So, when people talk about rooting and trading and buying/selling cuttings, I've seen references to cuttings 6", 8", 12" and even 18" long!  What are the pros and cons of rooting short cuttings versus long cuttings?  

I would imagine that a large cutting has a "head start to maturity" compared to a smaller cutting, but is that true?  Is there an upper bound on how large the cutting can be?

Is it basically an issue of practicality (smaller being easier to work with than larger)?

I like to use cuttings 4-6 inches with a minimum circumference of a pencil and at least 4-5 nodes. You can root cuttings as big as you want the advantage being more stored energy. I also started sealing the ends with wax( a tip from another member) to prevent drying out on the top and rotting on the bottom.

Jason V, would you mind going into more detail about the wax or PM me with it please? Thanks

Jason, is waxing something to share with everyone? if so you may want to start a new thread. Thanks

Smaller cuttings tend to root faster - or not at all. Thicker cuttings may root more slowly but when they do the plant takes off. Do a search on "one node wonders" and you'll see a lot of success with very small cuttings. If you have a 4-7" cutting 1/4 - 1/2" in diameter with at least 3 nodes, that's a pretty average cutting. Wood below the bottom node is useful, wood above the top node is not.

I have never been able to root a large cutting - 1" in diameter or larger.  The length does not seem to matter within reason, 12"-14" seems to be to okay.  Wax, paraffin, pruning dope, Elmer's glue, Latex paint seals the ends very well.  I soak cuttings in aspirin water or willow tea 4 hours or so before sealing.  I do not use root hormone.

I was able to root a 3/4 inch cutting. I cut it just below the grow tip. Described in this link

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Worlds-smallest-Fig-tree-also-how-to-get-roots-in-710-days-6004029

Anything longer than 8" is probably too much.  6"-7" and no thicker than a pinky finger has worked best for me.

I just dip the ends in candle wax. It keeps the white pith from going bad.

Yeah, but the pith will only 'go bad' up until a node line.  The segments (nodes) of a cutting act as little containers to hold the pith intact, and everywhere there's a line on a cutting, there is a barrier to seal the pith up. 

You'll probably never be able to do anything with the node you cut in half to take your cutting (that pith is compromised by the cut), I wouldn't put too much attention on trying to save half a node worth of pith.

Bob C., When you say "Wood below the bottom node is useful, wood above the top node is not."  -- Does this essentially mean that if I make a cutting that doesn't end in a leaf bud, anything above the highest leaf node will eventually die off...but anything below the lowest leaf node will be good stock and can sprout roots?

So, if I'm going to divide a long cutting into smaller cuttings, I should cut them not too far above a leaf node...?

I'm with where I think Alan is - any excess wood below or above a cut is an entry point for mold/rot.  I am not careful about cutting when sending to others, but if no callous is formed on cuttings I receive, I'm cutting no more than 2-3mm below a node line and above on the end/beginning of a cutting.

Hello,

In May 2012 when I started growing figs, I had access to an established unknown fig tree (possibly a Red Sicilian, still awaiting verdict). I experimented with one large branch. One cutting was over 1inch in diameter and 2 feet long and it rooted.

Different sizes were included in that experiment down to 1 node 1/4 inch diameter. They all rooted and most survived being potted.

They were placed in a 2 gallon container with about 1/2 inch of water at the bottom with Sphagnum Moss. This was placed in a large clear plastic bag and placed in the corner of a room. It was opened and misted twice a day, every cutting produced roots.

As long as high humidity can be maintained without mold growth, you should have success. Two or more nodes should work fine, larger diameter the better (in my limited experience).

All this rooting information was found on this forum and website!!!

I don't really think size matters, as long as there is a node or two.  I root mine in 1 gallon zip lock baggies, so if the cutting is more than 8" it will NOT comfortably fit into the baggie along with the spagum moss, so any that come to me longer than that, get cut to 3 or 4 nodes, and usually both cuttings root.

Suzi

Good informational exchanges like this help new the growers and refresh our "older" memories form time to time. 

Photos are worth a thousand words, and the pics. are a great addition to all the comments.

This old fig grower still has a few things to learn.

This growing season, I had very good/great success rooting semi-green cuttings in coconut coir, which I learned how to do from the Ray Givan video posted on You-Tube.  It worked well for me!

My next challenges will be dormant wood.  I now have 8 "Chicago Hardy" cuttings in my improvised "rooting chamber" which is nothing more than a plastic shoe-box, and the clear lid makes it like a little greenhouse.  We'll see how this process plays out.  Hopefully, very shortly, I will have eight more little treelets growing on my windowsill.

Frank

Peter S. -- how much sphagnum moss did you have in the bucket, and how many cuttings?  Did you just have the moss in the bottom couple of inches where you wanted roots to form?  Or did you fill the bucket?

I'm using the sphagnum/shoebox method (actually, a rectangular plastic Chinese takeout container) on a 5" BT cutting I started on 9/11.  Today on 10/3 it has a nice 1/2" root at the end -- but the leafbud has rotted off.  The whole cutting is buried under the moss, and I suspect it is too damp.

