger roots carefully.
3. Root prune all the tips (if possible) to remove apical dominance and increase root branching.
4. Plant in prepared soil (garden or container) and fan out roots.
5. "Water in" to settle soil around roots.
6. Prune plant to balance for damaged roots and or for shape.

Due to the volume and size of the roots on the Ischia starts, I decided to up pot directly to 1 gallon containers.



<edit> for larger figs plants (1 gallon containers), I've used 5 gallon bucket for the wash basin.

Noss,
It was a small pot but they weren't the Blue Ischia. They were the LSU Purple I got awhile back. Tissue cultures from Florida. They came in the same maybe 3"x3"x3" pots as the Blue Ischia and I up potted them to 1 gallon but the roots stayed in a ball more or less, just like Pete was warning about. They haven't done much since they got here so I took Pete's suggestion and was amazed with all the roots. Now that they're all spread out with room to grow in a 3 gallon I am hoping the vegitation catches up to the roots.

Thanks Noss, I sure hope so, I was getting really discouraged with their performance and now I know it was my fault all along. They both took the root wash, nasty leaf removal and repot without blinking, no wilting or anything.

I'm almost embarassed to tell you guys, Pete hadn't put up instructions yet and I took them out of the pots and basically power washed the roots with the shower setting on the hose. I guess in some peoples minds it can be considered water current..haha.

I'm really glad it was one of the stronger varities though.

Available once again on ebay....400532263084

thought about this long and hard. i'll wait to see what my Ischia Black UCD will look like before going this route. just too many figs, it's hard to weed through which ones will stay with me in next few yrs.

So I ended up buying a few of the Blue Ischia off Amazon (Hirt's Garden) as well as LSU Purple.  Will be interested to see how they turn out!

Herman, how is yours growing this year?

Tim

Came in the mail today.  LSU Purple stems had lignified and very well rooted while Blue Ischia were very very young, looked like they had just been moved to their pots, and the stems were completely green.  Let's hope they hold up!  Anyone have pics of theirs after growing a few months?

 

Just got mine in the mail. Soft and puny, about 5 inches tall, recently up potted to a 4 inch pot. It will need some shade and TLC, but it was a good price.

Mine are several months old and just got moved to a 5 gallon bucket. I will try to get pics for you tomorrow.

It look healthy but growing very slow,no fruits yet.

Any updates on your plants?
Attached is my Updated picture and the same plant when first up potted. It is currently 20 inches tall from soil line, the lower branches will be pruned once we have a few consecutive days of dry weather, because it is being trained as a single stem. Its currently growing in a 3 gallon container.

Bump.  Did anyone with these Blue Ischia trees get figs this year?  Any confirmation whether they match Ischia Black, as greenfig's link in post #13 suggests?

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

p.s.  Hirt's has them available again.

Mine is about 5 ft across and tall but no figs yet. I hope to see some next year. It definitely has a lot of suckers though...

I bought one too.  
The bad:  they're tiny... very small.
The good:  there are about 6 of them in the 4" pot.  I'll separate them in the next few days and end up with 5 or 6 trees.

Mike

Mike,
Don't worry, they will grow very fast!
Make sure the trees are not root bound when you repot them.
Good luck!