I also have one Black Madeira,and it have two trunks:
One look healthy,with large entire leaf,and about 5 large figs on it.
The second going the oposite way is very ill with FMVirus,and have 3 very small stunted fruits.
This is a 3 yr old plant,and it spent last winter inground with good protection.
It came out of winter with minimal damage.
I am sure I will have ripe figs this year,because the fruits are allready in the stagnation fase.
I also have 10 fruits on my Black Ischia,inground too,and last year it died almost totally,and this Spring grew from roots has 3 trunks and 10 figs in good shape.
I am going to have ripe figs from Black Ischia too!.
If it ever die I will let you guys know.
It is only a experiment,and I do not expect ever ,that these trees will be worth more than a few ripe,fruits in some years.
These rare cultivars are not to be based on,for fruits production.

For large production,have a couple of Marseilles vs Black,Sal(Gene strain),JH Adriatic,or Atreano,and then you will be covered,and can afford to have fun experimenting,with, those exquisite rare cultivars.

Herman - Thanks for the good advise. I have an in-ground MVS, a young potted JH, Sal's EL and Atreano RR & OR. I look forward to yummy years. Oh
 yes, like you said about Gino, it does set figs at least 2 weeks earlier than MVS. This is good for my zone. I hope its bountiful too.

paully

I hope y'all don't mind me resurrecting an older thread, but I finally got pictures of my Black Ischia. I received it as a small bare root tree from a CA friend just breaking dormancy. It put on leaves and looked pitiful and stayed that way for a couple of months. I put it in full sun and fed it MG liquid fertilizer. About a month ago it started to grow a side branch. The original trunk never did grow but the new branch is shooting for the moon. It has grown about a foot and has pretty little figs all over it. Should I knock off all or most of the figs?
"gene"

 

The original trunk.


The new healthy branch


The pretty little figs

Gene you have something very very special there at least in my book of figs and i cannot wait to see your pictures of them ripe figs.

Martin I'll try to remember to post pictures as they ripen, if they do. They do look pretty now.

tmc your guess is as good as mine. All the info I've read is sort of contradictory. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
"gene"

Oh Gene i will help you remember as well around end of September.
This is one type of fig that always has gotten my interest.
From what i have read over the fig forums ischia black and madeira are some of the finest dark types there are.
Its my aim to find that out for my personal taste in my climate.

on the topic of leaf deformity from post #12 - Martin, here is my Col De Dame (UCD) - it is the really deformed one in the center (sorry, didn't have time to isolate it)

well, i am going in the ground with the black madiera tommorrow, come hell or high water, to sink or swim just like all my other figs.  this winter i'll make sure it has special protection if it's still alive.

i'll snap some pics of mine, it's uncanny the resemblance :)

Mike--I tried Oxankle's "roots in the water" trick with my black madeira and it's starting to show results. The terminal bud swelled up and is now opening, and lower down on the stem a tiny new leaf has popped out. It's still slow, but it's definitely growing again.

Almost all of the other UCD cuttings responded more vigorously to the additional water--lots of new leaves. I'm also giving them Miracle Grow with most waterings, and the humidity has gone up sharply with the start of our summer rainy season. I don't know for sure which factor triggered the growth (maybe all three), but when I increased the water the terminal buds started swelling within 3-4 days.

she's in the ground on her own right now.  i do have a shadecloth cover over her for a few days to give the roots a chance to adjust.

OK, I lied.  My "twin" is actually Preto, which may be the same as Black Madeira, it's not very clear (some say yes, some say no).

Preto looks good Jason. Mine is doing well also.

JD

PS: Hobart grew about 26"...

Hobart is freaking nuts! Did you see the pics of the fruit I posted?

One of those little twigs of Foxcroft you supplied has been exploding (relativelt) as well - and the Col De Dame above... Thanks ;)

@ Hobart. Agreed, it is a bad mad man. I saw the fruit. Waiting to see it ripe...

@ Foxcroft. Trying to ID it. Thus I have plans to photograph and sample the mother tree on Friday. In this area, likely to be Celeste but you never know.

@ Stallion. Need to send you a Stallion. ALL cuttings are in 1+ gallon pots, ALL are at least 2' tall, and each has put out at least 6 fruit. I planted one in ground and knocked off all fruit except for three on one tree. Will take a few snapshots soon.

JD

Stallion is a kind of fig tree?

noss

noss,

It is an unknown that I found at the Stallion Range Center, WSMR, NM (see 1 and 2). Don't want to hijack this thread so I will bump one of the two soon.

JD

Aha, thanks for the clarification.  I read the other thread and those are great photos.

Thanks JD,

noss