Why aren't Green Michurinska fig trees more available to buy?

I had read about this fig and it sounded great. Why aren’t Green Michurinska fig trees more available to buy? You can get cuttings, but trees are tough to get.

Because places that sell potted fig trees don’t sell less common varieties as trees typically

It’s so easy to root cuttings from figs and they establish and fruit so quickly there is little incentive for potted fig trees to be sold in general, especially not varieties that aren’t the absolute most common

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I’m gonna guess that it’s seen as a small market opportunity.

Ask yourself: “Suppose I start growing Green Michurinska (or any other variety). How much would it cost me in gear, materials, and especially time to produce a small tree? Then how much could I charge for the tree, including shipping?”

Note that if the price is too high, most customers might just beg / buy some cuttings and go DIY. So that places a cap on the price, which reduces the entrepreneur’s motivation to grow and sell trees.

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I should get figs from my GM this year :slight_smile: can’t wait.

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I have no idea why. We sell hundreds of fig startings every year. And it is like a side gig.

We have a tub of Blanche to get started and need to collect our SBT. As we likely just had our last hard freeze.

this ones on my list, i forgot to pick it up in 3 different sales lol

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That’s different from a tree in a 5 gallon pot that has taken up real estate for two years

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Because wholesalers don’t sell it. The reason why you see Brown Turkey, Chicago Hardy and Black Mission everywhere is because wholesalers can grow it from tissue culture. While its perfectly possible that Green Michurinska could be grown from TC (I don’t know if it can), it would be very difficult to convince a wholesaler to take a risk with it. And if it isn’t coming from a wholesaler, don’t expect most nurseries to have it.
In combo to that, its not very cost effective for most hobby nurseries to sell potted figs. On the smaller scale, ita way easier to sell just the cuttings or fig pops, and its cheaper for both the customer and the seller.
That being said, we do sell potted figs. Mostly from wholesalers, but figs are one of the plants we propagate here. Even if they grow fast, they still take quite a bit of time to grow to a sellable size. And they take up alot of real estate as well.

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Ummm yes. Why bother wasting limited real estate when it sells out as starts?

Particularly when customers like super precocious starts that seem to enjoying fruiting and are quite healthy.

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Doesn’t Harvey still sell cuttings? Well he would be gone by now. I like this fig pretty tasty but I still like other Adriatic types better. since it turns yellow when completely ripe it’s more like a yellow fig than Adriatic. Iike some yellows a whole bunch like Qalaat al Madiq, or Izbat an Naj. Although Green Michurinska is excellent too. Grows well here in Michigan.

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Ask Zone6 dude

I can add I always decided to work with cuttings. I found them easy to root and one can trade easily. Some had trouble but I never gave up on a cultivar. I even rooted hard to root figs. Although some grew slow after rooting. I culled them too. I still need to cull about 40 trees. Rooted figs sometimes fruited the second year almost always by third. Since I had over 100 plants I didn’t mind waiting. I have produced about one thousand figs each year for a decade now.

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If it were aneuploidal it might be troublesome, otherwise no problem. Ploidy tests are about $35 each plus shipping this year.

As you mentioned, cost is the largest barrier for new cultivars. An initial order requires payment for extraction (several $1,000) plus an order for 7-12 “trays” (depending on lab). A tray contains 72 plantlets in individual plugs and each tray runs $100-$300 a piece + shipping.

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there also seems to be a dislike for TC plants in the fig community because they “sucker” more heavily. though cuttings from TC plants seem to not have this issue, which is a possible solution

Harvey had a sale this year, and he will next year as well, he’s training the future owners how to run the farm, and that includes how to run the fig cutting sale. The future owners will keep the fig cutting sale going after Harvey sells the farm. I think that the person who started the thread is more interested in a tree of it than cuttings. It’s actually easy to find the cuttings. I think that Green Michurinska is as popular as it is because it’s not only cold hardy, yet tasty. Maybe because it’s rare there is more interest as well.

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Most varieties of figs are hard to find as trees, because so many people root them, and there are too many different varieties for most of them to be available as trees easily. It’s also way more work to care for, and to ship trees verses cuttings. The fig collector ‘Ross Raddi’ sells a lot of the varieties he has as trees, he probably sells that one, yet I did not check to see if he sells it. He sells fig trees for a short time each year. His trees are not as cheap as at a nursery, it all really depends on how badly you actually want a fig tree started out for you.

harder than youd think, none on figbid last i checked. kremp has it but ive heard mixed things about their cuttings so ive been holding off

I am pretty sure @Blake sells this variety as a tree. @Zone6 maybe check with him about what might be available.

I am looking forward to this variety. If all my fig cuttings are successful, I don’t know what I’ll do with them all. :man_shrugging:

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IDK. But I have rooted a cutting successfully this winter as a first timer. It doesn’t seem that hard.

I’d get several cuttings as insurance. I started with a couple fresh cuttings I got off FigBid, and I cut those in half. This is the one that rooted first.

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They have the best cuttings, although they sold out this year already FIGAHOLICS

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