After doing research, I don’t think that he passed.
When did he step back?
Around the first week of September and last signed in on 9-11. From what I’ve been told it’s health related. But tbh idk.
Anyways sorry to see above you guys didn’t get along. You’re the first person I’ve met or seen that ever had an issue with Wills. Not saying anything about that because I’ve seen you around for a while Alan and you also seem like a good guy and asset to the forum.
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That is one thing that I don’t like about the fig community, I do think that he’s probably a good guy, although being in the fig community changes people. I have seen being a part of the fig community turn people paranoid, and unable to trust, after he claimed that I made a promise that I didn’t, I was unable to trust him any longer, I already was the type of person that does not trust people, yet then I turned paranoid, I admit I could have been nicer about what happened.
I did not join the forum at first because I did not trust him, then I felt that he’d remove my account if I had joined, because Iater I learned that he was highly upset with me.
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You have the fig collecting disease. It is difficult to treat. There are about 2,000 different fig cultivar names circulating in the U.S. (paper forthcoming). Where will you put them all?
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I probably do… No idea lol, somewhere…
I’ll plan on restarting one of each after I get it going well and will put it on my mom’s farm somewhere as a security measure
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I’m in 8A i think
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Really? So you take those 9B backyard plants into the house each winter?
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They’re in a greenhouse 
I’m planning on buying another one and adding onto what i already have later.
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Yeah I concur the fig world is tough. Full of different personalities and ideologies. Mostly good but it’s a small fig world and it only takes a few rotten people to bring down a good thing. And lately seems like a lot of rotten apples lately. It’s really too bad. I can see why some wiser or easy going people would stray clear of them. I’m also going to be spending more time away from fig drama websites.
@Melon 8a is doable but it’s going to be work for many of those figs on your list.
You might see how a dozen of those work out first. But I understand went from 1 to almost 60. Now I want one in ground multi-grafted frankenfig and maybe a few 15-20g pots. Only because we have a storm coming with the Black Fig Fly.
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I dip all my cuttings in bleach then rinse before trying to root them.
I’ve read that the black fig fly is only in California and warmer states for now?
Overall, i would probably grow everything in a a giant hoop house if i start putting things in ground. It rains a lot from October - April over where I’m at now. Also a lot of my mature stuff is in 25 gallon pots.
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I feel like every hobby that’s very specific or niche, has its dramas play out. literally any hobby
the only fig I think I’d like to grow that I don’t have now is the stripey ones, panache or tiger something something. I have about maybe a dozen varieties? or so, and some are tiny, others bigger.
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I’ve just recently gotten into figs too. My first fig I ever ordered is supposedly a Cravens Craving off of etsy. I was wondering why shipping was going to take 3 months, turns out it was coming from Albania.
They were nicely packaged, even beginning to root when I got them. One is in ground, other still in a pot, here’s the in ground one as of Oct 6th.
Pretty good for just being a stick 4 months ago, but any idea if it’s actually CC? I also got I-258 off of figbid and HDA from OGW. Still got a few more spots to fill…
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Gotta be careful with oversea Etsy sellers. A lot of them will try to sell you anything you want, even if it doesn’t exist.
I got mine from smatthew Smeewald in the Facebook groups and he has a list of where he got his cuttings as well. Mine are just rooting and i think all fig leaves look alike so i couldn’t tell ya 
each stick I’ve gotten looks just slightly different than the other one so i think I’ve got all the varieties i asked for? We shall know once they fruit i guess?
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In my experience Etsy is a mix of very good and very bad. The best value, biggest, healthiest blackberry plants I ever got were from Etsy. But I’ve also gotten orders from Etsy that weren’t even the right species (granted, nurseries do that too, Willis Nursery has a near perfect record in sending me the wrong species of raspberry, persimmon, etc, which is kinda impressive to be honest. Freaking scammers.). But judging from it being from Albania… Yeah, we’ll see what kind of fruit that thing eventually sets.
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The leaf pattern does not look like CC. which is basically the same as Black Madeira/Violeta.
I wonder why you would take the risk of getting these from Albania when they are quite cheaply available in the us.
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Coming from Albania and surviving 3 months is crazy. Anything special done with the packaging?
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My friend did that and got a knock on his door from USDA I believe made him give them the rooted cuttings and destroyed them. It’s not illegal for them to send to you but it is for us to purchase them from outside the USA. He’s bought stuff from several different countries (Portugal, Malta, Albania) over the years and every single purchase for figs has been not true to name. I’ve read eBay works with USDA and they let things sell to US for the money then they just go to the address of the buyer. They’ll usually give one warning but keep your name on a list. It’s really never worth it for figs we have the best figs and they’re not hard to obtain from legit sellers.
It’s pretty well known that Albania in particular has been sending wrong cuttings to America for well over a decade. Your tree looks good but it doesn’t necessarily look like my Black Madeira. If it’s not just graft a real one on there and good to go.
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Yesterday I ordered 3 more cuttings from Marta, even though so far I’ve only eaten two figs from the dozen-plus figs I’ve planted in the last few years. I’m definitely going to need to remove some of these at some point, but I couldn’t find good info about some of them in the PNW so I figured might as well try more than I can really grow and remove the disappointments.
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Damn… You know they weren’t following phytosanitary practices when they label the package contents as “craft sticks.” That’s a bummer. I’ve learned to verify where a plant or cutting is shipping from before ordering. Even if it’s coming from within the same country as me I like to check to make sure there aren’t any pests or diseases specific to that plant which are known to occur around the area it’s being shipped from.
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This is the ad, still current. https://www.etsy.com/listing/929538721/x2-cravens-cravings-fig-tree-cuttings
In terms of why I ordered from Albania instead of US, well it was my first order I’ve ever done on Etsy. Didn’t exactly realize until after ordering it, and a that point I was kinda curious how it would turn out.
I’d love to know more on this grafting topic. I may also try grafting true CC (wherever I can get that) on one of my Kadotas or Brown Turkey instead so I can see what the ‘craft sticks’ turn into. Early spring is likely when I would have the time to graft.
I don’t have much experience with what packaged fig cuttings look like, so maybe? You tell me. Both ends appeared to be dipped in wax. Then they were wrapped in a damp paper towel and finished with a lot of plastic wrap.
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