My ID in this forum is lolita1234, it means that I am very young at heart , it means a lot of things depending how you interpret it . But naming myself Lolita1234 is to permit myself to play all the way to an unlimited extent in whatever I am involving in ...
For example, in figs field ... 

.. I would like to borrow Mr. Encanto's phrases to describe myself . "I am a hobbyist . I am not a biologist, not a botanist . I have no formal education or background in botany or in agriculture...". In brief, I am just a player . I am playing with plumeria , with orchids, with citrus and with figs too .

If you are interested, you can play with me . If you are not interested, that is fine , just calmly step out of the room . We are in modern time, so everyone can do things their own way as long as we don't break the forum rules , as long as my 2-cents philosophy on how to raise things (is completely different than yours) is allowed to be expressed  . 
Playing is fun . Figs4fun is the name of this forum . I am playful, so that is the reason why I am here . And when I am in playful mode, people might say that I am silly . That is fine . Too much fun is silly, is crazy . For ordinary people who just want to stay still in one place, silliness is .... lack of common sense . Well, without silliness how the world can be like today ? Scientists  start as silly people when they were unknown, helas, but when their research is fruiting, until then ... different story !   
         
Actually figs grow easily, but people make them complicated with too much judgment . Figs and I (sic) feel overwhelmed with people exaggeration . A lot of time, one variety can have many different name that makes new fig grower running like crazy after that "rare" or "heirloom" thing !!!


I am planting/growing several varieties of figs trees (!) of all over the world , but still buying more to just play with them. I am raising figs for fun, not for money, because up to date I do not sell anything yet . Who knows that one day I might need to sell ??
Figs are easy to raise, that is why when I buy live fig plants (people on Ebay and in many forums don't call 1-year- old, 2-year-old fig by plants, but trees that make a person who just finish the ESL class like me get confused with the English language  between plant and tree !!!!Poor me ...) 

Most of the time when I buy some new ... trees, I usually ask my sellers to remove all their leaves, remove all their pots, truncate 2/3 of the existing root ball bringing it down  to 1/3 , tie all the branches together, spray lightly some water to keep them fresh , tuck the whole thing in a plastic bag. Pack all of the trees in 1 box and ship . That is it ! That saves some shipping money . Simple. Some sellers say yes yes yes I will do the way you wanted . But when I receive the box, some sellers DID NOT follow my instructions, just simply because they are afraid that their trees would not come to me alive . Thank you Don for your ... worries . One seller recently shipped to me 5 ... trees in one box as I have instructed , then he sit there praying . Yes, he hold his breath and pray pray pray until I sent him an email confirming that all the 5 trees and some cuttings arrived safely and happily . Then he (the seller) released his tension .... Thank you Frank
Both Don and Frank are nursery owners , I guess .     


.
Forgive my broken English . I am practicing English here.

Welcome to the forum!

Your right fig trees are tougher than most people realize.  Sorry, in the end I just couldn't follow your instructions exactly.

The reason is simply this, as a seller who takes lots of pride in growing my plants it is hard to treat them that way.  Yes, I know they will survive, but I want them to thrive!

Open box, repot, and watch her take off like a rocket that is my hope for everyone of my plants.

I am at heart a nurturer, I love and value each and every plant, chicken, goat, wife, child, whatever I am entrusted to care for, that is my reason for living.

But also I am a pragmatist, I am terribly afraid of negative feedback that someone might give over a broken leaf, let alone a bent trunk.  I hope to be doing what I love, growing things, indefinitely so my reputation is very important to me.

Selling the fruits of my labor is a respectable way for me to continue living authentically, and love what I have chosen to do, my contribution to society.  

Now that I am certain you are serious about how you want to ship them, and not just setting me up for failure, I'll bend, cut, whatever you want in the future.  

I appreciate your business, and your feedback, here and Ebay.  

Also, when you have time please divulge your rooting technique, sounds intriguing, and I'm certain very useful. 

welcome to the forum!!!

Let's play now with a hot tree .

