Hi, Dennis:

Care to explain more about your points?  Why TC plants are no good from biology point of view vs other propagation methods? I understand that it may take years to see fruits, but a gardener is nothing if he is not patient.  Been there, done that.  I'd not call them cheap, they are just in-expensive to me.  Nothing wrong with that from this side of state line, especially if one just trys to get into figging(:-) and have some fun?

There is absolutely nothing with growing tissue culture plants.  I just think I'd rather spend my time, money and energy on a plant that's going to feed me versus, waiting for fruit 5 to 10 years down the road.  If you're happy with your plants, then by all means, clap your hands and be happy.

After growing 2 plants 9yrs ago and after waiting 6 and babying them for 6 years and watching it grow, I'd decided I had enough and chopped it up and placed them on the curb.  I never got one fig!  Me?  I prefer to eat my yard.

I know that this is probably not really needed, but I'm going to mention it anyway...

Tissue culturing results in a plant that is much closer to a seedling than a cloned cutting.  So, yes, the time it takes to 'take off' is going to be a lot longer than one from a cutting.  Yes, that means it may take several years to fruit instead of a couple.  It may take a couple of years to really put on some size, instead of during that first summer.  TC plants require more time and patients than clonal plants.  Of course, the better/higher end/pricier nurseries absorb some of that waiting by selling plants they've grown out for a couple of years, but at much higher prices.

That $7 Wellspring fig and the $75 super-duper fancy nursery fig both could have started life in a test tube at AgriStarts...except that $75 fig did so in 2014 while the $7 one did so last November.

Personally, I've got the time to spare and don't like spending large sums of money...

Points taken, Dennis.  For one second, I thought you meant that TC fig will not fruit...It appears to be an isolated case of yours.  Mine is now 20" tall with 3/8" diameter trunks.  I've got the time...Some of my fruit trees started with seedling years ago, and bearing fruits now. I have also got several Guava, Indian Jujube and Atemoya trees from seeds this year. Instant gratuity/gratitude does have its appeal to some, but the fun factor is not the same to me...

My wellsprings Texas Everbearing is about 9ft tall after light pruning, it's about 3 years old and has many figs in it.


Buy multiples of one cultivar, not all TC thrive.

I bought Wellsprings Lattarula, LSU Purple, Violette de Bordeux, Marseilles White. I got them in the late summer and 3 of the 4 produced figs the following summer (last summer). The Marseilles White (which by the way I don't believe is a MW), has not put up a fig yet, not sure why. the plant is pretty large. They all do put out a lot of suckers. I never associated that with being tissue culture until right now. The plants grew into good healthy plants and this year all but the MW have abundant figs growing on them. At no point in their growth have I seen any sign of FMV.

I would buy TC plants again.

I bought a Beers Black and a Little Miss figgy last year just to test the waters with tc plants. Last year they grew pretty quickly but they were mostly suckers from the base. This year....ive got figs on both plants! So 2nd year mine are producing. Not sure of the quality tho.

I'm glad to hear some positive feedback on the TC plants producing figs, I was starting to wonder if I chose poorly... I was thinking; at what point can fruiting be initiated by fertilizer or light hours? Maybe a combo to jumpstart the process.

Awesome guys!  I'm glad to hear some of you are getting figs on your TC fig trees.  I have one huge black mission that I bought 7 years ago.  This tree has never fruited for me.  It does NOT have FMV and I know its a TC fig tree.  The darn thing is 6 feet tall and in a 27 gallon pot.  Years ago, I just let it grow and there was a gazillion suckers.  A month ago, I striped it down to just  a few main branches---cleaned out all of the sucker.  Today, it might fruit.  I just removed 8 more suckers this morning.  But when I first got this tree it was 7 feet tall and in a 7 gallon pot.  It has been heavily pruned this year.

Here is a picture of it:  

Here are some figs on the only TC tree that I have. It actually came from Wellspring. I got it last summer, just to try out their plants. 

 

Sorry for the blurry pic.

This is a good look Black Mission fig tree, and appears to be well pruned.  I can not see figlets from the pic, but hope you will get some down the road.  

