I lost most of my cuttings upon transplanting from cups to pots. This time, I planted Crimson clover seeds with the cutting in the cup. the clover grows slow but the cutting was happy, upon transplanting I move everything to the larger pot. Clover did not like. I wonder if the creatures got the clover instead of the cutting.  In addition I put other live sticks from pruning trees and bushes around here in a fencing shape around the new tree.

Today I checked that some of the stick decoys were totally eaten by something (gnat larvae?), the clover is not doing too well either, whereas I got my little fig tree growing well. Some special unknowns from the East Coast, a White Marseiles, a Niagara, Marylane seedless, all doing great.

Did I do something right?  I don't know, but I have to try again. I planted more clover seeds on the new trees and removed the eaten twigs and put new ones in.  Move them to bigger pots and more clover seeds in with them.  The clover sucks up the 'excess water', leaving the fig in a more 'moderate to dry soil'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companion_planting  << that is where I got my idea.  it works very well with my tomatoes also. 

Grasa,
  The use of clover to suck up excess water is a very interesting notion.  Last spring I lost lots of cuttings due to the excessive amount of rain we had on the East coast.  The soil the newly-growing cuttings were in was just wet all the time -- it wouldn't dry out before the next rainstorm hit.  I wonder if the clover would have helped use up that moisture.  (I suppose it would also suck up nutrients, though...)
Jim

clover suppose to be a cover crop, meaning, it digs up the nutrients from the far bottom, as well as nitrogen from the air, and releases in the soil. it gives back where the trees need the most. so far, I only found benefits from having it.   Also, did you know organic farmers in California use it in the mist of grape rows?

scroll down a bit when the page opens...
http://www.northwest-wine.com/maysara-winery.html

Great idea. 

Hi Grasa,
Nice idea. Clover is known to enrich the dirt.

I had a similar issue with a good performing cutting with big roots coming out at the bottom and now the cutting lost the new growth. I'm still waiting to see if it will recover or not.
The problem on my one seemed to be that the water would sit in the middle of the pot - where the cutting was of course - and the sides of the pot would dry normally.
So thinking about that the other day, I simply told myself ... easy, next time transplant the cutting to a side of the new pot and no longer in the middle .
I'll have to give it a try one day.
For now, I'm not touching them anymore. Cutting's Outside Freedom day is almost here - 15th of May - I hope they will make it until then, and I'll throw them all in the garden for swim and not sink :)
I have two others cuttings that started having leaves wilting just yesterday... I told them: Hang on little ones - your almost there! - I hope they are hearing me :)
Yesterday the weather was cloudy and 15°C outside so I put them to the outside to help slow down the gnats and aerate the potting mix with outside wind and fresh air.