What's your must have Black Madeira type?

grasshopper said:
Joe, you meant the BMKK never set a lot of fruits or it set fruits but not ripen them? (because you said ripened only a few in the last few years)
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It set a few more fruit this year than previous but mostly it was only that very few would ripen for me before it got cold. Also for me even those that did ripen in the cold weren’t that good.
 
Lots of interesting and contradictory (to my knowledge) info in this thread. For the sake of fullness of information, here is what Harvey, whom I respect immensely as an expert fig grower and just a humble and very honest person:

"
To the best of my knowledge, all of the Black Madeira trees originated from the same source and are genetically identical.
Slow growth is common for many Black Madeira trees, but not all. KK has a very detailed fertilizer program and gets great growth on all of his trees.
I often graft some Black Madeira scions to improve growth but also root some. If I root one tray of 12 cuttings I will see often seen significantly different rates of growth between the trees with some trees in 3 months being 24 inches tall and others only 10 or 12 inches. Over time, the slower trees usually improve and do better when moved into a larger pot. I have a hypothesis that some of the trees that have smaller/finer hair-like roots do better if given more room for their roots to expand.
The grafted Black Madeira tree I have in my orchard is pruned heavily for cuttings each winter and re-grows about 7' each year. It seems that these cuttings have lots of stored energy in them and grow quite well.
Please do not write me about Black Madeira KK, Black Madeira UCD, or Black Madeira Figaholics LOL. I sell Black Madeira. People have seemed to be quite happy with the quality of cuttings I have provided".

Here is what Harvey says about Preto on his cuttings page:

"We have two trees of this variety and had three Black Madeira and see no difference between them on our farm. Some hobbyists report that Figo Preto is earlier than Black Madeira but I believe that this is very likely just because of individual tree characteristics. On the island of Madeira there is no fig called Black Madeira and a friend of ours from Madeira and from mainland Portugal are certain that Figo Preto and Black Madeira are the same. In addition, our friend from mainland Portugal is sure that both are the same fig as a fig also known in Portugal as Violeta".

Same about Craven's Craving:

"Craven's Craving is a fig discovered in the Point Loma area of San Diego. Our video is a bit dated and our tree has grown well since the recording of the 2020 video. We continue to believe that this fig is likely the same as Black Madeira, Figo Preto, etc. with fruits of medium size, nice berry flavor, and good level of sweetness".

I don't have as much experience growing figs as Harvey, but I also noticed and strongly believe in this statement that Harvey made:
"If I root one tray of 12 cuttings I will see often seen significantly different rates of growth between the trees with some trees in 3 months being 24 inches tall and others only 10 or 12 inches. Over time, the slower trees usually improve and do better when moved into a larger pot. I have a hypothesis that some of the trees that have smaller/finer hair-like roots do better if given more room for their roots to expand."

From my own experience, I've seen good quality cuttings from a really vigorous, productive tree turn into equally excellent trees and sometimes they would grow into stragglers, all being treated equally. I've also seen quality cuttings from the same excellent mother tree grow into champions and sore losers depending on how you treat them - early up-potting, lots soil to grow roots, warm ambient temps, plenty of light, vs. keeping them in small pots for too long, inadequate lighting, etc. What's more interesting, and that contradicts what Harvey says above, is I've noticed that trees that were abused initially struggle later as well, even if you start pampering them. Not all the time, but often enough to be significant.

Which leads me to a strong belief that it's not what you grow, it's how you grow it.
 
It is too hot to ripen them outside so they are now in my living room, next to the window. (Plus, critters haven't figured out how to open windows and doors yet). In the past, if I didn't ripen them in time, I just put them in the garage under shop light and they would ripen properly (though it takes a while - moved them inside mid-November, done by mid to late December I think) My garage is fairly warm even in December since it is south facing. I ripened CddB that way as well and got some really good figs off it in January. :D

In terms of fruits set, mine usually have a fruit on every node, which is fairly typical of BMs so when they are in slow growth mode, you would see fruit clusters often, which can be difficult to bag some time. I just checked mine to be sure. It is time for both top & root pruning and I haven't done either one because too busy this season. It still put out a fruit on every node. I didn't even give it any fertilizer at the beginning of the season. That is another thing I noticed with BM type. They can grow and fruit on very poor soil.
 
ktrain said:
Looks good, I've never got a really good one from my tree, but it seems to have been severely stunted.
Not sure if I'll keep it...maybe a heavy pruning this year and try to start it over....maybe.
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They are sweet but not a lot of flavor if I’m giving a review. I’ll happily be proven wrong if this tree improves with being planted
 
All mine are vigorous and seem about the same. I decided to put all 6 on the same trees to see if there is much differences. Out of the 6 I have I would say MIB or Black Portuguese. I think a chipmunk stole my pollinated Black Portuguese fig. I hope I have seedlings pop up somewhere.
 
I don't have much experience growing BM types but my vote is for Violeta. The BMKK rooted cutting I had shriveled up and died in the heat. The Violeta is growing really fast and healthy. It's catching up fast to my I-258 and WM#1, and both of those have recently put out some mottled leaves on top, but not Violeta.
 
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