[QUOTE=sppsp]I checked on my cuttings today. I was excited to see two cuttings have small roots and I just put them in cups. (sorry I didn't snap any pictures).[/QUOTE]

Yay, yes this is exciting.... i'm glad for you.

Matt- Thank you, and I'm glad you're feeling better too. Looking forward to seeing your progress as we go. It's been a blast growing these cuttings out, and I hope you have as much fun as we've been having. I checked through soil, leaves, and light fixtures again today and could only find four gnats, all of which I managed to kill. I'll check again before turning out the lights. I think I have about 18 pots in the grow room, some growing fruits/veg and some in reserve for future use. So that's the room that always takes the longest to clear. I'll have to add some dunks to my war chest for future. I hear great things about them. Sounds like you're going to have lots of trees this season. I'm jealous of your cloner already.

Sppsp- Congrats on your roots! Awesome job! No worries about the photos. I didn't snap many at that point either, because I was so nervous about getting them potted up quickly and without damaging the little roots.

Joy- Thank you, and I can't wait until you've got your new camera so I can enjoy piccies of your fig trees too. It sounds like Mai's method is working beautifully for you. LSU Purple and Celeste seem to get lots of raves for being strong growers. Sounds like they're living up to their reputation. Unk. Sheepshead sure is!

I totally understand about checking on the figs periodically. I go in a few times a day at least, kill any gnats I see, and basically just enjoy the growing plants. We've got snow on the ground outside, temps in the teens, and wind gusts of up to 50mph outside. Makes the grow room and those young plants all the more enticing and reassuring. So I putter around checking every leaf and every pot, but truthfully there's very little that the figs need me to do for them currently, while there's a lot they do for me.

Almost all fig leaves smell like kitty parfum to me. Salce is the first one that hasn't. It's got a coconut kinda smell instead. As long as the room isn't super tiny, the smell isn't noticeable. Even in a small room it passes quickly. When I had all the figs in the small bathroom window, my mother went in there and immediately asked what smelled like cat pee. Guess, I inherited her sense of smell. LOL.

I'm guessing it has roots now ;)

[QUOTE=Lewi]I'm guessing it has roots now ;)[/QUOTE]

Looks great Lewi! Beautiful pics btw. What medium are you using?

I so far have 8 cuttings going for sheepshead (3 in bag method, 5 in coir) and will get some more in the cloner once that is up and running. They have only been rooting a few days now, and i don't want to disturb my coir bin to check for roots since there is ALOT of coir in there and would prefer longer roots anyway. Should have cloner up in next 48hrs, very excited about it. Pics to follow

Matt

I followed Jon's advice for a 50/50 mix of compost and pearlite. I use Black Kow compost (seems they only distribute it as far north as Virginia).

I had some failures with some hollier tip cuttings in this medium, and some diffrent dried out cuttings from a separate vendor...both now attempting a rescue with Mai-Lolita's bag method.( low moisture)

Too much cold and wet led to rot...warmer February expected...

Either way the sheepshead looks to be a winner...I have been whacking away at some brush by the homesite to make a nice cozy spot for it. I really love the look of the leafes on it. :)

Maybe some relative-neighbor-friend in Brooklyn could ask the nice old Italiano Ladies what kind of fig it is?

Tell them a "ginocci head" who lived 2 years in Nicolosi just neeeds to know :)

I am behind on many things right now...I will catch up!  Next week I'm starting a batch of cuttings and this one I am looking forward to starting!

Lewi - awesome stuff, cant wait to see it once warmer temps hit. There are no old school neighbors left on the block, all new blood. The old ladies kept to themselves, only really dealt with one neighbor who helped them with odd stuff. That neighbor has long since moved. I will be back over at the house during chinese new year, so ill check to see how the property is doing.

Meg - i'm patiently waiting...heheh. I also started later than expected, but we all have things come up.

Here is some progress shots on my cuttings from my coir bin. This is 18 days worth of growth. Far surpassing my other cuttings in this method. Was able to put 3 of my sheepshead cuttings into cups. The ones in the baggie method are doing well and the cloner cuttings are showing root initials already.

