Kathy thank you for your reply and comments. We base are reviews off facts and we grow all variety for 3 to 4 years this allows the trees to mature so we can give an honest opinion.
We understand and see your point about backyard Growers, but people tend to jump on the bandwagon when it comes down to the hottest new fig or must have. We see it all the time in members wish list and and social media groups. A lot of backyard Growers buy a high end fig to have something to trade.
We grow the black Madeira KK's black Madeira and the drawf Madera all at this point are slow Growers and low production. If there are reviews out there by backyard Growers about how productive this variety is have them show you their Harvest, and show you pictures of the tree and how old it is.
The I 258 Italian is a notorious splitter here in the south no doubts about it I'm lucky to get a few figs off my tree in a year. And I have seen conversations on Facebook about this variety that they paid a couple hundred dollars for and I can't get a fig off here because it splits.
Kathy your results will probably be different because you live in Arizona and a dry climate with no humidity. All our results are from growing here in the south and results will vary in between growing conditions and whether you grow in the ground or in a container I do both to give a very very wide range on result of a variety of fig.
There is always going to be the newest hottest fig every year, most have been just discovered with no background no growing test done, do not know whether it's a common fig variety or not, and show photos that it has been pollinated to add to the confusion.
The WASP is in only in about 10% of the US which means 90% of us doesn't have the wasp so if it has to be pollinated in order to bear fruit we are just out of luck. We recommend to our members here before pulling their wallet out to Simply run down a check list.
1. Is this a common variety
2. Are these your photos of this fig that you had produced in your growing area.
3. is the photo of this fig been pollinated
4. has this variety produce for you in your growing area.
By asking these simple questions it will save you a lot of time and frustration. We purchase fruit trees that will be productive for our growing area, one other Factor people need to be aware of is your chilling hours for your growing area, which is a big problem for us having low chilling hours here in the south.
Why would you want a fruit tree that doesn't produce for you? The only thing that we have around here that grows that we can eat is grass.
