Greetings All

After receiving the winnings from the first ever Figs4fun lotto contest, I decided to use Jason's technique to get these cuttings rooted. I used carry- out containers, mostly perlite and MG cutting mix for the medium, and placed the cuttings in three separate containers today. These containers were placed on my heating mat, in a warm closet. Temperature on my warming rack is about low 70's. Here's a collage of the cuttings and growth on an LSU Purple yearling received in late Autumn last year.

Oh, and here is the list of cuttings started today:

Longue d'aout
Unknown White Greek
Beal
San Giovanni
Gosh
Armenian
Madeliene de Deux
Col di Dame Blanche
Ventura

regards

Mmmmm roasted chicken! Looks good, Maro. Just make sure you tape the vent holes closed on the chicken containers so you don't lose moisture.

I have been following some of the threads that talk about scoring and I think there is something to it. After my next batch roots I am going to try three small batches of cuttings off the same tree one with no scoring, one with light scoring until you can see green, and one with heavy scoring. I think we should all try it and compare results.

I haven't looked at them yet. I wait at least 2 weeks.

I have used perlite only before just not with the box method. I think it will work fine. The important thing is humidity. I do however think scarring/ scoring will make a big difference in rooting time and abundance.

Jason, is that with or without rooting hormone?  I tried scoring and didn't notice roots from the scored area - if they were treated with hormone it was with a powder by Green Light.

JoAnn, I never scored cuttings but when I scored and girdled airlayers I noticed some incredible roots. So next batch I am going to light score, heavy score, and no score the same cultivar. No hormones.

Maybe I just don't have the knack for scoring yet!  That's OK, they are rooting fine for my au naturale in sp moss ;)

Figs are easy. They almost root on their own. Lots of ways to root them.

Jason, I am gearing up to do a bunch of cuttings and have been thinking of using your approach.  However, if I use one shoebox per variety it adds up to a lot of shoeboxes.  Has anyone come up with a good way to divide up a shoebox into 3-4 subcompartments?  Alternatively, what about completely burying the cutting vertically in a starbucks cup with no holes in the bottom and with the top covered with saran wrap and a rubber band.  The same soilmix you describe could be used and since there are no holes it shouldn't require watering.  Then when you see decent root development you could drill holes in the cup, open the top, and wait for shoots to emerge.  If your method works with the potted cuttings not requiring a humidity bin then it would seem the same would be true for this variation on the method.  It seems like this would achieve the same effect as the horizontal approach and would save a step.  Like the other method I imagine the optimizing the wetness of the mix is key.  Has anyone tried this?

Hey Rewton

Good idea, i think, but why don't you just start off with your cups predrilled with drainage holes. seems like it would be a lot easier to start off with the holes already in the cups! I'm thinking that once you have roots and/or shoots you don't want to be messing much with the container.

Good luck with what ever technique you end up using!

Mark, you could start with holes but I wanted to stay close to the original idea of Jason's post - that you start with the mix with the right moisture content throughout and then you don't need to water again until you have significant roots.  I suppose you could pre-drill the holes and then cover both ends of the cup with something (like saran wrap) that forms a near airtight seal.  So the main difference is that the cuttings would be vertical instead of horizontal.  I decided not to do this as I found a bunch of cheap plastic containers today but it would be interested to try sometime.

I mark my cutting with their names so when I have one or two I mix them. Try out your cups, I experiment all the time. There's always a different and better way. Good luck!

I'm trying the perlite only in a box.  They seem to be looking pretty good. One is sprouting leaves and looks like it may have some root initials.  I didn't disturb the ones that were a little deeper.  However, I goofed up.  I wrote on each cutting its name with a sharpie.  The one I looked at today as so smudged, I can't read it.   In have 13 cuttings of 5 different varieties in that box.  *face palm*  

7deuce, have you checked on your perlite only yet?  

I potted up the cuttings. From the small sample I decided perlite wasn't as good as Promix for me.

All of the Promix batch had many roots on all and the perlite batch had only one small root on one cutting.

Yep.. i'm coming to the same conclusion.  The ones in Moser Lee moss are getting roots much faster and bigger.  I'm going to change out the perlite with sp moss this weekend.

Greetings All

here's a quick update to my Post No. 26. I'm about three weeks into Jason's 'bury' technique, and I have multiple roots, leaf buds/shoots breaking the soil surface. I'll probably let them continue like this and pot up on Saturday.

Any ideas on this? Absolutely no mold or too dry or wet conditions.

Here are two pix:

Nice job! Keep them in the dark. My guess is they are getting some light because the leaf buds are green. They are ready to pot up now but Saturday is fine too. Be gentle pulling the cuttings up, many times there will be tons of hidden roots. Use an airy potting mix, I se 3 pine bark fines, 2 Promix, and 1-2 perlite with some lime. Make sure to barely cover the top bud if it sprouted. Good luck

http://www.stuewe.com/products/treepots.php

I plan on using these pots as space is limited.  They should work perfectly with your method.

Those look nice. Keep us posted.

I've been using the CP412CH treepots for quite a few years and I think they are nice.  They are deeper than you need but I like leaving 2-3" of unfilled space at the top to make watering faster and more effective.  You need to get trays to contain them, I use the TRAY6 shown on the minitreepot page.

Here's some more that I potted up today in front.



Note, these pots are about four years old and still going strong.

Here's another quick update/picture of my buried cuttings emerging from the soil. BTW, these have been in a small carry-out container, covered, on a warm heat mat, in adarkened closet. The only light received is minimal when i give the chamber a little airing out.

So, I thought I would take the plunge and uncover my cuttings and see what I have going. Two of the three cuttings in this container were pretty well rooted with buds and leaves emerging as well. I've potted these two up and will give the third another week to get a bit more root development.

Pictures 2, 3 and 4 are these two cuttings that are now potted in very light perlite/MG seedling mix (60/40).

The two new pots are in a humidity chamber in indirect daylight, some grow lamps.

Very nice, Mark!