It is a Galicia Negra that my husband just bought on Ebay and unfortunately it came in a very bad shape. To be exact, the tree is by now in critical condition, or near death situation . It is not something that I can let it standing up by itself and hope and hope that it will automatically spread new leaves in one month, like someone just suggested .  
No, if today I just pray and wait for miracles from heaven to happen , it will go to the grave tomorrow . I have to be in action ASAP to save it, and of course I try to perform the miracle (?) by myself 

Analysis :

  Pic 1 is the very sick guy  . he does not look good at all . Due to a long journey (3 days)  ? No . Many other plants also have spent the same period of time but still stay fresh . Why does this guy look so miserable ?
Answers : pot was well secure in the box. Inside the box, pot was covered with a plastic bag all around with tape, BUT the top of the pot was not taped/protected . Some paper towels and soil were found inside the box ----> box was shaking during transit (not seller fault, USPS fault) . Seller fault is : the packaging process was not done properly causing the wet papers to be tossed out . The root ball got exposed and the tree was extremely THIRSTY (Fig tree can die if it does not get water needed in pot culture )

Pic 2 shows that the figlet at the base of the tree is very dry   

Pic 3 : Let pull the tree out of the pot so we can find the real reason why the tree is dying  

Pic 4 Between root ball and soil in the pot, no connection found .   
Pic 5 : Soak the whole root ball in water for 15 minutes to remove dirt for easy observation

pic 6 : dark root bound . No vital sign found. Tree was dead due to extreme heat and thirst during transit   
pic 7: let's remove all the roots outside to find if any living roots attached to the base of the tree   

pic 8 : The whole thing is here . Can it be saved ??? with no live roots, how the tree can bounce back if we cover the tree with a plastic bag as proposed by someone in the other thread????? can it survive another 3-day-transit if it has to go back to its original owner ???? I doubt it  .

pic 9 : Lets take a close look 

pic 10: The airlayer part

pic 11 : dark and hollow end

pic 12: cut it off !!!


Please don't cry . It will be okay

Mai,
I have been following your posts with smile on my face. You demonstrate a very pleasant personality that one can only hope to have as a friend.
Now coming to the agonizing truth on your poor fig tree here; it appears that it has written the last page of it's very short lived life.
The only thing that I can think of is, maybe, a good cutting out of it would continue the bloodline of this particular plant?
My best wishes to you and good luck for the plant, whatever the future might bring.
Keep us posted. ;)

Hello Whisperer
Many thanks for your nice and friendly whispers . I really appreciate it . In this life sometimes it is hard to find someone who has same thoughts and who is kind to ... me (who dare take risks for making things better and who is not afraid for failure ) .

I am not finished the play with my sick GN yet .

99% of the population in this forum speak English since ... birth . I am among the 1 % left who have some difficulties in expressing my thoughts in English . It does take a lot of time to put down things in writing .
For uploading/downloading pictures into this webpage, I have been busy wrestling hahaha with my computer (from desktop to photobucket.com and vice versa) because my pictures did not fit with the format of this webpage and honestly I don't know how to adjust things to make my cell phone function the way I wanted .   
Another thing is when uploading pictures into this web, pictures got messed up that I have to redo the whole thing, that is why so many edits .
Please be patient with me . 

Hello figlayla,
Thank you for your greetings . Nice to know you and I wish you the very best      

Now, what is next ?
DEATH is approaching this sick GN closer and closer . So I have to be quick to make a decision in order to rescue this rare (so far) piece of GN . But please understand that I am no God. I am just a player who is challenging Death. I will perform a miracle within my capacity and Death is watching me , mocking me .

Yes, Whisperer, I did transform the tree into cuttings before it is too late ....

pic 13 : into cuttings phase . The very end part with airlayer wound is discarded 

pic 14 : the main trunk is kinda chewy and hollow . No sap

pic15: the remedy

pic 16: 1/3 drop of Thrive Alive into 1 pint of water

pic 17 : dip them all !

pic 18 : GN cuttings on paper towels

pic 19 : on paper towels layer 2

pic 20 : on paper towels layer 3 

pic 21 : GN bundle

Good luck.  You can do it!  :)

Hello lolita,

Welcome to the forum

Dr Gustav Eisen, one of the California Fig Fathers, wrote in his famous fig book (1901)

THE FIG:,TS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING

a few sentences dedicated to the 'resuscitation' of damaged fig cuttings, particularly scions having lost vigor and being already too dry..
Here what I could extract...  It's on pages 150/151 of his book

HOW TO TREAT INJURED FIG CUTTINGS.

