what's your opinion on cuttings with terminal bud. i'm getting mixed results from even same variety of the cutting. for example, i had 3 calvert with terminal bud. 2 are growing great, and one is still not doing anything.

from CdDB and BM, both of them are not doing anything. the cuttings below terminal bud from same branch is growing roots and leaves.

are the cutting with terminal bud have any advantage? or should i just cut them off when rooting?

pete

I don't have much experience, but when my nephew in Florida heard I was starting cuttings he sent a bunch from his unknownn variety growing in his back yard. They were virtually all terminal bud - with branches. I just stuck them in a milled sphagnum moss/perlite mix and they have begun to root like crazy. I haven't seen one yet that looks like it has lost its viability.

well.. all my cuttings are from UD Davis this year. they sent rather long branch for each variety that i asked for. since each of the branch sent has enough nodes, i cut them into about 4 inch cuttings with more or less 3 or more node each.

for exampe, i had 1 BM and 1 CdDB branches from UD Davis. i cut them twice cach to get 3 cuttings out of them.

all the terminal bud cuttings are still not doing anything, but the cuttings after i took off the terminal buds are growing roots and leaves.

maybe it doesn't make any difference. but if it does, i'm going to get rid of terminal bud in future. i thought cuttings with terminal bud will look better when they grow up for whatever reason.

pete

Pete:

I have found the same issue here.  Terminal bud cuttings maybe 5% have produced a root.  I had two cuttings without terminal buds and they all have developed extensive root systems.  I think your on to something.  I am going to remove some terminal buds from some of my experimental cuttings to see if that will jump start them.  

Most of my cuttings are still 'in process', but I have noticed a couple things. If the cutting with the terminal bud is robust - larger diameter, and relatively fresh (not stored in a fridge for too long), the cutting will do better. But if the T-bud cutting is thinner and/or older, it doesn't do as well. That also could be said for other cuttings, but of those I've lost so far, they almost all have been slender T-bud cuttings.

Terminal buds have various hormones in them, that when removed can allow the growth of side branches beneath. (Apical dominance and branching out after 'pinching') Whether there is a similar mechanism for encouraging adventitious root initiation and growth in cuttings when the terminal bud isn't there, or from nodes at a distance, I don't know.

Very interesting Gina, are you removing the smaller buds?

Other than baby fig fruits, I remove nothing that looks viable. I figure the cutting knows more than I do and possesses an internal 'will to live'. In other words, I let the cutting figure it out for itself.

I was looking around for any info on removal of terminal buds and affects on rootings in other species and found conflicting information - it worked for some but not others. I did find one paragraph on rooting Rhododendrons that might sum it up - terminal bud influence might be dependent on the particular variety involved, even though it's the same species. This may not be apply to figs however. But we do know not all varieties respond in the same way.

(underlining mine)

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v38n2/v38n2-strick.htm

Hard to generalize, but it appears to me that long cuttings with terminal buds do well if potted deeply in compost and covered with plastic bag for humidity.

Shorter terminal-less cuttings do well in sphagnum for me.

i got a block of sphagnum last fall and totally forgot about it. i'll try that next time i have some cuttings.

pete

Gina and FMD, you both bring out points that I did not mention. Mine were fresh cuttings, and they went deep into the medium, then closed to keep humidity up.

I've had about the same experience with tip cuttings and non-tip cuttings.  The benefit to tip cuttings is you can start your tree with one straight-up stalk (tree form), whereas non-tip cuttings will often branch at the base or be better for bush growth.

I had a lot of issues with UCD Calvert.  Fortunately, someone I shared cuttings with was hugely successful and was able to send one (thanks, C!).  Be happy that you're getting anything, it looks like an awesome fig and I can't wait to taste it.

out of 24 cuttings that i currently have in the cups, only two are doing really bad. they are both terminal bud cuttings. it looks like they are drying up.

couple of node above the soil looks still good.  have cut off the terminal node and trim the cuttings right below the 3rd node. maybe they will make it. they are Calvert and Ischia White.

terminal buds for Black Madeira and Col de Dame Blanche are not doing much. however, node below the terminal buds are turning green and they do not look dried up, and they are showing roots.

pete

i'm finding the same thing, cuttings with terminal buds seem much more reluctant to grow. Seems like for the most part they just don't have enough juice to push out and sustain new growth. This is counter intuitive to me as typically cuttings with terminal buds work best for most other plants I have rooted successfully.

this year, i had better luck. however, terminal buds are in general always slower than the lower cuttings for me. few cuttings with terminal bud actually leaf from the bud below the terminal bud.

Here is the same:Terminal buds can create troubles,and death of cutting.
The lower buds on Branch,are situated on older wood more mature,with more energy to root and grow.

   Not to beat a dead horse, but since I have been using the root riot system it seems that both terminal bud cuttings and non terminal cuttings are rooting and leafing out with better then ever results(including this years UC Davis cuttings)...with previous methods I had mediocre results with terminal bud cuttings and a little better results with non tereminal cuttings.
   As an example, the root riot tray that I have going right now has the following results:  
            4 cuttings that have not rooted or leafed out at all(2 terminal & 2 non terminal)...of the remaining 46 cuttings(about 1/2 terminal & 1/2 non terminal), all the cuttings are leafed out and are in various stages of root development...from the previous RR tray, 44 made it to 1gal. uppotting with the same % of terminal and non terminal success. 

I have generally had good success with terminal buds but have had problems with some from NCGR as well as from some others that were newer wood.  In cases where I've had tip cuttings from older wood, they have leafed out quickly for me and grown well.  I'm wondering if the NCGR trees had been watered late in the year and had a lot of new young growth at the end of the year.  I got at least one of each of the three varieties from NCGR to root and that's all I really needed anyways, fortunately.  I wrapped the tops of younger cuttings with BuddyTape (like Parafilm) since I was afraid they could dry out easier but they just didn't root.  They didn't rot, just didn't have anything happen.  I've had some cuttings without terminal buds where I didn't really see any buds at all and those have also been a problem. At least one has sent a shoot from below the soil, but I have lost others even though they had formed roots.  At least with a tip cutting I know I have one bud.

I agree with Vince. By using the rooting cubes i've had better results on both terminal and non terminal cuttings. On my Col de Dame cuttings, 3 with terminal buds all rooted and so far are growing while the ones without T bud have rooted but only one is growing and the other 2 are stagnant. I haven't given up on them, but it just seems funny how T buds are usually slower but in this instance they are doing better. Go FIGure!

Could it be (?) that in the case of terminal bud, the apical bud on the cutting still dominates and try to take priority of its own growth over other activities including the root formation in which case removing apical bud may help.