Hi, a couple of weeks ago I received a few cuttings from a very generous member here (thanks!). I put them in damp paper towels in bags and one of them has 2 very tiny leaves, how long should I leave it in the bag before putting it in a pot, it doesn't have roots yet. Also, I have heard lots of mention of root initials but how do you identify those? Two of the cuttings have many different new bumps but I don't know if those are initials or just latex or something else. Thanks!

They need roots to get potted. Root initials look like little white zits with no head.

Patrick, root initials look like little white seeds.
Some people pot their cuttings directly into soil "the old world way".
It's possible to get the cuttings potted at this point, but you may want to limit the light, and keep the soil warm to allow the roots to catch up.
Cuttings that develop early leaves without roots seem to collapse and dry up, because there are no roots to support the growth.

Is it best for PatrickStar to keep pulling the leaves off of the cuttings until there are a few roots?  I go through this with most of my cuttings.  They start leafing out way before there are roots and then, as Ruuting said, the leaves will just shrivel up and the cutting will die. 

PatrickStar,
A chart from a topic started by Pino... http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=6765676 has the basic steps for rooting fig cuttings. Good Luck.


Thearabicstudent,
The chart in the above mentioned topic will describe the next step, which doesn't include removing leaves, the solution is maintaining high ambient humidity around the cutting until it has rooted.

everybody has their own way that works for them. I pot up to 7oz cups (you can fit a lot more into a bin) when they look like this. In a week or 2 you should see roots reach the side of the cup. I also break off any green growth when its clear roots are a long way away

KK -- if there are little branch shoots with little leaves, do you just clip off the leaves...or do you clip off the whole branch/bud?
Jim

Patrick, I am old school and I propagate cuttings as if I am a Southern Italian from Calabria, which I am. My method....take 50 cuttings and stick them in the ground in my backyard. 25 will continue to be dead, leaving me with 25 new trees. No root hormones, no paper cups, no artificial light in the garage, no humidity tent. Take the new cuttings that survived and give them to your friends and neighbors who will love you forever because the figs  will make their tummies very happy. Leave the dead cuttings wrapped in a piece of newspaper in the mailboxes of your enemies. They will get the message. Bravo!  Joe

Joe,
  There's a lot to be said for that propagation method.  (People with 2 or 3 very expensive cuttings might disagree...)
In terms of percentages, some of my most successful rooting attempts last year were from branches I picked up from the side of the road (that were there for a few days), that I stuck in a bucket of water so they wouldn't dry out.  After ignoring them for weeks and weeks, I started seeing leaf buds on all....so I just stuck them in whatever small pots I could find.  I don't know the actual success rate, but it was as high or higher than my other cuttings.  Much simpler, too.
Jim

Truth to tell, many trees of the mulberry family, including trees like figs and crepe myrtles are inherently fecund and can continue to grow on their own up to a point after they have been cut away from the mother plant. I have seen trimmed branches growing on a firewood stack. If they can reach the nutrients of soil, they have a good chance of surviving as a new tree.  It is just like the trees that fall over in the forest where the mother log sprouts skyward new branches, using itself as the needed nutrient source.

I have friends who only propagate figs by bending over a branch and causing the tip to make contact with the earth, securing the branch with a heavy stone or something handy . After the tip roots, which it surely will, they clip off the branch...and you have a new tree. Tip propagation is an effective means of reproduction in many plant species. Especially some brambles. Try it sometime.

BTW, I learned everything I know about figs in Elizabeth, NJ. Jersey Strong, like you!
Joe

I find that green growth quickly molds wrapped in paper towel so I remove any buds early from cuttings that are nowhere near rooting. I bend them off way before I get leaves. I only remove the green. The cutting expends energy producing those leaves so I remove them right away when no sign of roots.

Ok, thanks for the tips. As much as it pains me I will break off the green growth :P. Also, one of the other cuttings has some thin bumps coming out of the bottom. How do I tell if this is root growth. Thanks. :)

It's hard to know without pictures, but the bottom of the cutting might be callousing, which is a good thing.
Some cuttings will look like the skin is cracking, some will look like an upside-down mushroom, many will look like they're calcifying.
As long as the bark doesn't look black, you should still be on the right track.
When you press into the bark with a fingernail and it leaves an imprint or dent, it's not a good sign.

Other than some beginner's luck on my first try a few years ago, I've had kind of a black thumb when it comes to rooting cuttings. My best recent success has been rooting them in the ground, but I first bury a vertical piece of 1-inch PVC pipe so an inch is sticking up above the surface. Then I pour about an inch of perlite into the pipe, slip in the cutting so the tip is just sticking out of the ground, and then pour more perlite around it. Then I carefully pull out the PVC, adding more perlite as it settles, so the cutting isn't actually touching the soil (I started doing that because the ones I put directly into the soil tended to rot). I cover the cutting tip with a clear plastic container (with several ventilation holes) to create a bit more humidity, and drape a white rag over it to keep it from overheating. A drip emitter several inches from the cutting keeps the soil moist, but the perlite buffer prevents the bark from getting (or at least, staying) wet. Even if leaves emerge before the roots, I don't remove them--the humidity and light shade seem to be enough to keep the leaves from drying out, and that way they can photosynthesize and create nourishment that ( I think) helps drive root production.

Ken that sounds like a great idea. I have a friend that roots out in the open in a hill of river sand. River sand is the stuff that is washed down stream and settled on the river banks. It's composed of all sort of goodies and does a great job of rooting cuttings. He just buries all but a little of the cutting and let mother nature do her magic. Of course we have high humidity and a fair amount of rain in early spring.

"gene"

Sand is a good rooter!  Also decomposed granite.  Just keep it kind of moist.

Suzi