Has everyone become disenchanted with the free cuttings? I have not seen or could not find any posts for the last several months about Davis. I received over fifty cuttings in the spring of this year from them which I cut in half before starting the rooting process. I know I was able to root at least a hundred of these. Of this hundred I found most to have the Fig Moasic Virus. Some severly. I grew them throughout the summer and selected about five to keep. The others are now north of Interstate 10 at the landfill. I did place an order again this year before I became completely unsatisfied with the results. I have now cancelled my Fedex account so they have no account number to ship them to me. If they do for free the cuttings will be offered here to anyone wanting them. For now I will just be either trading or buying from reliable sources.

Jake

I just recieved cuttings from china. They are for beall. I hope they are beall cuttings.
I think Davis' free cuttings is a neat service. If you can grow figs in a good soil and give them what they need they will be healthy after a year or two. I got a fig with heavy FMV and it is fine this year and produced figs. It is late but I hope next year the tree will improve. I cannot get figs from USA so I buy from other countries. ;)

Apparently most Davis cuttings have FMV, as they have the insects that spread FMV tree to tree in that area. 

The process looks a little daunting to get them. Can someone share the cliff notes? Also, with mosaic virus it seems not worth it. I'd. Like to be convinced otherwise though.

I'd be interested in learning about the process of obtaining cuttings from UC Davis. I'm in Northern California so I probably have similar conditions.

Go to http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/acc/acc_queries.html 

Type "fig" into the Text Search Query field.

You will see results on several pages.  Each will tell the availability.  When you click on one there will be a link on the description page to "request this germoplasm".  When you request it, you will see another page that is your list of germoplasm requests.  When you have requested as you wish, there is a link to complete your request form for submission.  

As for convincing the concerned of FMV, I figure all the trees from there have it and they grow well enough every year to send out loads of cuttings.  I also have enough faith in the folks here to follow their directions, give the trees what they need and FMV won't be an issue. 

Go to figs4fun home page, click USDA / UC DAVIS then click "Accession List - Ficus Carica" , click on the fig of your choice in blue letters, if the variety is available it will have the words in blue "Request for germplasm", click and follow directions.

I'm with Jake on this one..I avoid UCDavis like the Plague. 

I got cuttings from them a couple years ago and most of them rooted.  They don't have the greatest selection.  They have some of the mythical figs, like col de dam, black madeira, etc.  Problem is, they grow so slowly it's not clear if I'll ever actually taste any of them.  I don't worry about FMV.  I figure there's no good way to avoid it completely. 

It's a good way to get a whole bunch of cuttings for a pretty decent price.  For each variety I got 4 to 6 cuttings at least a foot long, which could be cut in half, so you do the math.  I think I ordered about 15 varieties and the shipping cost me 40 bucks or something like that.  A bunch of the varieties turned out to be duds (even some smyrna type), but that was just my inexperience.  It was a good experience as an introduction into the process of growing figs from cuttings, so it was worth it for the research value, even if all the figs turned out to be no good.  And I think I did end up with a handful of good ones.   

All that being said, I have no plans to order anything else from UCD in the future.  Would rather trade with other growers, now that I have a decent collection. 

Anyone who decides not wanting the new order they should call Mary to inform and withdraw/cancel their order.
It is a lot of labor intensive work to put cuttings order together for each order, specially when it involves 50 cuttings.
Lets be more responsible :)  (just my opinion)

I ordered from them for the first time this year.

CdDN
Black Madeira
Pastiliere
Black Ischia
Mission
VdB
Kadota 1
California Brown Turkey

Hopefully some of them will root and be worthwhile. 

I've had good luck with UCD even though they have the "virus", but understand this, most threads that mention FMV by members say it is not a big deal. even some of the members that have spoken out against UCD. Just search and read the threads about Fig Mosaic Virus FMV and you would be surprised what certain members say. It is something that most growers have in their collections and have to live with, just my opinion.

One of the best tasting figs I had this year, Grise de St. Jean, came as cuttings from USDA Davis. The plant shows obvious signs of fmv, but I don't care. Another amazing fig for me was from a 30 year old Mission, growing with fmv, and the tree is 15'by15' and full of great figs. Of course, I'm in California. In colder, shorter climates, it probably makes more of a difference in the vigor of the plant.

Aaron has been removed from the list of those I might send unwanted cuttings to, a fact not an opinion.

Jake

Jake,
I don't know what inspired you to use my name in your post #15 but , please give me ONE reason why I should care about you removing my name from YOUR list...
I didn't even know I was on anybody's list.
Seriously!!  LOL