got a black madiera that was purchased and sent to me by a good friend this spring.  and it has been my only fig that hasn't grown.  not at all.  i have tried everything with this plant.  i don't dare repot it, because i'm afraid the roots are fragile.   any ideas are welcome.  what can i do to get this sickly thing growing?

Hi Mike,
dont feel too bad, i have sickly ischia.
My madeira came to me as a potted ucdavis plant via a forum member.
Last season i got it to grow with heavy doses of fertilizer when soil would allow and as much sun and heat as my climate could provide it grew slow then picked up mid summer to nearly 30 inches i then topped it or nipped it as some say. It grew some side shoots and a few figs and the FMV looked better i picked all except 1 fig but season came to a close mind you last season here really stunk weather wise.
This season i did the fig shuffle as i usually do in and out of garage with all my plants mid to high 40s they were all on driveway sunning then back in at night.
My Madeira started budding out nicely then little by little those new shoots turned dark and that was it. For it did not like the mid 40s after bud break.
Today the plant is dead to about 6 inches above soil line with 1 lone branch growing about same size from under soil thats it.

All of my black madeira are pretty much in the same boat, i don't think of it as sickly, maybe just not quite as fast of a grower as everything else.  it will get there, just be patient and don't over-care for it.

Actually that looks pretty normal. Water it, let it stand for a hour, and re-water with very diluted Miracle-go once a week.

My blk maderia grew very little too. Now I give it diluted MG on every watering. It gets full sun. Hope something positive happens.

Blk Ischia is the worst -- 2 seasons, 2 leaves about 2 plus inches.

My Black Ischia for the first year was the same as Paully22's but last year it grew a whole foot! This year not much growth but it is loaded with figs. It was very hurt and set back by FMV, one of the worst examples I've seen. I'm hoping this year it outgrew the effects as it is looking great.
Sue

the important thing is that the terminal bud is nice and green and healthy looking.  You should have nothing to worry about - hang in there!!!

I  bought 2 Black Madeiras off eBay from members of this forum.  When I got these trees they were very sad and according to the seller the trees were not growing.  After 10 months, I was able to get these trees growing and now producing fruit.  Here is what I did and it might work for you: 1.  Soak the tree in some root stimulator for about an hour.  I used 4 tablespoons per gallon of water.  I have one of those tiny gallon bucket from the dollar store.  Placed each tree in their own bucket and poured the stimulator water solution and let it soak.  2. I got a 3 gallon superpot, now the right size superpot would have been a 1 gallon pot cause these trees were small but I planned keeping these trees inside this pot for at least 2 years.  3.  Get yourself a very airy soil medium.  Me?  I chose PRO-MIX BX, added some turface and cow manure.  I also added a 10 inch diameter piece of weed guard and place it in the bottom of the pot and I wet the soil with the remaining root stim mixture and potted up the trees.  My trees had 2 or 3 small leaves when I potted it.  A couple of months later, this was last September, the tree started to grow.  Then Fall came and it went dorminant.

I placed both trees inside my garage over the winter and in March they were the first trees to bud and leaf out!  Well, now its July and both trees have almost out grown their virus.  I have them both in full sun and they are both 21 inchs tall and still growing.  I fertilizer them once in April, once in May, twice in June and now weekly liquid feed of 6-2-4. 

Now this worked for me and I am not sure it will work for you, but maybe you can give it  a try.  Good luck! 

___________________
Dennis
Charlotte area -z7b

It looks alive and well to me.

I have other variants that did the same but as long as it is still alive there's still some home.

I have about three that are just starting to show some movement.

Good luck

From looking at the picture, it looks like there might be scale or something sucking on three veigns on the top leaf. You might want to look closely at this thing and remove them. It could be having a hard time with bugs. Good luck, Gary

in all honesty, if this is normal for this variety, probably it's not a variety i want to mess around with much.   i have started hitting it with rooting stimulator fertilizer.  i suppose we'll see what happens.

what other varieties are typically so weak?  my other puny figs, though they are growing, are dauphine, vdb and one of those numbered figs, i can't recall the #. :).

this is interesting because sal's corelone, a rare fig, is such an incredibly vigorous grower.  pretty much i have to count on taking my figs and popping them in the ground and they live through several freezes and come back from the roots the next year.  this thing would never make the winter here in gainesville.  i guess i'll give it to my dad in clearwater.