Here's one of mine, getting there! I still have it in high humidity. I'm slowly weening it now. Very slowly, a few more weeks.
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Lewi - Sorry to hear about some of your other varieties succumbing, but your Sheepshead look like they are really thriving. Matt - Those roots are to die for! Sheepshead roots amazingly fast, and the roots are very strong. Yours are looking fantastic. Drew - That's a stunner. Looks like it's really loving the humidity and leafing out beautifully. Quick update: My rescued cutting has a couple of new roots starting. Hopefully, I can pot it back up very soon. I'm a bit behind at the moment, but I'm getting all of my established cuttings potted up into 12" containers. I'll snap pics in a few days.

Matt, Nice roots. So far I'm still a "stick am in the dirt "guy...but I'm learning to appreciate the finer things in life like "cloners" and "chior." Windowsill g., Only had problems with thin tip cuttings and dried out cuttings. Either i or the Mrs. overwaterd ..and they were too cold.. Sheepshead is indeed an easy rooter (only rooting one of the 3...waiting till spring). In terms of sucess in rooting LSU Gold is a close second this winter. I did manage to get a bud in one really dry cutting with mai's bag method ( 2014 cutting?)...its now sitting as a single node in a jiffey pot with moisture control potting soil. I cut it out because it was leafing out in the platic bag where I was expecting roots! First pic is a very fragile Brooklyn white. The second is a cropped sheepshead Ukn Pic.

Drew - awesome progress dude! Why did you have in humidity if you parafilmed it? I chose not to do any humidity domes, because transitioning them to RH is a pain from what i hear.

Danielle - Thanks for the update! Hopefully it makes it~!

Lewi - those leaves are awesome!!!!! One healthy looking plant with beautiful growth :)

I just took one of the dormant plants i grew from green cuttings last summer out of the garage and put in my laundry room, hoping to get a jump start on the season with it and hopefully have some fruits early. Its only a few inches tall, but hopefully the root system will be well ahead of these cuttings.

Thanks again everyone here who have been updating with progress, i really appreciate it!!!! Hopefully once spring comes, we'll have a larger group of participants.

Matt,

You have done an amazing job sharing and spreading this fig to nearly every corner of the country!!  Bravo my friend!!!

I sure can't wait to give try some fruit, most likely next year in my climate.... But who knows.

Yep, just what Scott said. Well done Matty , I can't wait to get mine started. Everyone's pics look great ,very strong work!! From the way the baby leaves look it looks so Chicago Hardyish ........it's not funny.

[QUOTE=COGardener]Matt,

You have done an amazing job sharing and spreading this fig to nearly every corner of the country!!  Bravo my friend!!!

I sure can't wait to give try some fruit, most likely next year in my climate.... But who knows.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Scott, hopefully Andy got you a bit head start of the plants they get supersized for you. 

[QUOTE=ChrisK]Yep, just what Scott said. Well done Matty , I can't wait to get mine started. Everyone's pics look great ,very strong work!! From the way the baby leaves look it looks so Chicago Hardyish ........it's not funny. [/QUOTE]

Thanks Chris. Very Mt. Etna like indeed, hopefully a unique taste profile. 

The remaining tree is still there, just visited during Chinese new years this weekend and the plot was still empty. The limbs looked good (the ones i left or couldn't get at), so all these freezes and snow we had didn't do too much damage. But then again, until this upcoming week, we haven't had temps under 25 degrees.

[QUOTE=Brooklynmatty]Drew - awesome progress dude! Why did you have in humidity if you parafilmed it? I chose not to do any humidity domes, because transitioning them to RH is a pain from what i hear.
[/QUOTE]

Well yes probably overkill. I had some bad cuttings from others, dry, stored too long etc. So i was not taking any chances. The one pictured I will pass on to a friend. I'm going to keep one only as I have limited room. The one I'm keeping is adjusted already to regular room temps. Here it is. It's ahead because it was put directly in soil. Sometimes those just take off, sometimes it doesn't work. It worked well here!
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Here are some updates on my sheepshead cuttings, these were put in coir bin on 1/17 and then transferred to these cups on 2/5. The roots are loving the airy medium, cant overwater these puppies ;)

The 3 in front are sheepshead
 

beautiful root development, some secondary roots growing. Some are lignifying because i pre-wet the medium and left too many air gaps. I did it differently the second time around.
 

