Came home from grocery shopping, i tell you some of them folks need a drivers licsense to push a cart.
After unloading car i decided to peak at my fig plants.

I was happy to see the first figs of 2011 and they were on my madeira.
This is only plant displaying figs in garage.

Even though i will knock them off sooner or later it was nice to see plant is doing ok this winter.
Here is picture i took, click on to enlarge.

It is my understand that the B/M doesn't handle the cold too well.
If that's the case then Martin just proved us otherwise.

Looking good Martin

Lookin' good Martin. You obviously have that baby well protected. We treat them like babies don't we :) ?

Not trying to hijack your thread Martin but I just wanted to add a note about my own babies. Many of them have been in my attic since Nov. 

For now they are still sleeping tight. But with temps forecasted to be in the 50's & 60's all next week, I'm concerned that some will start waking up!  Will have to come up with a plan if that happens!

Martin,
What would you guess your low has been in the garage this winter and for how long?

Cathy

Texas -The lowest in garage this season was the other day at 12. It was 15 below zero out.
Last several weeks have been in the teens as it was our coldest part of winter this particular season.

Rafed i dont think it handles the cold well at least not yet until it puts more 
girth onto its main trunk. Its in tree form the way i like them in containers -1 main only.
Season before last it reached 3 feet tall , looking close at picture you can see the old trunk i cut down , it has the black tar seal. it died back 2 and a half feet and last season grew back off that branch from below soil level to about 2 feet tall .

Reason it did this
i treated it no differently than my other plants in early spring it was healthy looking and 3 feet tall coming out of dormancy with nice green buds going into the 2010 growing season.
So i started doing the fig shuffle in and out of garage at temps in high 40s onto driveway with all my other plants.
Its buds slowly turned dark and started to die from the top main downwards
It did not like the so called fig shuffle in its youth unlike my other plants.

So this season it will not go out with the others onto driveway and will stay in garage longer as i dont want to lose a whole season of growth like i did last season and get no figs from plant.

Plant will be 3 seasons old but looks like its going into 2nd season cause of seasons growth lost last year.

So now i baby it for a few more seasons then it will join the fig shuffle once again to see how it does after its trunk gets thicker.
Yes this type can and does bear ripe figs here in containers as Jusalda showed with his last season , he lives near me.

Jusalda if you read this so sorry to answer door in half PJs and bare feet as i was napping . The dogs alerted me that someone was at door !
Man that cement is real cold on bare feet !

But you should have seen them religous ladies face 1 time when i purposely answered door in my underwears only simply because i was tired of them always coming on early Sunday morning to hand out litereature .
They dont seem to stop by the house anymore.  

But your always welcome.

Martin,

I would advice you to stop using oil base tar ( Petroleum ) on any plant and start using latex paint instead.

Petroleum base products are harmful to the plants.

Or, You can put ashes on the cut as well.
Ashes from a fire place or BBQ grill to name a couple. 

Way to go Martin!  Looking good!  The two cuttings I got from Jon last year are doing fine in my shed.  Here is a couple of pictures taken in summer of 2010.  I had to place my trees inside my GH for them to ripen and they did!  BM has a very unique flavor and quite good!  cheers,

Hi Dennis,

How is the flavor unique?

Thanks,

noss

Hello Noss, BM taste like no other fig I've ever tasted.  Every fig has a drop of resin at the eye to keep insects out.  When you slice it open it has a huge gob of thick nectar in the center like super mild sweet honey.  My wife say to her it does not taste like a fig but super good.  So, to us BM is in a catagory all by itself.  It is one fig a collector must have!  So Martin has a gem of a fig!  However it does require extreme heat in order for it to ripen.  Otherwise, you'll end up with a pretty tree with green figs.  My 2 trees did not ripen until I place them inside my GH where temps were above 101 degrees!  The flavor is not acidic at all but taste like super mild thick honey.  The only other black fig that comes close to BM in size, looks, and taste is Italian 258....well sorta.  I258 also as the resin in the eye, has a gob on some honey in the center but more acidic with larger veins inside.  See below.  Hope this helps, cheers

Here WAS my B.Madeira

Here in Chicago one can ripen probably most figs that are growing in containers.
Will they taste good ?
Well by the looks of forum members Remis  Black Madeira i bet they do.
The ones that ripen.
Look at that FIG !
Yes we cheat  - Containers , early start amongst other benefits.
here is link to show his from last season.

No green house used.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4929955

Hope to show in a few seasons my 
Coll de Dama - the dark type of course.   ; )

Hope this summer will be as good as the 2010 .

Hi Cecil,

That's a great post!  Loved it--You're so funny.

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the flavor description.  It sounds like a delicious fig and I'm hoping the little B. Madeira I have will do well in this heat we have here.  I'll put it out in the middle of the yard so it gets baked.  Now my curiosity is piqued about tasting it.  It's been inside all winter because I was told they were very cold-sensitive and it had a green trunk.  A short while ago, I repotted it and it decided that it wanted to start growing, so it's been doing that quite well.

We had a nice visit from Gene and Linda a few days ago and Gene advised me to put the three babies I've been keeping in the house, out on the carport to get indirect light when it's warm and it's been beautiful out the past few days.  I hope it won't get too hot too soon, but these past few days have been real nice.

noss