About 3 months ago I find all these documents shoved in my mail slot. NJ Dept of Agriculture wanted to inspect my "Nursery". She said today was Fig Growers Day.  She just left, I passed. Wonder if it was eBay?

That sounds like almost as much fun as an IRS audit. Did they say what they were looking for? What questions do they ask?

Actually it was way less painful  than I expected. Plus she was a real cutie pie :) Wish I was 20 years younger. Not many questions, took 10 minutes. She was looking for pests. At one point she whips out her loupe and zooms in on a not so pretty fig leaf. She thought it was mites but didn't see any. She didn't ask the one question I was fearing. 

Lots of room at the bottom of the form for pests.

Hey KK...now you're ONE OF US.....ONE OF US....

I got my visit last year.  Same here, only took around 10 minutes.  It was definitely eBay.

this is when your imagination runs wild and you have the cold sweats!!! I bought a fig on ebay from a US seller that said he collected them from another country. They came after him and everyone he sold it to. And they came knocking on my door too. I was like I'm ruined and they are gonna burn all my trees!

But the reality is they just want that one tree. and off they went. 

Could be ebay.... it could also be the ebay fig scammers going after trusted sellers that directly compete with their scammed product... I have long suspected that there are moles on this forum that are or work for ebay fig scammers; we know of at least one case where a forum 'member' has gone after noted forum ebay sellers and threatened to ask the the USDA to become involved in greater seller inspections.... Who knows....

Keith, she was at my place right before she came to you. I asked her why so early this year since my inspection is not up till September. She said she was in the area inspecting all the fig growers. I just heard from Rich of Frenchfigfarms that she came to his place too.

The USDA watches all eBay transactions. A TX department of Agriculture officer came to my home a couple of years ago looking for the Madeira Island cuttings that I bought on eBay from Portugal. They took the cuttings (then rooted plants) along with the soil. After inspection, I was allowed to keep other trees from multiple countries. Don't purchase anything from overseas on eBay and if travelling declare everything upon entry.

That was a few years ago.

It's really a shame that they banned it, though I understand why. If only someone could open up an official USDA quarantine orchard and import all the cuttings. Then release them in 2 years. I guess that is what UC Davis used to do, until they stopped their cutting distribution program. 

For the average gardener, there's plenty of varieties available in the US. CA has the largest number of cultivars in the US not only at UCD, but in private hands.

I went down to my local NJ USDA office this winter. They were actually very helpful. I'm not sure if I'd want them randomly showing up but I don't think I have any pests and I don't eBay from overseas.

Side note. I applied for permits to bring cuttings to South Africa. I got my answer emailed to me in late January. The paperwork was also mailed to my house. That showed up this week.

KK,
Welcome to the club.
You will most likely never know who narc'ed you out.
Good luck,
mgg

That is crazy

Are you a registered nursery in the state or have you bought from overseas off of ebay? Seems like that would be the only way they could demand access to your property. I'm pretty sure the 4th amendment protects you from fishing expeditions by the Gov.

Earlier this year the town sent me a letter saying they were going to inspect my septic system and i had to pay for it. I called them and asked what the problem was. They said nothing they just wanted to insure there wasn't a problem. I told them they could do it if they wanted to pay for it, otherwise they were trespassing. I never heard from them again, not yet anyway.

Fighearder - Jeff where do you live? I'm in Orlando, FL. in Orange County.

Yes they monitor Ebay.... I got a visit a few years ago, can take them a while I had bought seeds and they asked me to hand over the plants... which I did with a smile. They were very nice.

I'm hoping nobody reported anything. That would be horrible. Maybe it was like my situation..the Welcome to my world. The postal service reporting dirt. All my mail was jacked up since April. I first bought a huge amount of dirt off Amazon. The AG dogs love dirt or at least that dirt. They tore the box up in the shipment. I looked at the package and thought what happened to this? Second box not as bad..The next thing I ordered was a whole bunch of liquid fertilizers and soil additive stuff. Again the package was messed with. I order from Amazon all the time so I thought it odd. Than the fig shipments started coming. I'm in CA and I ordered from CA and known sellers off ebay. The first couple figs went thru fine, no problem with Harveys but everyone after that got inspected. They called me and the shipper and requested to inspect the packages. I got from all known forum sellers.  Since I ordered around 15 new figs I think I sent up a red flag. Also I had soil in the back of my SUV where I was mailing to outgoing packages to mom for mom day and a friend..they also got inspected and delayed.  I didn't mind the inspection b/c I know they can do it but I'm just glad nothing died. I wasn't happy about delayed mom day package. I never had problems with the cutting I ordered but currently I am waiting for one more set of cuttings..I'm hoping they will be here soon without dog teeth. lol When the Ag lady called I said I know they just passed mj law but I'm only buying figs. I was joking around but she wasn't laughing..she had to explain the soil restriciton but I told her I already knew before ordering. So I got lectured about the "label" on the box. So watch out for the Fig Po Po's! lol Sorry they can't stop the fig addiction..gotta keep ordering and shipping!!!

You can always trade locally and build it up that way! Also doesn't Amazon charge an arm and a leg for shipping soil? I would just think it might be cheaper going local.

Local may mean convenient but not necessarily easy. I have a guy stopping by to pick up 2 figs I have up on Craigslist. You have no idea how much I had to explain about varieties and growth rates, winter protection and fig production. People don't know. I don't blame them. I understand. It's much nicer to deal with forum people when everyone is on the same page. Dept of Ag definitely gets in the way sometimes.

For me local means trading with forum members. I have a small balcony for all my fig growing so I don't have all that much.

We buy a lot of other things on Amazon so we are Prime members so shipping is free or I'm wouldn't buy it there. I pay for convenience. I only buy soil for my starters. I mixed other stuff and made a huge mess that took me forever to clean up and I was pricing out everything I added to the mix..so I said..nope I don't want to deal with it.  I have a cement yard so if wind blows it blows it all over and I have clean the intire back yard. grr. I just bought worm castings that I want to add to my soil so I have to research that now but I will be mixing again soon! Never ends ;)

You have to be careful ordering fertilizer as well because terrorists use fertilizer to build bombs. Seriously! When I was growing exhibition roses, I ordered a large bag of special rose fertilizer on line that was popular with exhibitors at the time. My son was in some minor trouble at school with some remarks on a private Internet forum. We met with the principal and I was surprised to see a sheriff's officer there as well. They had a record of my fertilizer order and thought that I and my son were up to no good. Can you imagine? Big Brother is everywhere. Another rosarian I talked with reported a similar problem where he lived.