Some of my other cuttings, all started on 1/17 as well, the coir cups are not doing well and will probably move them into my 5-1-1 medium.
 

Everybody's trees are looking fantastic!

Here are a few pictures from the potting up. This is "Big Sister" going into a 12inch pot. The roots have filled the old pot very nicely, and I caught it before the roots started wrapping around the bottom. I have moved her for now into a west facing window in the guest room.

The rooting cutting has been doing great, and it's putting out good roots now. Time to pot it again.

Planted the Sheepshead today, it is protected in a recycled wire cage to protect it from...Sheep...and other critters.

Looks great Lewi! I'm happy to see she is going outside for some, i have snow in my forecast for the first day of spring :( :( 

My plants are nice and healthy - i didn't get as many growing as i would've hoped. I lost a bunch due to my poor storage of some in the fridge and they molded before i even began to root them. Was hoping to use some of them as rootstock for next year's grafting attempts since these are super vigorous. I'm waiting till my plants can go outside so i can put some slow release fertilizer on and get them really going :)

Would love to see who can get them to fruit first :-D

Thanks Matt... It's getting down to the high 30's at night here (predicted)...so a bit of a delay in potting up the rest of the cuttings...typical spring here with ups and downs. I wish you success with this year's spring rooting. :) Edited to fix auto correct error, adjust the predicted temps lower, and add that the young and green in ground sheepshead will be given winter protection for the next 2 nights...

1. After many rooting fails, a few times I would get to around this and the clipping would just die. This looks like my first successful rooting. 

 

I only kept one rooted cutting, I should have kept two, one for backup! I transferred mine to a bigger pot, but it's not happy from the cold conditions. Hopefully it will warm up around here soon.
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Peter - looks good dude
Drew- Holy cow, thats huge, it looks amazing man! Very jealous, your definitely at the forefront of growing these guys.

Everybody's cuttings look great!  Mine are doing good as well.  I will try to post pics tonight.

Cool thread, too bad I missed out on the initial distribution =(

How have people's plants been growing?

[QUOTE=binbin9]Cool thread, too bad I missed out on the initial distribution =(

How have people's plants been growing?[/QUOTE]

Ben - i'll get you some in the fall. 

The reports are slowly trickling in and peoples cuttings are fairing well from what i heard. I have reports from some close friends in Michigan that some are 2-6ft tall. I'm still waiting on some pictures :)

Mine are slowly progressing as i got a late jump on rooting. I will have pics this weekend when i bring my plants outside. I sadly only have 5 growing right now, even though i sent out about 200 cuttings - so there should be plenty viable ones out there.

Brooklyn unknown has a fig scent , trying to figure out what it reminds me of.

It would be most interesting when we get some fruit. Matt, I just officially joined the Brooklyn fig rescue club. Your cuttings were put in a five gallon pot, left outside most of the winter getting whatever rain/humidity provided by Mother Nature. Just had to move to pot as Bugs Bunny was feasting on those delicate new shoots. I will let the cuttings grow this season and try to separate when dormant. Thank You for this wonderful project. There's plenty of suspense as we anticipate what the fruit will look like. Hopefully I will report on my findings as they become available.

Looking forward to fruit some day :-J

nice Meg!  this Brooklyn unknown is a robust variety, it acclimated well and it is is in one gallon pot and is about two feet tall already. Cant wait to see what it produces ;)

PereC, two feet is awesome! I finally got mine into soil in late January but now its growing really well. Its in a 1 gallon pot.

These are the last cuttings...all are looking good...they were potted up after being in the refrigerator in early May. Not One Dud. :) Thanks again Matty. The vigor in these cuttings is amazing.

I am so kicking myself now, I used to own a tree svc in Brooklyn NY. I had access to so many fig cuttings its ridiculous and ran them all through the chipper. If I was only collecting back then...

Update from 5/29:

Was at the in-laws for memorial day, and the plot is still empty but the tree did survive the winter, looks like most of the branches i left untouched had little to no die back. I might do some airlayer this year next time i head over there. Last time i was there, it didn't look like it recovered, but i was wrong. I know i promised some pics of my plants, but been so busy and haven't had a chance to do so - i need to weed through my 1 gallons to sort the Unk Sheepshead to a certain area to take photos. Here is a pic of the mother plant, overwhelmed by weeds.



