Nothing much but this is what I discovered First photo is leaf of GM155: Maltese Beauty (she is a pain) Second photo is Unknown Dark Greek-NK Third is my ghetto heating control device (fancy stuff- lol). Sits on a bar stool dangling over my heater. It works. Enjoy

Nice photos!  Good luck with those!

Suzi

You are too kind. I am bowing. Soaking in the applause. Thank you Suzi.

Jennifer, did you root it in the  cup or baggy with moss? I will be starting mine soon.

Jennifer - you do the best you can with what you've got!

Jennifer,
    If it works for you, that's all that counts. As far as that Maltese Beauty...."where there's life there's hope."  Nice job in getting that difficult cutting to root.  Congratulations on a fine job.

Great work!  We all rig up whatever's convenient.

Nice work! May those babies grow up to provide many figs for years to come.

Would love to have that pain Jennifer. Keep up the good work  andgood luck!

Newdawg, in spagnum moss and orchid moss, I just put the cuttings in individual ziplocks with moss that were partially closed, rolled them up and threw it with the rest of the cuttings you see in my honkie-dorie fancy contraption (my Dollarstore container). I forget about them

Jennifer thanks. Can't wait to start mine

Best of luck Newdawg. From my own personal experience, Maltese Beauty is more difficult too root than Madeira, Genovese, and Maltese Falcon. But once you get them started, you just want to pat yourself on the back. I am thankful.

Good luck to all of you. In my experience this rooting season Maltese beauty was in fact the easiest to root. Weird. Maybe there are ther factors in play here.

Dfoster, What! MB was easy? Geez you lucky dog. She took me two friggin months plus two (maybe)! Did you see Gene's MB, wow. Don't know how he does it, but I can wait till mine looks like his. I was so so sooo close to throwing Maltese Beauty away. Good thing I stopped smothering my cuttings. That's how we kill them. I agree. Everyone's cutting is different. Genovese (from you know who you are) rooted easy... I will have more baby photos soon. So happy for your success with MB Jennifer

Every cutting acts differently, even from the same branch.

But remember, success now does not mean a live plant later. Any little variable can upset the balance e.g: too much water, too little light, parasites, fungus and more. Wait until summer before any jubilation. Even acclimating outside can be death if not done correctly.

Well said Dominick.  Don't count your figs before they ripen so-to-speak.  I think there can be alot said about variability in the rooting of cuttings based on so many other factors. 

The cuttings I recieved were pretty small, but I was very grateful for them.  Don't ask my why but the Maltese Beauty is my pride and joy!  I guess I'm biased and I didn't want it getting a bad rap for rooting.  I'm sure it will start taking off for you.  I'm glad you didn't throw it away.

I attach photos of my Maltese Beauty and MS VS BL in the bag together at the start and then again individually after 9 wks.   My experience this year has seen the Marseilles VS BL and the Hardy Chicago to be the slowest to root for me.  

Happy Figging!

MALTESE BEAUTY DEAD
 
I examined Maltese Beauty, I noticed she was looking rather sad in her cup. Instead of watering, I applied a very light mist application and left her alone. A few days later, her leaf wilted and fell. My initial thought " it must be getting chilly for Maltese Beauty". Without panic, I brought her into the kitchen, where there was moderate amount of humidity and heat. As the week flew by, I saw signs of deterioration: wrinkling of the bark, scratch test that turned brown (but no mold). Being concerned, after one week, I decided to remove the dirt, I wanted inspect a little further. So I didn't disturb the cutting, I submerged the entire plant in warm water to see "what the heck is going on?" The roots were there, but the entire bark was infested these tiny microscopic maggots (1mm) lurking underneath the bark. I am very upset and devastated by the loss. 

I don't have any pictures loaded up yet because my phone died. But I will post Maltese Beauty for everyone to see. The soil is fine, moisture was fine, roots were there (not alive) but it was there, Maltese Beauty's bark was not slimy or putrid smelling.... How could I let this happen? How could I prevented this from happening. This really blows. Just when I finally recovered GM#201, Maltese Beauty had to die. I am not happy at all....I guess it is going back to my wishlist.

Thank you everyone for following her journey with me. 


Jennifer

My phone has 10% battery. But I manage to snap a photo of culprit and Maltese Beauty

Jennifer

Sorry to hear, Jennifer.  Anxious to see what others think happened.  Sounds like you took good care of it otherwise.

Sounds like fungus gnats.  Between the figs and seed starting for my garden I decided last night to order a couple carniverous plants.

looks like fungus gnat larvae

You know what, I may considering that. Meanwhile, I am going to purchase a Mosquito Net as a temporary solution, I am going to build a frame out of PVC pipes to hover over my cuttings. 