My wife bought one from Lowe's in March, and planted in ground.  It is about 4' tall with four main trunks, the thickest one is about 7/8" in diameter.  It now bears 11 figlets, and appears to be healthy(no FMV), but not a vigorous grower compared to my potted tissue cultured fig trees and the in-ground Green Ischia.  I guess that 11 fruits may have played a role in this, taking energy away from the root.  Funny thing about this tree is it look like yours, with not many leaves on the trunks, other than the top sections.  After the third months in ground, leaves/branches started to break out from the lower trunks.  They are not suckers though, but water shoots.  I plan on pruning them off on all of my fig trees later as there are quite a few of them. I do not know if they are all TC fig trees, but it appears to me that all my fruit trees have these suckers or water shoots.  To me, it is more like, this is what trees do, like, dogs pee on posts...

I think some of the pics shown illustrate my contention of "too bushy" as my problem with TC plants. Hard to get them trimmed to a single trunk. New suckers every year, they grow well but I don't have room for fig bushes, I need single trunk trees for winter storage. Cuttings almost always are one or two leaders and are easily trained by pinching. So yes, the TC's grow well but just don't fit my scheme of thing. Most I have given away and some like VDB I use the suckers as starter stock in small peat pots, great for propagation material though. I now have about 10 single trunk VDB's for trading/giveaways from a $7 plant! If you are looking for propagation material they are hard to beat!

I purchased multiples from Wellspring Gardens also.  They are doing great.   I bought two of each - one for my son and one for myself (not all varieties).  His were potted in 1 gallon nursery pots and are still quite small.  I transplanted mine immediately to 5 gallon nursery pots and they are all multi-stemmed and around 2' tall.  This may have spanned a few months - fast growers. The size of the pot makes a huge difference.

Wanted to give an update on my tissue coltures

All made it except one, very close to loosing two more due to the extreme heat, pulled indoors under T-5 light in the nick of time.

Well, I hate to be the one who throws in the rotten apple but if you deal with these guys and you have a problem they just cut you off and refuse to answer any questions.
I dealt with them 3 years in a row and then they sent a shipment where 2 of the 15 or so plants were dead. I tried to contact them and work it out and all they did was lock me out of their database and blow me off.

I will NEVER deal with them again.

Not to sound bitter but their tiny little plants sometimes take forever to grow. I've had LSU Purple plants from them that did not do a thing for over 2 years. They may be better now but  . .. 

They just started really growing about a month ago! However, so far out of all my cuttings, your Lebanese black purple has done the best by far! I'm really looking forward to seeing how well it does, it's going to be a monster... it looks like it's about to put on some figs, I pinched the top about a week and a half ago, and has two new shoots popping out, one is about 3/4 inch long already!

It has the largest leaves and the thickest stem, my green giant has the second largest leaves and looks the second best.

I'm hoping the tissue culture does well, I'll have five new varieties if they do, but the beers black and the Violet de bordoux look identical so far.

My Wellspring TC figs are doing very well since I ordered them (Olympian and DK) in 3/2017.  The Olympian even bears 9 figs in July, and some ripened by the mid September.  But two that ripened had light green skin and amber pulp.  I do not think it is an Olympian and I wrote email twice to Wellspring, with pics to show them for replacement or refund.  Like Michael said, no responses at all.  It was only $7 buck, not a whole lot of money but it is a matter of principle to me and honesty/customer services to them.  I still have DK to be verified for its true identity next year, but from my viewpoint, I would not recommend anyone to order fig trees from them.

At least you have a strong rootstock to graft onto the next time you have cuttings.
Would love to see pics of the tissue couture if you have any.

I agree, when it comes to figs, sellers need to be on point as much as possible, I only order fig trees / cuttings from members of this forum after ordering from wellspring, and reading about all the fakes out there.
I'm in the same boat as you right now, waiting to verify the ones I have.

On a brighter note, I just ordered a Maltese falcon tree from plant creator off eBay, and should see it this week 😁

You can check topics started by me a couple of weeks ago to see the pics.