Hello needaclone,

The moss and water were only in the lower bottom 1 inch. The moss was to help prevent mold growth (experimenting). The Clear plastic bag (30 gallon) was a humidity dome. I wanted "AIR" roots to form along the entire length of the cutting. Air roots are the same as soil roots, they will form as long as there is moisture. There were 29 different sized cuttings in the container. The large cutting was potted directly to a 5 gallon container, 8 were potted to 1 gallon containers and 12 were potted to 3 inch pots where they have remained and are still alive.

Picture flowers in a vase, with only one inch of water at the bottom.

The following method is a version of the summer rooting method (green cutting rooting) on this site. 100 % success, 7 out of 7 cuttings. This is basically the same as above. A Tupperware container with a hole cut in the top will work also.

1. The cutting were placed upright in a narrowed neck bottle with the lower ends just barely in water (1/2 "). The green ends were at top of the bottle with the upper green tips (ends) sticking out. The opening was lightly closed with a small wad of paper towel (to increase humidity inside the bottle).

2. The bottle was shaken (up and down twice) daily to aerate the water and to moisten the cutting and roots. Cuttings grew 2 inch air roots in under 3 weeks. went straight into 1 quart containers (cups).


The following is the Dormant rooting method that worked best for me. The shoe box method. 95% success, 19 out of 20.

1. Clear Plastic Shoe box, Sphagnum moss and Cuttings.

2. Wash and clean the cuttings as desired. leave wet.

3. Measure enough peat to cover the cuttings in the shoe box. Soak moss and squeeze dry - wet sponge dry. layer moss, cuttings, moss in the shoe box. Keep all the cuttings top ends at one end.

4. Place the shoe box in a warm place, standing on one end, the cutting bottoms facing down and top ends facing up. Open and check at least once per day. Mist with a spray bottle if necessary (usually not).

Note: Cuttings that were rooted with the shoe box in a horizontal position had the roots growing perpendicular (sideways) to the cutting and were damaged during potting. Success rates for other media (seed starting mix) methods varied but were around 50%.

Do not use Coconut Coir Seed Starting mix, all cuttings rotted.

Pete S.,
  I'm really curious about this bucket/bag method with the larger cuttings.  Did you get air roots the entire length of the 2-foot cutting?  Or were the roots concentrated toward the lower section in the 2-gallon bucket?  I've read about the plastic bags being used to keep the upper portion of the cuttings from drying out, but I didn't think the intent was to grow roots up the whole length of the stem.
  It has occurred to me that one good reason for using long cuttings would be to encourage root growth along a longer portion of the stem -- bigger/stronger plant right off the bat.  But I'm not sure why you'd want them up the *whole* length...

  I discovered and read and reread the "summer rooting" thread a few weeks back -- It was sad to see it end the way it did.

Yes it rooted along its entire length and I potted it directly in a five gallon bucket. The exposed roots dried up and died back to the bark.

The intent of the plastic bags is to increase humidity, keeping the cutting from drying out.

I used the summer method and kept the the entire cutting length moistened to promote the maximum root growth. The greater the root mass the larger the plant that can be supported. I cannot post pictures because they are on my cell phone and I cannot download them (my camera was broken until two weeks ago).

The cutting branched into a nice shaped tree and is now over 4 feet from soil line. it produce a few fig embryos, but it was too late in the season so I pinched them. It should produce a good crop next season. I no longer have the tree, but the new owner may post pics if he is able.

OK, I understand now.  Just because roots grew all the way up the stem didn't imply you were going to (or had to) put the whole stem below the soil surface.

Also, when you say you "potted" them, it does sound like you went directly to a potting mix rather than grow out the roots more in vermiculite.  Is this true, and does it imply that you let them get some pretty healthy root growth going while still in their improvised greenhouse?

This is all very interesting to me because I started a green cutting in water in early September (the "summer rooting" method) moved it to a plastic bag with a moist paper towel (the "bag method"), but then moved it to a plastic container with sphagnum moss (the "shoe box" method) -- all with the same little cutting over the course of a month!

I may have overlooked this detail, but I don't recall other descriptions of the "shoe box" method saying to turn the shoebox on its end.  My cutting is horizontal right now, and it does indeed have one little root growing directly *horizontally* out the side.

Yes, they went straight to the gritty potting mix described on this site. While in the bag (not greenhouse, humidity dome), the roots grew to between 2 and 3 inches before I planted the cuttings.

The green tip or bud should be above the top of the "vase", It will never rot and has full air circulation. For my particular cultivar there was two or more inches of root growth, and 2 cuttings started to leaf out. The paper stopper and shaking is the key to keeping the cutting alive and maintaining high humidity inside the "vase". If the cutting leafs out  it can be placed in a window.to get light(shade the "vase" to reduce heat buildup). You can use any type of container as long as you can see root development. Any plastic container with a lid would work fine cut a large enough hole in the top of the lid for the cutting to stick out, fill the gap with the paper stopper.

Note: The green cuttings were taken from a small branch. At least one leaf node and or growing tip was above the top of the rooting "vase". and they were potted 3 weeks after being cut from the mother tree.

Standing the shoe box on end is a conclusion from my experiments. I had ordered cuttings on Ebay and set-up tests to find the best method for rooting them, with the best success rate under my conditions. The shoe box and moss worked best but due to the angle of the roots in the horizontal position , a large number of longer roots were damaged during potting. The least amount of damage was done with the roots growing in the same direction as the cutting. The shoe box is easily stood on its end, leaning against anything.