I am extremely disappointed.

Jennifer

Looks like you are keeping them too moist. I think you need a different soil

That's fungus gnats larvae. I lost many cuttings to them. Most are gone now after I put a layer of sand on top of the soil.

Hi Barry :-)

The cutting was submerged in water so I could take a closer look at it, before barerooting Maltese Beauty, the cutting was actually decent until, I did a scratch test and it revealed larvae infestation.

My soil was not wet at all, in fact it was rather border-line dry but I am taking your advice anyway, and I have placed one order for Promix HP soil with fungicide, and medium coarse perlite to compare the difference. I hear really good results from this product, so I will give it a shot. 

Jennifer


[QUOTE=BLB]Looks like you are keeping them too moist. I think you need a different soil[/QUOTE]

Jennifer - I am sorry for your loss "sniff sniff".

Is your homes humidity naturally on the high side?  I've been wondering that about other members and their issues with fungus gnats.  My home's humidity level ranges from 40-50%, I've had cuttings in cups for 5 weeks and haven't seen any signs of the little b-------s.  The only little buggers I've had on houseplants in general was spider mites on an orchid, the manager at the garden center said it was too dry - at least I could see signs of them right away - spider webbing!!

I hope your other cuttings don't get infected from these b------s - that would not be a pretty site at all.

Maltese Beauty is one of those trees I hope to get this year. Fingers are crossed!

Jo-Ann, I hadn't heard of fungus gnats until last spring when they showed up on my indoor veggie starts.  I think they came in a bag of MG potting soil.  It seems that once you have them they are not easy to completely get rid of.

sorry to hear about your beloved Maltese Beauty cuttings. in times like this, i'm at lose for the words to express my deepest sorrow.. no worries, jen. i'm sure more will be coming soon :)

Maltese Beauty is a newer release from GM and not easy to come by, I would be very sad indeed if i lost it. i do hope you have other good stuff going to ease the pain. Glad you ordered the Pro Mix HP i think you will be happy with it

It's a relief I have other varieties to ease my sorrow, and i am thankful but like Pete said it's a "loss" and I still feel so pitiful. I thought I would be an expert by now, stupid GNATS defeated me

Jennifer

[QUOTE=BLB]Maltese Beauty is a newer release from GM and not easy to come by, I would be very sad indeed if i lost it. i do hope you have other good stuff going to ease the pain. Glad you ordered the Pro Mix HP i think you will be happy with it[/QUOTE]

Dom,

You were right.

Jennifer

[QUOTE=nypd5229]Every cutting acts differently, even from the same branch.<br><br>But remember, success now does not mean a live plant later. Any little variable can upset the balance e.g: too much water, too little light, parasites, fungus and more. Wait until summer before any jubilation. Even acclimating outside can be death if not done correctly.[/QUOTE]

Rename it Sleeping Beauty.   Those darn gnats!

That's a bad deal, Jennifer. I have never had a problem here with fungal gnats. The potting soil that I use is usually frozen before I use it--I wonder if that has an effect?

Much to learn grqasshopper. LOL Not many experts here even after many years.

Hey Jennifer!  So sorry about your loss.  I lost mine too, I think.  I used BT as a dunk, then covered the top with sand to smother any hatching adults, then put a moth ball on top of the sand to kill any flying around.  When I pull on the cutting, it holds firm, and a fresh cut shows healthy insides, so my fingers are crossed.

Been missing and will continue to be in and out for about 3 months till we get that house ready to move into.  I hate to miss my friends comments here, but we have no internet there yet. 

Good luck with the rest of your cuttings!

Suzi

Suzi!

There you are... Gosh I miss you. No Internet? Lol. I am surprised your gold yourself together (hehe). Yeah.. Maltese Beauty was rapped by gnats. Horrible choice of words but I feel my cutting has been violated. Totally sucks.

Hey no worries Suzi, do what you need to do, we will be here. I am so soo happy about your new property. So gorgeous. I want a hill side :-).

Stay in touch
Jennifer
[QUOTE=DesertDance]Hey Jennifer!  So sorry about your loss.  I lost mine too, I think.  I used BT as a dunk, then covered the top with sand to smother any hatching adults, then put a moth ball on top of the sand to kill any flying around.  When I pull on the cutting, it holds firm, and a fresh cut shows healthy insides, so my fingers are crossed.<br><br>Been missing and will continue to be in and out for about 3 months till we get that house ready to move into.  I hate to miss my friends comments here, but we have no internet there yet.  <br><br>Good luck with the rest of your cuttings!<br><br>Suzi[/QUOTE]