I bought an Ischia Green from Well Springs nursery over the winter. It came as a tiny tissue cultured twig (as I expected). About a month ago I up potted into a 1 gal and put it outside. It started thriving. Then I got a little "pinch happy" and pinched the top about a week ago. Since then it has exploded!

In the past week it has started two new shoots from the base, and has the beginnings of 3 branches along the main trunk. I am a little worried that it is too thin to support the branching, but I love the way it is shaping itself right now.

So, my idea is to stake it for support and let it branch. What do you think?

(BtW my fert regimen is manure tea once a day, plus MG once a week)

GeneDaniels,
IMO Tissue Cultured plants should be treated like Fig Seedlings in their early development since Seedlings and Tissue Cultured have similar growing habits.

I posted in another topic, http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=6835535 on Tissue Cultured trees where I quoted HarveyC, and his discussion with a fig breeder, http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=6690941

Thanks Pete. The link to the earlier post was helpful.

But since I already pinched the tip (before really thinking about it), I am still pondering the best course forward. 

Yup, I bought a TC VdB this spring and it is growing happily. It is about a foot tall now with a small caliper single stem. Healthy looking leaves. I think of it as a seedling in growth, especially since it is a dwarf variety and will be slow to fruit. 

But, it is fun growing this little baby for which I spent very little money. Eat a fig off of it this year or next? No way, but still fun to grow.

btw, I would send a pic of it, but the forum will not allow my camera photos to post - says they are too large. Any help there would be appreciated!

Joe

Joe. Athens - you just need resize the photo, I.e. make the file smaller. A number of ways to do this, the easiest is on your camera if u canreduce resolution down to 800x400 or in that range, or any photo editor use the resize.option.

I've been reading up on tissue culture techniques lately. I have the tissue culture trees in my signature. They came from Hirt's, Wellspring and Florida Hill nurseries. I've noticed a strong tendency to sucker in some of them from below and at the soil line. I think it's possible that this isn't the natural behavior of the plants. In tissue culture the plants are multiplied in a gel that contains cytokinins, which is a plant hormone that encourages branching and discourages vertical growth. One step in transitioning plants out of the sterile gel and back into soil is to place them in a rooting gel mixture that has auxins to encourage rooting and counteract the cytokinins. The rooting treatment isn't strictly necessary and is often skipped to save time and money in the production of plants. I wonder if the small tissue culture plants still have residual cytokinins in their systems and need time to dissipate. I've never seen a fig seedling, do they sucker as much as the little tissue cultures?
 

Yesterday I noticed a few roots sticking out of the 1 gal pot my TC Green Ishcia is in. When I potted it up, it was seriously root bound. It came in a 2x2 pot, a tiny, slender toothpick, back in Dec and now root bound in 1 gal. That seems fast to me. Or maybe I just don't realize how fast things are going on underground with my other figs? Either way, I am very pleased with the growth on this TC Green Ischia. At the rate it is going it will be a substantial bush by fall.

BtW, does anyone know how cold hardy Green Ischia is?

I resize my photos the old-fashioned way, using MS Paint, it's a two-click process. I find 25% to be a good scale down for the pictures on my camera.