For the last couple of weeks I get some initials/small roots on fig cuttings using the bag method. I use 20" length of moist newspaper wrapped around two or three cuttings. I think this makes newspaper wrapped about 5 to 7 times around the cuttings. When I open to inspect the cuttings, I find the inside layers close to the cuttings dried up (& so are the initials and roots) but the outside layers of the newspaper are almost wet.  Should I be reducing the number of the newspaper wrapped layers? What dries out the inside layers and almost wet the outside layers (I know the moisture has to stay inside the Ziplock bag). Should one or two wrapped layers be enough?
I never had this issue when using tissue paper for wrapping (which were less than four round of wrapped layers.

Ottawan
what i do is wrap 1 individual stick not several together although some here probably do (everyone is different) i usually wrap around stick 4 to 6 times and leave about 3/4 of an inch at bottom end paperless i spray baggie with a mist and close ends of baggie and blow lots of air into it then close baggie completly and keep in laundry room, i check every so often to see if baggie needs more air and paper is still damp. I dont recall though the inside near stick being dry as mine in past have started to barely dry on outside paper showing not from inside outwards.
Hope this helps
Martin 

That is what puzzles me that the inside layers are dry and the outside layers are moist/wet.
I can guess only one explanation. The only thing I changed was insulating my  23"L x 14"W X12"H clear plastic storage container using the bubble envelopes used for cutting exchange trade which raised the temperature from 75F to 82F (with heat-mate). May be the high temperature evaporates moisture from wrapping paper but it is still draped inside the bag so the outside paper layers still remains wet while the inside remains dry.
So, since the high temperature is considered good for rooting, I will reduce the number of wrapping layers and check more often to ensure the paper stay moist.
Other inputs will be appreciated.

I don't use newspaper, but the fellow that taught me the bag method did, so the type of paper is not an issue, necessarily.  See http://figs4fun.com/basics.html section 5 for my wrapping technique. I would assume that the moisture is disappearing (being absorbed) into the scion, so that you need additional moisture, or maybe the scion was somehwat dessicated to begin with.

Jon, we posted almost the same time.
Can you look at my thinking in explaining it. Could it be the reason (evaporation & condensation near the outer layers) I mentioned?

Ottowan,

I have seen the same thing in my "experiment". My guess is the same as Jon's - I think it is being absorbed into the cutting. I have been using newspaper. I take a full double-page sheet, cut it in half so it is now a single sheet. I then fold it in half and wrap each cutting individually. I have also had some cuttings with small branches on them that are not neatly wrapped as I just described. For these, I had grouped 3-4 together in a pile and folded the paper around the pile. This leaves a lot of space and the paper is not in direct contact. I did not see the drying of the paper with these (they all rooted well).

How warm is "too" warm for the bagged cuttings?

I decided to give this method a try and placed them in the bottom drawer in a bathroom cabinet.  The central heating is deduced out directly below and it seems to be 85F-90F some of the time and I'm afraid this might be warmer than desired.  Maybe I need to move my wife's things out from the next drawer up. :P

I generally keep them at about room temp 70-75F. I find that I have too much mold growth if I let the temperature get higher than that and the paper also tends to dry out faster. Best of luck.

HarveyC
85F-90F is on the high side. I prefer 75F-80F and it works good for me.

Temperature range 85F-90F accelerates both rooting and rotting. A good cutting will root faster but a slow rooting cutting will be racing against rot of the bark (as I have experienced).

Thanks, I decided to move them into a room in my shop which I keep about 75F since I'm starting other seedlings there already.

One of the ones I'm rooting now is Panache from UCD via the CRFG scion exchange (never got an order in myself) and others are some unknown fig I don't know much about.  My father just mentioned it a late last year that this fig on an abandoned homesite (where the husband of my mother's sister was raised) was the same fig that my grandfather once grew which was lost in our 1972 flood.  My dad likes it as it is very resistant to spoiling and can be dried on the tree.  I didn't hear about it until late last year and the figs were alreay dried.  It will be interesting to see what this is like with some care.  I mentioned it to my cousin (granddaughter of the man who planted the tree) and she's excited to have one also so now I'm probably going to also grow one for my father, uncle, etc.  I have no idea on how easily this one roots but I did take cuttings from branches exposed to sun.

Thanks again,

Harvey

This is my first attempt with the bag method so I don't know if this is unusual or not, but one of the figs I started last week showed initials on all 8 or 9 cuttings in six days.  I had cut these from some unknown tree the same day (might be from Portugal, my father says he prefers it because it keeps well on the tree and can be allowed to dry right on the tree).  Or I wonder if the warm bathroom drawer I used sped thing sup.  However, the Penache obtained from Davis via a CRFG exchange still isn't showing anything after 10 days.

All of my cuttings, including ones I just got from Jon yesterday, are now in a room that stays about 75F

Harvey

The six days seem extra ordinary case but not impossible if the cutting was bursting with energy. Last month I started some cuttings and one had more than 0.5" long roots after 10 days (where there were only initials 3 says earlier). Most of the other cuttings rooted to the same level between two to 4 weeks.

Thanks, I don't think this tree would be bursting with energy, though I did pick scions from branches that were in full sun.  The tree is probably 25' tall and 30' wide and probably is about 80 years old and never pruned.  If it's been fertilized, it hasn't been for over 40 years and it hasn't been watered for almost that long as well (the home from the old homestead was lost due to flooding in 1972).  I was only in the house one time about 40 years ago and my cousin tells me she remembers climbing the tree and knocking figs down upon her grandfather's (not my grandfather) wine barrels. :P  My dad says this is the same fig his dad had which was lost in the same flood.  I never knew of my dad's preference for this fig until this past summer when he complained about his figs turning sour.  He said he was too old to start with a new tree so maybe they're just trying to give him some motivation to keep going! :)

HarveyC
Well, then this tree is bursting with a lot of your fond old memories.