Hi ,
i thought i would share photo's of a preto starting to root.
What i did was similar to last season i used the expandable peet pellets .
This season i took 3 or 4 of them in warm water then broke them up and put in part of water bottle , stuck preto stick in it that was rinsed in sink water and total 22 days later.
Oh and i also forgot to make holes in cup, the heck with the holes im gonna leave it as is.  ; )
But thats ok cause im soon going to transfer this into a pot with potting soil on bottom and sides and add more peet right around area that it will sit in the pot and cover top with more potting soil. Its out of my bin and tomorrow will go under the grow light on top of my aero system.
Best Health

My Pretos have rooted, too.

Pretty neat way of doing it, thanks for sharing.

I potted it today so its 23 day total since recieveing stick to this stage.
Dont do this so early unless you have a spare 1 to root .  ; )
I also did the same with my panache stick in same type of pot shown but did not take picture. I like the peat to root as for me its really simple.
Best Health

Martin since I showed them off on the other site I'll show them off here also. My Preto have been in sphagnum for 32 days and look like this. I will put them in cups Saturday.

Gene,
way to go i like sm also i cant seem to remember the correct spelling for that darn word so i say sm.  Im thinking of useing the peat next time i try . Yours look like they are on there way long as you dont leave them on what looks like a leather recliner seat , i just had to say that. (no offense meant)  ; )
Please post pictures as they come along and thanks for taking the time to do so, geez it seemed like it took me forever today as the computer was running slow.
Seems like a few folks have been rooting preto and i hope in futre we can compare all of ours in our different climates to see what if any difference like fruit color, interior color etc,etc.
It will be fun.
Best Health

Martin I gave those cuttings "big shot" status  by letting them rest on my leather chair, but only for a few moments then back into the bag. I agree, it will be fun to compare from around the country.
"gene"

Doggone it i was right about the chair?  ; )
High class figs !

Here is 1 of 5 Rooted Preto cuttings  this one I started in a 2 Gallon pot.

Nelson, when did you start that Preto?  I got Preto sticks from 2 different people.  One practically jumped out of the baggie.  The other is taking its time.  Interesting.  It will be interesting to see if they develop differently once they start leafing out.

C.J.

Hi C.J I received the cuttings either Feb.23 or 24th not sure now, some already had initials starting to show others did not. Some I left in the sphagnum I received it in for a few more days the first two that leafed out went straight into pots.

So, Preto/Preta/etc. is the same as Black Madeira?  Yes or no?  Curious to hear responses.

They look similar from the limited samples we saw. But They were riening in a cooler climate and earlier than BM, so there are some very obvious difference. The hope is that it is as good as BM , but not so heat demanding and long season needing.

Both supposedly originated in Madeira.

I will be able to tell as i have preto potted just recently with extra in case, also have Madiera to compare with . In my climate i will be able to tell if there is a difference in ripeing times growing in pots side by side and also comparing leaves shape, fruit taste and its charecterisics.
Time will tell me .
Best Health

Curious to see and hear if the Preto shows signs of FMV as prevalent as Black Madeira. That could be a clue that they are in fact different varieties

Sal you brought up a very good point about preto perhaps showing FmV like BM.
My maderia showed it very much early last season , i kept giving it a weak solution of miracle grow with almost every watering along with some nutrients and by seasons end it looked so much better. Its coming out of dormancy ahead of some of my plants and im curious how it will fair this season.
Also curious when my preto starts growing outdoors how the leaves will look as i remember well what my maderia looked like at first.
Its a lot of fun and i look forward to seeing how they both do along with some others.

Martin you are so right my small BM just stated leafing out and the FMV is very noticeable I did notice this also with The VDB last year but as it grew and I fed it seemed to be better and not as prevalent. 

Sal I think the Preto from Point Loma is just a different strain of the Black Madeira. As there seems to be different strains in Madeira here is a picture of my Preto, Black Madeira & Bêbera Preta

I don't know enough about FMV to make an educated opinion.  However, it does seem possible that FMV could cause a change in timing of various events in a tree.  Making FMV the only difference between Fico Preto and Blk Mad.  As Martin said, time will tell.

Nelson nice pics and if there Is Fmv it is hard to see in those Pics Mine is still very small and only has 2 leafs but is easy to see the FMV I will take pics in about a month and post when there is more growth. I only have a few trees so taking pics and comparing their progression is pretty easy and it works better then my memory serves me lol

Sal I also have another small black Madeira wich has visible FMV and the leaves are all weird. We should keep this thread going through out the year to compare notes between the black madeira and Preto in different zones.

HERE are pics I just took of BM




It looks worse in person but I hope it responds favorably to a feeding program
Sal

Sal dont feel so bad, look at my other black madeira it does not look any better lol.

Hi Nelson,
in your post # 17 of the 3 plants i can see the FmV well in the top left plant in several leaves  (Especially the molting in leaf at 6 o'clock)

 to further show it and to be sure my old eyes were not lying to me i did an invert of them which is almost like an xray .

The 2 smaller plants looks like it may be in the leaves somewhat if so it will show itself as more leaves come on if thats the case.

If you like to get a good look at the FmV try this for fun
get a light bulb and put it above and or below leaf and look at the leaf topside and bottom side it might highlight the spotting as my grow light last season did very well showing it.

Here is your plant picture inverted hope you dont mind i did this to your picture. Now if i only could get enough scion of ischia black to experiment with that would be fun.

Best Health

Martin the Plant on the top left is like that because of Spyder Mites. I sprayed it with END ALL II spray wich started to burn the leaves and a week later spider mites again so I sprayed it again and then a week later spider mites again so I took my lighter and started burning all the spider mites I could see and ended up damaging the leaves with my stupidity. Up until that point I have never noticed any leaves with FMV and will remove all the damaged leaves off that plant. Neat trick you did there what program did you use Photoshop?

Nelson,
oh gosh them spider mites are nasty .
You took a lighter to your plant leaves im laughing in a good way when i read that.
I hate them things and reason i dont try to grow indoors anymore as last season i lost a precious plant to 1 and almost several others.
I did notice with my jewlers loupe they would come out of the buds of some of my plants. Once outdoors they were fine.
Them things gave me the creepers.

Edit, yes i used photoshop, any program that has an "invert" selection will do i like phtoshop when im looking at model trains as it hightlights the body condtion well for me.