Why has UCD/USDA discontinued fig cutting orders to the general public?

Haven't heard an official reason, but more than likely because of budget constraints.

Specifically hordes of people wanted free cuttings and didn't put any way to pay for shipping.  The dept was overtaxed in manpower and money.

The issue is manpower. They have enough wood to fill orders on 99% of the varieties they have, but no way to package and ship the volume of orders in a timely manner.

Hey Jon, Howard said this was going to happen. It makes sense.

I appreciate what I got from them! Very Nice! : )

Wasn't it a few years ago Dennis that there were rumors flying around here that ucd was going to be shutting down to the general public along with a few other places. Da ja vu , but just can't put my finger on it. Guess age is catching up with me.

Bob and Scott both pegged it...  

At the fig tasting event hosted by Wolfskill on Aug 13th, John Preece, the USDA Research Leader there, explained that the ficus orders had more than doubled each of the last two years that orders were still being accepted from the public.  And, in that their "manpower" consisted of 4 or 5 students each semester, the cuttings that were taken in December to fill the orders that had been received, were still being shipped out the following June.  The vast majority of which were clearly non-viable at that point.  This also precluded the students from actually assisting in the facility's mission of collecting, preserving, evaluating, and distributing the crops assigned to them as a repository of the US National Genetic Resources Program. Thus, the decision was made to limit the orders accepted to those from research facilities. (With an exception made for scion provided to the California Rare Fruit Growers' scion exchanges)

Blue

That's really too bad.  UCD/USDA was my real introduction into the fig world.    I went from getting a ho hum Kadota at Lowes to learning about free UCD cuttings through Youtube to lurking on this board for a year or two and then joining in and learning about buying from trusted members of this forum.  From what I see, that's a common progression into this world.  It would behoove those currently profiting from fig sales here to sponsor continuing public access as a catalyst for growth in consumer interest.