I received a Figo Preto fig rooted cutting from Portugal a few weeks ago. It was well packaged but small and had lost all of its leaves in transit, but was still green and had a tiny terminal bud on it. I soaked the roots in water for a couple of hours to rehydrate before potting it up. It looked ok for awhile, and the terminal bud opened, revealing two small leaves. I was so proud. Yesterday it still looked fine, but this morning, the leaves and half way down on the only stem has shriveled up and started turning brown. Is there any chance another bud may emerge, or is it a gonner? I may be looking for some cuttings this winter. If anyone has any, please keep me in mind. I said a little prayer…so maybe.
Try to baby it by placing a plastic cup over it to get some humidity. Just keep the soil moist in partial shade. Hopefully, the roots system still alive.
Yes. If you got a Figo Preto from Portugal, it is unlikely to be the real deal. Figo Preto was found growing in Pt Loma in CA. Believed to be originally from Portugal. But it is not a Portuguese fig. Some say it is the same as Violeta. There is no Figo Preto in Portugal.
Good to know, ramv. Oh well, I still have the Panachee and VdB (hopefully) that I got elsewhere. Whatever they are, I’m sure they will be good, if I can get them to grow. I haven’t had much luck with figs, yet they grow effortlessly all around me.
Yeah don’t order figs from overseas on EBay. They will report it to USDA. Numerous people confirm it. If a private sale, they have no way of knowing. Not that you should break the law. I’m against doing that. Especially in this case with a fig that originates here. I don’t have it, or would offer you cuttings.
I also would like to add that over a year ago, several of us was contacted by a guy from Portugal, who claimed he had many fruit trees including figs and want to exchange scionwood.
Turned out that guy was dishonest and only wanted to lure people here to give him good scionwood in exchange to dead stick/scion not true to variety or nothing at all. He was banned from this site.
Also, it’s a risk of the scionwood you order/exchange with overseas partners could bring in new diseases/bugs. That’s why there are laws against doing it without proper certification.
I don’t know how ppl get away with getting plants materials into the USA. I had a straw hat from the DR, confiscated at the airport inAugust by dept of agricultural. The guy said that I could be bringing mites into the USA and so he confiscated it from me. nothing gets passed them if they are doing their jobs!
Stick with sellers who have their own fruit pictures as proof they have verified what they are selling. There has been some downright scandalous behavior from people selling figs in the past few years, and those people are still around. You might get fake cuttings, they might be microwaved so they will never root and you will never know they were bogus, and you won’t have any recourse because sellers already agreed that variety is hard to root!
Expensive varieties are basically a pyramid scheme, people buy expecting to be able to resell and regain their investment along with some profit. But the market is really very small and gets flooded regularly.
Thank you all for the education. I never knew figs was such a cut throat business. Now I’ll have to be on the lookout for black helicopters flying around…Lol. But, seriously, thank you all. I will be much more careful from now on. That’s what I love about this forum, you learn something every day.
I had a similar situation that I’ll never forget. I was coming back from a trip to Mexico and I had put a banana in my carry-on as a snack to have on the plane. I promise it was 100% honest mistake and it never entered my mind it was a violation. I forgot all about it and didn’t declare it. WHen I came through customs they looked in my bag and saw it. I couldn’t make this up: The customs guy starts yelling all the way across the airport- presumably to the USDA ag inspectors (though I couldn’t see them) that “we’ve got a banana here, we’ve got a banana here!”. He was dead serious and couldn’t have seemed one bit more alarmed or upset if he had found a hand grenade. THey took me by the arm and marched me to a back room where they began to interigate me as if I’d been caught with a key of blow. Eventually they lectured me about how lucky I was not to be going to prison and made me dispose of it in a bio hazard can myself to teach me a lesson. It was insane. I’ve heard stories of other people who just got in line at customs and tossed their fruit into that “last chance amnesty” bin and had no problem. I guess my problem was I didn’t think to do that, but you’d think they surely would have known I wouldn’t intentionally risk everything for a banana. Oh well…lesson learned. And I’m not blaming customs really for over-reacting. If anything now that I’ve come to love fruit growing I appreciate their extreme actions, and it sure made me think on future trips abroad! ha
“Nothing get pass them if they are doing their job” is only one side of a story. I travel overseas quite a bit. There are many people who want to bring in agricultural products, plants knowing they are illegal. When they go through Custom, they can either being honest and declare that they have those stuff in their luggage or take a risk of not declaring and going through custom.
Custom only can do asome random checks on the “ nothing to declare “ people. Many feel that it is worth the risk because they never get caught, their friends never get caught, etc.
A lot depend on how honest people can be. For some, the desire of owning exotic or rare plants, veggie seeds from their native lands overcome their fear of getting caught,
FIGO PRETO
DESCRIPTION
From a Portuguese lady in Point Loma, San Diego California, where it has been growing for about 50 years. Discovered in 2008. Gives every indication that it is similar to Black Madeira in shape, color and flavor, but clearly needs much less heat to ripen. Very promising.
SKIN COLOR:
FLESH COLOR:
BREBA CROP:
ORIGIN:
HISTORY:
FIGS 4 FUN COLLECTION:
Accession No. 0302
Accession No. 0792
You might want to start with some easier, more reliable varities than Preto and Panache. Like RDB, Mt Etnas, Malta Black, Celeste, Golden Celeste, Adriatic JH, etc.