Valuable fig cuttings which, through poor packing or by accident,
have become very dry may be saved by extra care. Such cuttings,
even if apparently dead, should not be thrown away. The process
described here for restoring fig cuttings has been tried bj'^ the writer
several times with complete success. Sliglitl}'" modified, it may be
applied also to almost any other variety of cuttings, such as olives,
etc, ; but the success is never as great as with figs. Procure a deep
earthenware dish and fill with as hot water as the hands can possibly
bear and immerse the cuttings completely. Cover over with sacks or
blankets in order to retain the heat. If in two hours the cuttings

show no marked improvmentt, renew tue water and make it as hot as
before. But if an improvement is seen, renew with somewhat cooler
water. Tlie euttini^s shouhl remain immersed for twelve hours or
overnight, after which drain oil" the water, rinse the (uittings, and
transfei- tliem to a box. Fill the box and pack as tightl}^ as possible
with moist sand. Tlie box should then be placed in a hole in the
ground and covered at least L' feet deep with fn^sh soil. In twentyfour
honi's the cuttings may be taken out. If there was any life left in
the cuttings they will now have sufficiently recovered to be planted.
If they yet remain dry there is but little hope, though if very valuable
they may again l)e transferred to water as befoi-e and given another
trial. The writer has in this way revived cuttings which were pronounced
dead and which when cut did not show any sign of sap..
Such revived cuttings must be i^lanted and cared for in an entirely
different way from other cuttings. They should never be planted in
the open ground, at least not at once, but must first be started under
glass in a low frame placed directly on the ground. The frame should
be slanting toward the north and covered with thickly whitewashed
glass. The soil should be very sandy, and a layer of pure sand should
be placed over the soil in such a ..... etc..
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is a direct copy/paste with no editting but the idea is there
You may download this book from the Internet... believe to be its first edition

Good luck with your sick GN .. may I wish a complete recovery.

Francisco
Portugal

Wow, what a thread! Welcome to the forum( sorry for being late to the party) and best of luck with your GN "cuttings" and all of the rest of your growing. You clearly seem to have the right aditude and lots and lots of knowledge . With your permission , I will say a small prayer for them( the GN cuttings) since I strongly believe that there's definitely someone out there watching over us and providing help as needed and asked for!!
I will be patiently waiting to read the good news in a couple of weeks;)

Hi Lolita and welcome to the forum. Sorry your GN arrived in such a state, however, looking at the pictures of you cuttings in post ten, they appear to still show some life. Good luck bring them back from the brink. In my opinion though, the seller should bear more of the blame than you are willing to give. Any grower sending plants SHOULD expect a rough trip with delays. Proper packing should certainly survive a three day trip. I hope you contacted the seller and told of the condition the tree arrived in. If nothing else you might prevent some other buyer from going thru what you are dealing with. Best of luck and keep us posted.

Lolita,
Best of luck bringing this guy back to life. I don't think you should have had to go through this.
Francisco:
Interesting method presented here. Never heard anything like this before.

Waw Mai this is an interesting thread. It is making the fig more fun.
Welcome to the forum.
I agree with the previous post that plant with healthy roots can survive for a long transit time if packed with moist roots and not wet. Sometimes the leaves may die but in a long trips many of the roots are expected to survive. I had a plant in transit (lost & found in transit probably?) that survived more than a month in transit. There were still some white healthy roots and the bottom two nodes on the wood sprouted a week+ after replanting.

Did not the seller offer to accept a return? I'm curious why you did not return it?

Thank you Frank, ChrisK, DaveL, Coop951, OttawanZ5  for your input .

Francisco, 
I enjoy reading the way Dr Gustav Eisen treat injured fig cuttings very much.
However I am already done with the treatment of the sick GN , my way . Let's wait for few more days. If nothing happen , then I will apply Dr. Elsen 's method 
Thank you a lot . Through this, many other people and I have a chance to learn about Dr. Elsen  

Jerry,
Buyer requested a full refund 
Seller accepted , suggesting buyer to ship it back with wet papers on top of the soil around the tree base
Buyer let seller know that buyer would ship the tree back the first thing in the morning.
However seller decided to reimburse the full amount and said that buyer can keep the tree .
The transaction is done

During the dispute, buyer did not know what made the tree dead because he could not mess with it . After the done deal, I do not want him to throw the sick tree away. I asked my husband to give it to me so I can find out what was going wrong with it and am trying to rescue it ...

Now, please let me post the rest of the pictures

pic 22 : Dip the whole bundle covered with paper towels back into the Water +Thrive Alive solution

pic 23 : Squeeze out all excessive water

pic 24 : The cuttings are now inside the moist paper towels  

pic 25 : In plastic bag

pic 26 : tagging before placing the plastic bag in refrigerator 



I will wait for few days to see what happen  

You got the tree for free so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You may end up with a few free trees.

Hi Wayne ,

You should not bring up something like that (gain or lose) in a forum . 

The point here is not getting free fig trees . The point here is how to bring back to life a sick tree , that is the most important thing to me .

I wish you success Mai! Looking forward to see this happen. Please keep us updated. :-)

My bonsai Plumeria (The Dragon)
 

Lolita
Are you rooting in the refrigerator?
This goes against everything we know
You really do things "out of the box"