Papayamon you ask what other varieties are weak.
This one my ischia black but its grown on me for some reason maybe because its so stuborn like my Yorkie dog.
Next early season i try to graft onto my fastest growing Ronde no no not the dog the plant.
Here picture correctly dated almost exactly one year ago 3 days shy.

Martin, I have a Black Ischia that looks exactly like yours, or it did. Lately it started growing a little. At first I thought it was gonna die, but it struggles on. The fact that it finally put on a little growth encourages me to think it will make it.
"gene"

Mike good luck with yours, it looks much better then mine. I'm having a real hard time with mine also It looked better at one point and now looks like it is ready to kick the bucket again.

i say we know why this is such a rare variety.  it basically sucks :).

it's simply amazing the difference in growth among varieties.  my dad has a 3 node green ischia cutting i gave him in march.  it's 6 feet tall now.

Here is my maderia last season and with 1 fig i left on (they came out late, plant young) that had no red eye at this point but then turned red later .
Here this season , was about 30 inches tall had sprouted shoots some several inches out but i left on driveway in mid 40s a big no no as everything died to where i cut main this season. Still there is several more inches dead if you look carefully and for now i dont see anything peeking out on the main branch.
As said early post it sprouted right below soil level, if it makes it thru winter storage i will treat it differently in early spring and hold it back some.
Little by little im learning how difficult some types of figs not recommended for my area can be like this 1 and panache, but it would be nice instead or sirloin to see if i might be able to taste filet mignon , time will tell. 

Once it gets going, it is unstoppable - as much as 10' of growth in a year. Fertilizer seems to be really important in the early years.

Mike my Black Yugoslavian fig did the exact same thing I rooted it last year in July it grew 5 leaves and about 2 inches of growth between july 09 to april 2010. I got so sick of this darn plant in May I took it to my dads put it on top of the garage the hottest part of the property and put a handfull of 10-10-10 slow release fertilizer. It was due or die time and now it is 3ft tall and loaded with figs. Black Yugoslavian is also infected with FMV Pretty. With that being said I dont want anymore plants that behave this way I dont have the patience regardless of how good it might taste.

Most of the cuttings (all from UCD) I rooted this year are in similar shape (or dead). The FMV is very obvious on some of them, but there's considerable variety in its effect upon the different plants. My black madeira seems healthy to me (no wilting), and although the leaves are mottled and deformed they seem to have darkened over time. It stopped growing a few weeks ago--that small leaf seems frozen in time--but I'm hoping it will pick up again once the summer rains start and things cool off a little.

I'm envious of the growth rates many of you are reporting for your young fig plants. The best stem growth any of my recent batch of cuttings have shown is an excel: two tiny branches, the longest of which is 3 inches with four small leaves. So, comparatively speaking, my weird-looking black madeira isn't all that far behind the rest of the pack.

i am gonna take my tape measure and record the heights of a couple of my faster growing plants, and i 'll do it again in a week :P.  then we'll see who's really pouring it on :).

...Or rubbing it in! A tape measure? Even one of those short little plastic rulers they use in grade school would be major overkill for mine right now!

I have a Col de Dame that looks very much like Martin's pictures in post #12 on this page.  Very deformed leaves.  None of my Black Madeira have this issue (some BM are from a forum member in NY, some from UCD, Col De Dame original source was UCD also)

I think BM really likes the fertilizer and the heat. One of mine is about 6 foot now with some short branches and a couple of figs. UCD cutting circa spring 2009 I think, so second summer-- a fellow cutting had lingered at about 6 inches to a foot until I buried all the old wood and socked the fertilizer to it. Now a couple of feet tall at least.

Scott, that Madeira i showed was one you sent me of the 3 from UcDavis you propagated and you did a fantastic job giving them the head start you did Scott. I take it personal when i mess up something someone else gives me, if it was my own scion grown its not such a big deal then but someone else's i feel bad.
It grew like i mentioned 30 inches and would have grown taller but i topped it last season, i wish i would have known that it did not like my early spring 40 something temps and killed most of that growth .
 But i learned a lot from this plant and will do things different next spring if i can keep it going till then.
I saw what it was capable of that was the hard part to digest for me but was so glad when it resprouted from just below soil.
Time will tell .