Hope everyone else's plants are doing well, the heat we've been getting the last two weeks finally woke up most of my plants and finally getting some growth since they kinda went into a slump for the past 2 months since inside.

Thank You for the update.

Hey everyone, hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Just wanted to provide an update with some pictures of my Sheepshead trees growing very nicely, as well as the mother tree as of 7/4. 

I have one or 2 figlets forming on some of my plants, not on my oldest one (green cutting from last year). But that one has vigorous growth and is exploding with new suckers every week. Its a very bushy plant so far from my experience.

Please post your photos of your progress, would love to see who has the largest trees so far.

 
   
 
 
 

Matt

Mine was slow to take off, and has finally started growing fast. I gave one away, and I recently found a stored cutting, and it rooted! Wow! So I have two now, if the cutting keeps growing. Here's my main plant.
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Peter and Drew - they look awesome. Thanks for the update guys! I hope you guys have some figlets forming already on your plants. Sadly i think most of my sheepshead plants have gotten infected with my mite issue, still hoping i will get something. The trees are growing very good though, just the figlets are dropping due to necrosis.

Hope others are having just as much luck as you guys, hope to see more pictures as time goes on from others.

Wanted to give a quick update. I have my Unk. Sheepshead going strong outside. They have figlets forming on them. Here are a couple of quick pics from my tablet. The first shot shows off one of the figlets on a branch of big sister. The next two show little brother who has gotten quite bushy. You can see a few small figlets tucked within all the foliage. Looks good for coaxing some ripe fruit from them by the end of the season.

These pics are from last week...I pulled many figlets (more than in the pic)...and will be pulling more, no doubt. I left a few on the tree to ripen (hopefully) but the tree is too young to eat from...my 8 y/o daughter is having a grand time helping to tend the tree.

Danielle - looks fantastic, keep up the great work.

Lewi - Holy Moly!!!! Your plant is growing more tree form than anyone else i spoken to and it looks magnificent. You're defintely going to have lots of ripe fruit soon i think, you might be the winner of first to fruit. Jealous of your weather!

Update on mother plant - visited her yesterday 8/7/16 and walked through a forest of 5ft weeds to go and see her. She is forming LOTS and LOTs of suckers and figs. Hopefully will get some fruit next month when i go and visit her.

 
 
 

hope more people have updates soon as well. May the Fig be with you!

Mother tree looking good Matt...please do let us know @the taste. Please post juicy pics. :~0

As for the tree shape...I prune early and often....my tree was starting to look like drew51's and I took off all lower branches...filled in the wound with wood glue when I saw pests making a home there. Add in a little fertilizer and the fact that I took a risk putting it inground in March.

I donated one small sheepshead unk. tree to a local library...we will see if the volunteer gardener plants it there, or keeps it to himself.;)

Mother tree is looking good indeed. Makes me feel like I really need to figure out some good ways that I could overwinter an in-ground tree here. ;)

Lewi that's cool that you donated an Unk. Sheepshead. It would be really neat for it to be grown in a public place, but it's just great to hear that the variety is continuing to spread to others either way. Your tree is looking fantastic, and your helper is adorable.

My figs are looking good here. Unk. Sheepshead seems to be only a couple days behind my Hardy Chicago. We've had an unusually hot summer, and the trees are loving it. Hopefully, the late season doesn't crap out on us.

Matt,

I picked my now baby trees up from Andy yesterday, they are looking great!!!

I can't wait to give them a try... hopefully next year!

I'd love some cuttings if any become available. They look like they're doing very well.

Will keep everyone posted on mother tree, should back there in a few weeks to see how it progressed. Hopefully critters wont eat them all.

Glad everyone is having success and seeing some good growth! I also agree that i hope this heat keeps up for another month or 2, so we can still get some harvests. I have so many plants that haven't produced yet.

Arachyd - ill keep you posted in winter time.

Thank you. I would appreciate it so much. We need to preserve as many of the good ones as possible.

Danielle thank you for the compliments on my daughter...she really does help out. :) Still waiting for the small figs in the sheepshead to swell up...they seem to take forever when you are waiting in anticipation.