Ok so 2 months ago I ordered a Pingo De Mel fig tree from an Online nursery in Portugal. Knowing that no Phyto would be issued I took a chance since it was so cheap, after 4 weeks and no plant I gave up on it and then in the 5th week after being shipped it arrived with the box all broken.

This picture was taken the day after I received it, it was 4ft tall a few days later I noticed it was starting to die back from the tip and cut off about 7 inches. To make a long story short it kept having die back and eventually had to cut it down to almost the soil Line.

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It eventually sent up a shoot and seems to be doing well now

[IMG]http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/nelson20vt/Pingo%20De%20Mel/SAM_0267.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/nelson20vt/Pingo%20De%20Mel/SAM_0268.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/nelson20vt/Pingo%20De%20Mel/103_0021.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/nelson20vt/Pingo%20De%20Mel/103_0022.jpg[/IMG]

Interesting.  I had that same dieback situation with the Hollier I purchased from JR.  It was a 2nd year pant, looked great, nice, rigid, thick.  It came as a 36" tall plant.  It had a fresh new growth leaf starting at the tip, and the terminal buds near the tip were green.  Approximately 1 week later, the top terminal bud went brown.  Then a couple weeks later, the last couple of nodes started to "wrinkle" a little.  then the topmost small-growth branch lost a terminal bud.  This continuedfor a few more nodes till I finally broke down and took the top 18" of the plant off.  Wasn't sure if it wold come back, but I had the exact same experience as you.

I still have no idea what happened, all my other trees that shipped were fine.  Very weird.  Glad to see it happened to someone else, I guess?  Not really, but it's nice to have someone else who can relate to the experience.

Pingo Del  Mel at first sounded like a very very bad word for a fig tree name, but then I realized it was an O and not A in Pingo I Need new glasses lol
Very nice come back with that hope it does well
Sal

Doesn't pingo de mel and gota de mel mean the same word "drop of honey"?

Bass it does indeed mean the same thing, Portugal has the Pingo de Mel and spain has the Gota de Mel both figs look Identical and I have found nurseries in both spain and portugal selling both using the exact same pics so I wouldnt doubt it that it is the same fig.

Hey Bass check this out , talk about confusing after posting I did another google search to see if I could find the nurseries I was talking about look at what I found.

Jardicentro the nursery I bought it from here is the picture on their website.

 
Ok now Floramedia.es  same picture listed as higuera Blanca here is there pic

Ok here is the interesting Part also on floremedia.es Higuera verdal

 
Now look at the pictures of the my pingo de mel and look at the tag on the plant WTF is going on here????

You have to remember that locals call figs with descriptive names. for example green figs can all go by the name Verdal which means the Greenish fig. pingo or gota de mel, meaning drop of honey, this can be the case for many light colored figs that has a drop of honey.

Bass that is true but there is actually a variety in spain called Verdal.  Funny thing is I looked in the back of this tag and its written in both Portuguese and Spanish and says Floramedia on it wich is the Nursery from Spain go Figure now I am  really scratching my head. Would be nice if it produced some figs this summer to compare.

Hi Nelson, those 3 pictures you posted. To confuse you a little not on purpose though what i see is.
the first one has a faint watermark, where the white word is FIGUEIRA look directly below to the next fig you see the faint watermark.
 Second picture is a same as first but cut off on right side and where watermark would be - is missing.
The last picture shows the figs that might be an earlyier crop perhaps being that color who knows, i also see latex on that one fig meaning it was taken too soon.
Im wondering if somehow the person from both nurseries may know one another or be related as spain and portugal are next to each other and share pictures for some reason or knownly use them .
The first 2 pictures though are the same fig the bottom not sure if it is the same fig for arguments sake its the first crop i would think or just another fig altogether.
Just my wheels turning and making a guess only.

I would try to contact Mr Pinga Head Mel and ask WTF (sorry couldn't resist as an employee of mine always used that term) I'm siting here with my Argentinian neighbor laughing. He made me post........ Honest

One clarification, in Spanish it is "Gota de miel", not "Gota de mel" and, you are right, it means "drop of honey".

Nelson, I don't want to discourage you, but both in Spain and Portugal, this name is used for many different varieties, it isn't a reliable and an original name for a fig.

One more thing for doing this subject more confused, frequently the pictures used in Spain (and I suppose in Portugal too) for the fig labels are unreliable. The nurseries use standard pictures of Floramedia, and it not always corresponds to the variety sold.

Because of this, I prefer to buy my figs in France, they are more professional for this things.

Despite the excellent climate for figs in many regions of Spain, it is considered near a "second class" fruit here.

Sometimes, when I ask for an unidentified fig tree in a nursery, I am told -for example- "it is a black fig", not more information, very "professional" answer! in one word, discouraging!

Ok I have noticed what looks like fruitflies coming out of the soil of my pingo de Mel.  Could this be a sign of Gnats?

Fungus gnats, could be indeed.  This should not be of any surprise.  Especially with folks that use any kind of compost in their blends, fungus gnats can be a rampant occurence.  Spray the top of the soil with a neem oil treatment (properly diluted) like Bon-Neem, or water the plant/mist with water that has a dissolved Mosquito "dunk" (tablet).  This should kill them off.  You will need to repeat this several times to break enough life cycles that you kill them off completely.  They *will* spread to any nearby pots with wet soil conditions, and they have a nack for getting down and working their way through the dirt to get to moist soil.

Jason I dont use Compost but I did use the same pine bark the plant came in. Yesterday I discarded that soil washed the roots and used new soil see if that makes a difference. I hate these darn bugs

i'll be very interested to see what kind of figs this plant makes.

Mike when its big enough to take cuttings I can send you some. Im sure they will taste better in your Zone than mine

How is it doing now?

Interesting, the plant I posted about in post #2 actually died this year.

I guess it was actually diseased, and I forgot totally about my experience.  Unfortunate.

I am just curious as to where you ordered it from...

:-)

~Chills

Chivas plant is still dormant but looks like the buds are swelling now. I Up Potted it to a 5G container last weekend.

Chills plant was ordered from Jardicentro online its an online nursery in Portugal. I believe the plant cost 5.50 Euros.

How did fruit from this plant turn out?