Michael Grace Mystery

DCallahan said:
I was taking a break earlier today from putting the collection into storage and saw this thread start.
Here is the second oldest Michael Grace Mystery tree, her name is Lefty. The tree Bill has is a sister to this one rooted at the same time. I'm not sure if Bills tree is inground now, but I took it to him a few years ago now. I totally agree with Bill's assessment of the variety. A couple things he didn't say, because he didn't have experience at the time was how cold hardy it is. The mothertree planted inground at my parents house for almost 20 years has not had any winter protection at all after the first couple years it was planted. 2007ish. Planting.
All the polar vortexs we have experienced with almost no winter dieback. This tree gives a bigger and earlier fruit then you typical Mt Etna. It also grows in a conservative way. The mothertree is about 7 ft tall with never having a full heading cut or top down dieback.
There are a few spread around to experienced growers, that are a couple / few years old. It would be interesting to hear some independent thoughts on it.
I made a video earlier this season showing comparisons with other Mt Etna's.
I will try to attach it to the thread later.
MGM is in the middle of my carrier in #20 nursery pot
View attachment 16706
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this. That is super helpful for those of us wanting to plant in ground but nervous about it.

What state and zone are you in please?
 
Mt Etna's are sometimes described as a workhorse variety. My VdB ripened figs for 4 months. The VdB is definitely the workhorse of my collection. I would like to add a Mt Etna that produces like my VdB. I already have one Mt Etna (Mavra Sika) but it had small figs. So I am looking for a Mt Etna type that produces like my VdB and has 30-50 gram figs. MGM seems like it checks these boxes. I am wondering if there is a Mt Etna variety that would be better than MGM at doing the things that I want it to do. Should I get MGM or is there a better Mt Etna?
 
After reading this thread and after seeing how @Figgerlickinggood caved in and ordered MGM, I tried to order MGM from OTBP. Card was declined. You know you are a fanatic when you buy cuttings until your card won't buy anymore. 🤣 Actually I only put a certain amount of money on that card so I could only spend so much. BTW I think there is only one left because it would only let me add one to the cart.
 
Last edited:
DCallahan said:
Didn't you get your box of Michael Grace Mystery mothertree cuttings from me via UPS a couple weeks ago??
Click to expand...

Yes, I did, thank you so much!!
I did fig pops and they are happily sitting in the incubator.

I didn’t realize how winter hardy they are, so I’m thrilled to be more confident in having it be an in-ground tree! And I didn’t realize it was so early, which is a whole lotta awesome, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top