I am saddened to report that the much anticipated unveiling of the first ripe Blue Ischia is neither Blue, Black nor an Ischia.

See the initial post on this fig several from two years ago:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/blue-ischia-5617317?highlight=blue&pid=1271364591#post1271364591

Hirt's is still selling it on ebay and amazon with a picture of a beautiful black fig that looks a lot like Ischia Black.

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Ischia-Edible-Fig-Plant/dp/B003WZ0HEY/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1404914522&sr=1-1&keywords=blue+ischia


 Last year, many of us got into such a frenzy convincing ourselves that it could be the mythical virus free Ischia Black that Hirt's sold out all of it's plants in a matter of weeks. Well, unless mine was mis-labeled we can all scratch that one. Looking forward to others confirming or denying these results.



 

   




The fig was pecked at by birds and it could have stayed on the tree a few more days





 

WHAT??????
I am checking this thing every day. But my leaves look like from a Black Ischia.
Maybe yours was mislabeled?
Can you post a leaf photo, please?

I hope mine was mis-labeled for everyone's sake.
Here is a picture of the mother plant:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/blue-ischia-root-riot-air-layer-6401669?highlight=blue&pid=1278515510#post1278515510

Hmm… My leaves look similar, let me  take a photo.

Well that bites......wait that long just to get disappointed.  Are you going to contact them?

Check your email btw.

Oh crap, say it's not so! I had high hopes. Hirts needs to know and trace the original stock. There are dozens of us  if not more that need to not even gift this until we know what it is.

Ok, here are my leaves from this morning.
But, you at least have something to taste!!
My 2 figs are not even showing the embryos :(

Did it at least taste any good?

This a mature leaf from a year old tree and a young leaf from a 2 month old tree. This is my first time doing a photo, I hope it works.    

i know i'm color blind.. even i can tell that thing is not blue-blue-or any shade of dark fig. USDA/UCD Ischia Black is doing very well. slow growing figs are doing much better. i guess that's due to less need for water. 

Pete, give your plant some liquid fertilizer now for about a week and watch what happens.  My 2 trees are grow well with several figs on.  I picked figs last year from my trees but did not post any pics.

Frank,
It could have been mislabeled but this feels TyTy-ish.

I bought one of those "Blue Ischia" trees too, back when there was a lot of chatter about them last year.  I separated it into 3 trees (they were all tiny), and they're growing nicely now.  But the leaves don't look anything like your pics in that other thread.  It does sound kinda suspicious  (but then, the whole idea of "Blue Ischia" sounded pretty suspicious to start with).  If I get a chance after I get home, I'll make some pics of the leaves and post them here.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a 

By the way Frank, I think that blue looks more like black-yellow-white.   (A color my brother describes every now and then).

oh that's disappointing....I have one of them too....don't think I'll buy from them again :(

Waynea,you have a "Lattarula" fig leaf in your picture.

Here is my blue ischia that I got in February from them...grew out nicely but who knows what it could be dark or light fig

"Waynea,you have a "Lattarula" fig leaf in your picture"

Thanks Marius, I think a couple other members do too.

Here is my Blue Ischia from hirts


 


Any ideas?

Thanks
Doug

Looks like my "Ischia" from Lowes.

Doug, it looks like mine.

Also, I see you are in Tallahassee. I'm in the Tampa Bay area and mine ripened last week. I really think the Lowes variety and the Hirts variety are the same. 

Frank is in Tallahassee and I am south of you near Fort Myers.

This bites, I have 2  also but my leaves look a little different then the ones posted above.

I think I found the source of my "Ischia." My Lowes fig came from Dewars nursery in Florida. I don't know this for a fact, but I'd guess that Dewars gets their tissue cultures from Agristarts. Here is the "Ischia" page on Agristarts website:

http://www.agristarts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/92/typeID/45/index.htm

The only confusing thing is that it says the fig has a light pink flesh. My fig looked the same as the fig pictured in this post, white with tan seeds. Maybe the color shows up in different weather conditions?

Perhaps this is also the "Blue Ischia" fig? Maybe Hirts also got tissue cultures from Agristarts? At least my description was somewhat close to what I got, even though I wrongly assumed it was Green Ischia.

This is another possibility. Hirts also sells Lemon Italian Honey Fig Plant which looks a lot like what you have.  Maybe it was a mislabeled fig?

http://www.hirts.com/Lemon-Italian-Honey-Fig-Plant/dp/B00L1JC00M?field_availability=-1&field_browse=2260876011&field_keywords=figs&id=Lemon+Italian+Honey+Fig+Plant&ie=UTF8&refinementHistory=brandtextbin%2Csubjectbin%2C color_map%2Cprice%2Csize_name&searchKeywords=figs&searchNodeID=2260876011&searchPage=1&searchRank=salesrank&searchSize=12

Perhaps they sent me the wrong fig, perhaps not. As previously noted, there was a such run on this fig from members of this forum that it forced Hirt's to place it on back order for over 6 months. So, soon there will be many more people posting pictures of their ripened figs and we shall see. BTW, Hirt's is not known for its friendly customer service.

The figs from my tree from Walmart labeled "Ischia" looks just like yours Frank.  I bought in 2012 and the pot was marked from Dewars Nursery in Florida.

OK, I took a couple of leaf pictures of my "Blue Ischia" trees.  As you see, mine look different.  For the record, I ordered mine from Hirt's Nursery on 2013-10-28 (and it shipped that day).  It arrived with so many tiny trunks, I was able to split it into three trees.  They're thriving OK, but they would seem to be a different variety from yours Frank, and different from the others posted above too maybe.  Two grown leaves plus a juvenile leaf in the pictures.

