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Just got back from Greece and Italy and need advice

Hi everyone just got back from my Honeymoon/ Fig hunt. Found few fig trees in Venice Italy all behind fences, no luck. Next was Croatia Greece manage to get a few cuttings not sure what  kind I will have to root them. Next was Crete Greece went to the beach and on the beach was  a great big fig tree waiting to greet me. I ate figs from it till I was stuffed. I asked a local man  about it he said it was self pollinating and has been there for years and he said  it was called achios Apostoli. that is the name of the church and beach and thats what they called it no formal name.( it was a big green fig red center I have pics) got some cuttings. next Mykonos Greece Found lots of large green fig got some cuttings and pics. onto Santorini Greece Found lots of  large green figs got cuttings and pics. last was Katalolon Greece Jack pot again  fig trees every where. tour bus dropped us of at the beach  wife went swimming I went fig hunting. I found  a ton of trees everywhere. I ate till I was stuffed got cuttings and pics no one could tell me  the name but just  Kouroutas the name of the town its in. large green with red center. sorry for boring everyone, next was to get every thing through customs. I was stop on the crew ship once told them it was a branch no problem. wrapped everything in my bag and it made it through customs in Greece,Italy and the U.S. Boy was I sweating what we go through for FIGS Now the question What to do with the cuttings put in the fridge or try to start and how?
         enjoy Paul

sounds like some honeymoon..... i hope the wife is still happily married

would love to see some pictures of the trees and fruits

best of luck with all these cuttings
eli

Yes shes happy she help spot them. Thats the reson I married her. I will post the pics as soon as I down load them
 Thanks
 Paul

hehe - that was a good one!

congrads paul

Tough call, Paul. My best advice (you will think I am crazy!) is send them to someone with a longer growing season and have them start them for you and share the success. Otherwise, you will probably lose many of them to mold in the fridge or to freeze damage since they may not be woody enough before first frost. Some folks have had good luck storing dormant cuttings for many months but your cuttings are not dormant. Just offering you the best chance for success all around. Good luck! btw, congrats to you and the missus!

Yes, congrats on your marriage and good luck with the cuttings! Finding an expert, long-season, surrogate grower sounds like good advice--it would be a real shame to lose anything after all that effort!

Would you post pictures of your cuttings.......

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Yes I will just have to down load them  this week off the sd card

It will be nice to see pictures of the mother trees and the fruit that you and your new bride enjoyed. However, I am asking to see pictures of the actual "cuttings" that were taken. I will give you rooting advise based upon what I see in those pictures.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

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  • BLB

I am very impressed that your new wife went fig hunting with you on your honeymoon. Sounds like you already picked a real gem, conrgatulations!!!!  

I think you have 2 options, try and root them now in the dirt, or refrigerate them  for later. Or a third option, send them my way and I can try and help you out!

PM,

In all honesty, pic a few friends and have them root the cuttings also after you label them. We have save quite a few varieties this way. I would bleach them, dry them, then wrap them up in saran wrap and root in spring... Do not use paper towels!

I have been successful rooting summer (growing) cuttings - more successful than with dormant cuttings .     I just picked up some cuttings from a trip this summer and all are doing well.    After taking the cuttings, I removed any fruit and all of the leaves.  I put them in a Ziplock bag with damp sphagnum moss inside covering about 1/2 of the lower part of the stem (just damp, not soaking wet).   They traveled in the car for 2 1/2 weeks this way.   I kept them out of direct sun and out of the heat if we stopped for a while.    When I got home, there were roots popping out all over and then just moved them to my regular mix (a gritty type mix that I use for my figs).   They started popping out leaves last week.


   I also received some cutting in the mail in early / mid April of a variety that I have failed to root on two or three previous occasions from dormant cuttings.   I put them in a bag with sphagnum moss covering about half of the stem on a shelf under a grow light that I use for African violets.    Roots started vigorously growing in a relatively short time.

      There is still a little growing season left and it might be worth trying the method above.  I don't know how many cuttings of each you collected, but it might be worth designating one cutting of each towards the "root them now" approach.   The other idea mentioned about about having a seasoned successful grower rooting them might be a very good idea.     Whatever you do, don't let the cuttings dry out.  If stored in the fridge, slightly damp long fiber sphagnum moss will keep them from drying out and if mailing them, do the same thing and seal them in a good freezer grade zip lock bag.

Ingevald

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  • FMD

PM, I did the same thing you did (fig hunting in Europe) as posted in one of your threads prior to your trip; once in October and once in February.

I potted the cuttings immediately upon returning. I am in zone 8b. The fall cuttings all rooted but only half made it through the winter. The spring cutting success rate was 100%.
If you have more than one cutting per tree, you could root one now, store one for spring and send a third to a trusted forum surrogate to root for you.
Frank

some people asked for pics of the cuttings here are some
  enjoy
  Paul

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