While at my buddies house this morning, his neighbor was pruning his fig tree to get it ready to be wrapped. i struck up a conversation about his fig tree and he offered me some rooted suckers that he had removed and some cuttings!!!!! Thank you Senhor Joao!!!!!!
he says that the tree has been there for over 40yrs and that it's an old Portuguese fig. he kept referring to it as Figo Preto(Black Fig). he described the taste as very very sweet. he described the fig as a bright red inside and a dark outside.

My questions are;
should i place the rooted suckers into 1 gal pots asap?!
this will be my first time storing cutting over the winter. should i be concerned with the cuttings that still have greenish tips?

i also attached a pic the last leaf and a very unripe fig that was still on the tree.
if anyone is willing to take a guess as too what it may actually be......

and here are the roots of the suckers.

Nice find for you, congrats!

Very nice!  Sounds like you got a winner!  I'm sure they will all become prolific trees for you!

Suzi

I'd put the rooted suckers into pots now, and keep them moist (not wet) through the winter.  I see you're in MA, so I'd keep them inside (or at least somewhere not frigid) through the winter.  You could keep them dormant but they're a little more vulnerable to the cold than a mature tree that didn't just have its roots hacked.  So indoors or "garage temp" but not frigid  (you could lose 'em if it gets down in single digits... maybe / maybe not).  Remember even if you keep them dormant and cool, they'll still need occasional water to avoid dehydration.

I'll let others comment about best practices for the cuttings... I keep almost all of my cuttings dormant in the refrigerator through the winter, but I know lots of people root their green cuttings now and get them going right through the winter.  I don't usually do that, and I really don't know which is best for cuttings as green as yours  (just know what I've done... I've had reasonable success keeping green cuttings cool through til about February).

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

Great find Stevin !! It does sound like an excellent fig ! Good luck with them!

Definitely pot up the sucker and bring it indoors heated area and put in window or light sun etc 

Oh my, my... figo preto!  I am talking to a lady in Canada about this fig! it is a winner and you are the one!     Plant it now and nurse it alright.. gosh, give me Sr. Joao's address and I will go there say "bom dia!" to him, and beg some suckers also!

Congratulations!  It may or nor be the same as someone else's fico preto but it's probably a great fig.  Since you have more than 1 rooted sucker I'd only keep 1 inside and let the rest stay dormant.  And that only if you have enough light to keep it happy.

If you have time and energy, go back and tell him 135 of your new best friends want cuttings and have us PP you postage plus a little something extra.  Cut 1 year old wood up in to ~6" pieces with at least 3 nodes and send them to those of us who pay.  It's fun and you earn a lot of gratitude that pays off later  :)

Oh, and I'd say 1 gal pots are too small.  I'd go at least 3 gal as long as your soil mix has good drainage.

Stevin,
       Congratulations and good luck on your fig find.  You are the envy of all the members, including this one.  Best Wishes.

                          

I do agree with Rcantor Idea, count me in...

thanks for the replies!!!!
so i got 3 suckers potted up in 1.5 gal pots. the consensus is to bring them into the house rather than staying out in the unheated garage with the rest of the dormant trees.
i'll place them in front of a south facing window. 2 of them are single stem with few roots and 1 is a single stem with a couple branches but it is not the straightest but does have a good amount of roots and a 4th really tiny one that has barely any roots that i will put into a quart sized pot.

the single stem plants are roughly 3-4 feet tall. should i prune them shorter or leave them be?
and the not so straight plant, should that one also be left alone?

also i will be cutting up the branches to 6-8" pieces. i want to dip them in a 10:1 water / bleach solution but i just realized that the only bleach i have at the house is scented (clean linen).
will this make a difference? scented vs unscented?

i will do a drive by tonite to see if Senhor Joao bundled up the rest of the branches and placed them at curb side for trash pickup.

here are the potted plants.....
advice to prune or not to prune....thanx

OMG- if you can grab them from that Portuguese dude and put in a bucket with water for a few days, until you can deal with them...(bag them refrigerate them, send them to me, etc) oh please do not let him trash them... my heart racing just thinking about it...  as to your suckers, don't you be surprise if the tips die back...so I would not prune them yet...let them do the drying out as they need, you will see the eye for new branching, and then, you trim the drying portion above it....for some reason, once it decides to branch out, the drying business stop... that is my approach. I got several suckers and they all behave the same.  What I found that helps them stay  alive is to mist them and put a plastic bag as a tent on them.. make sure you cut holes in the bag, or it will make mold grow in there. 

do not bleach unless you would be doing that to control mold, but even mold grows in bleach ... I do not use bleach, if mold appears I wash them with soap and dry them well, repeat as needed.

[QUOTE=stevin]

i will do a drive by tonite to see if Senhor Joao bundled up the rest of the branches and placed them at curb side for trash pickup.

[/QUOTE]


LOVE IT  !!!

ok, i'll be leaving in a few to do my surveillance......
Mission Impossible theme song playing as i walk out the door........

nada.....
but i did call my buddy and he says that trash pick is on thursdays. so i'm not sure whats gonna happen this week w/turkeyday being thursday.
i told him to keep an eye out for either the pile of cuttings and/or Sehnor Joao.

get me his number and I will call him! Seriously, this is the Portuguese way to get it done...LOL   he will not resist my Brazilian Portuguese and we all will win from this.. cannot let him trash...LOL

Sorry you came up empty . But the visual with Mission Impossible theme song was priceless !!

They look great. I would not do a thing, wait until they show signs of die back, it will happen. as the plant has to take the juice up to their tips without their momma... it helps if you cover the pots with aluminum foil, and tie a plastic bag on the entire thing, closing just enough for the tree to stick out.  then lean the pots side ways - this will help the stems stay alive.  

here are mine:

the two laying down are suckers that are about to sprout, there was no die back on these, as I had them laying down and had them in the dark for a while. I just put them by the window and little leaf nodes are appearing.  the one in diagonal (yellowish) you can see the die back - it was standing up.

the last one, far from the camera, inside a coffee cup with coffee lid, so dirty don't fall out, on the corner is laying down, you can see the tip is about to leaf. 

I put it in a slant, it was down, and each couple of days I am leaning it up... since I layed it down, it stops the die back (not sure if it would stop anyway or was the leaning that did it)  I tie black plastic round them, to get  their bottoms warmer when the sun comes out, which is almost never here at this time  I have a large eave, so little sun light comes through.  A piece of styrfoam makes a good pillow to lean the pots on. 

My first suckers died to the root, when I planted them as 'regular plants'. those that I planted leaning survived. hope this helps you keep your babies alive... keep them warm but without direct light.  Indoor air is also dry, misting or wrap them in moist newspaper while they are in process of rooting on their own.   Best luck to you...