<<edit, a couple of minutes after posting>> Looks like possibly the same leaf as john's (deerhunter16b's), and can't tell but possibly same as waynea's.  Different from the others>>

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a


"Blue Ischia" leaf A, 2014-07-10
 

"Blue Ischia" leaf B, 2014-07-10
 

"Blue Ischia" leaf C, juvenile, 2014-07-10
 

I don't know Mike. Leaves can have such variability depending on age of plant, sun exposure, time of the year etc. For example, the leaves in the top picture could easily look like mine if they were a little older. The one thing that has always stood out, to me, was the deep dark green color or the plant.
Regardless, once more people start posting pictures of the ripe fruit, we will have an answer. Should they all tuen out to be green figs, I strongly suggest inundating Hirt's with complaints. They should at a minimum change the name of the fig.

Have to agree with Frank....I guess time will tell

My prediction : All those TC Blue Ischias will turn out to be different varieties. LOL

I believe your prediction is correct. If you are an expert on predictions you should have told us so before we purchased these new unknowns. LOL! What? New unknowns??? That's it Frank, we need to resell them on ebay as a new rare variety Unk Golden Blue Ischias discovered in the Hirts neighborhood, we could make hundreds$$$$$$$$.

The crazy thing is that I keep looking on eBay to see if FMD is selling them there yet.

Hershell, I can sell you a very nice rare specimen of an Unk. Blue Ischia outside eBay,
use your time to watch the FIFA Final instead of wasting it on eBay :)

I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled a Ty Ty and just sent out any ol' tree as long as it had fig leaves. Then by the time it produced fruit people would forget about it. Being that their 15 day policy is too short to be able to tell exactly what tree you get would go in their favor. You might get better results by calling them to complain. If they get tired of hearing complaints they might give a full refund or send the real Blue/Black Ischia. At least it's not Brown Turkey!

[quote=Frank]I don't know Mike. Leaves can have such variability depending on age of plant, sun exposure, time of the year etc.[/quote]
I agree Frank.  Too soon to tell if it's different.  Ripe fruit will tell the tale though.  That won't be this year for this variety here though... they're growing nicely, but started so small last October, they aren't big enough yet.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

In Russia you can buy Brown Turkey, under a new name: 1. Kadota Purple. 2. Kadota Blue.

I emailed Matt Hirt and this was his reply to me:

Thanks for following that up for us, Wayne. 

How about some corporate responsibility,Matt? Now that your supplier "claims" to have the correct Blue Ischia, I'll be sure to order half a dozen more plants and wait two years to confirm the "claim".

 It appears that "Hirt-ing Our Customers Since 1985" would be an apt company logo. Go ahead and use it, Matt. No charge.

Lol

Interesting. I suppose "Hirt-ing" is defined by blind trust. Is it fair to expect that someone at Hirts sampled the fruit and received photos of the correct Blue Ischia after having sold an untold number of incorrect Blue Ischia? Better...grow and fruit it before selling to the public.

Very good point. Oh well, I still feel that everyone needs to email Hirts, it won't hurt!

• Phone: 1-330-239-0506
• Fax: 1-330-239-0305
• Email: greenhousematt@gmail.com

Well at Daves Hirts has.....

141 positives
32 neutrals
117 negatives

Not good!

Anyone else get a ripe fig from this loser -- yet?

Things like this happen often but are not always disappointing.
 I had received a BLack Mission from a fig friend here and it turned out to be greenish/yellow. I like it so much that I would not want to change it for any strain of Mission. OK, may be except for Vista Mission if it is a Mission strain but I already have this one. Also, my squirrels (my nemesis) like it more as well.

And look what happened to this very dark fig !!
http://figs4fun.com/Thumbnail_Very_Dark_Greek.html

No ripe figs here yet from this variety.  But as the tree grew (and it did grow fairly vigorously), the leaves now do resemble yours Frank.  I expect the figs from it will resemble the ones you got too.  Did you ever get any more figs from it?  I mean, some that weren't bird food, and that you actually tasted?  
Mike 

Mine made a couple of Celeste fruits ,(like),that dropped out before getting ripe.
It went in the chipper,so I have no( hard evidence).

Mike, I got a bunch that did not ripen. Up yours birds!, I think the fools at Hirt's sent us the Lemon fig they are also selling. What's the difference, right? Alkram, perhaps you are right, this may turn out to be a good fig in the end but I doubt it. Herman, remind me never to cross you. LOL.

Wow thank you for this thread. I was actually about to place an order with them and had 7 fig trees in my cart. After seeing this I'm not going to take a chance. I doubt the VDB or panache are going to be legit either. I also find it suspicious that all the trees are mis spelled. panche? Blue Ischia? Never heard of them but there are similar names out there obviously. I'll pay more and make sure I get what I order.

I don't like Hirt's Garden....They seem shady to me. They dodge questions. They steal other people images. All the figs I've bought from them seem to be TC, and they are super small when they arrive. Your better off just looking somewhere else.

I remember the topic about duplicate naming started by Aharon - this nursery method of selling " blue figs" is a fine example of why this fig naming confusion started.
Most nurseries selling figs that are not specialized in figs show lack of information , lack of proper naming and they just know to name a fig black /white, big/small or they want to make money on noobs and call their figs  special names.
The only reliable source of green material is from collectors/nurseries with proven pictures or germoplasms like UCD.
Somthing nice i saw in a piere baud video is he puts the name and picture of the final product on each of his plant- that shows reliability.

I dont understand how can one invest time 'energy and hope in a fig tree or any other fruiting tree and than get somthing different from what he wanted.