Hello Everyone!

Since cuttings are becoming more and more available at this time I hoped to find out your experiences as far as which varieties tend to be more difficult to root? Being a newbie this info would REALLY help me to decide which varieties I would have better odds at successfully rooting and which I may perhaps be better off buying already rooted.

In my limited experience so far I have known Celeste to be extremely easy to root as well as Vbd. On the other hand MBVS simply rotted away on me very quickly each time until I tried the airlayering method (worked like a charm).

One more question about cuttings. I remember reading on one of the forums that upon receiving your scion wood you can get a good idea of its viability by seeing whether or not it floats or sinks in a bowl of water.. Unfortunately I don't remember which was the positive indicator (floaters or sinkers

For some reason my post keeps being cut short up there.. Anyways I look forward to reading any & all of your responses on this :) Thanks a bunch!

I found Black Maderia to take a long time to root, at least during winter for me.  

The longer a cutting takes to root the more chances are of something going wrong, mold, fungus nats, etc.

Easiest to root was Calderwood, I would resoundingly recommend this variety to a new fig grower.

The best thing you can do IMHO to increase success is to have bottom heat.  

Also stay away from old dried up cuttings.  Yes stored cuttings can root, but I don't suggest starting with these.

Floaters are no good ! I use rooting in water method and bew baggy method of rooting. Both are great. Water us easily accomplished but you have to change water every two days. If you let is go further then two days you are risking failure richie from louisiana

Preto you are better off buying from thus forum as,a airlayer

Black Madeira.  It is my nemesis. 

Agree that some varieties root more readily than others. 

IMO the biggest success factor is the health of the cuttings and your own rooting methods.  It takes experience to get a system that works for you. 
Some people claim 90%+ success rate.   

I root right in the pot. not much luck with the baggie method. I like to use a root agent such as clonex or dip n grow. also as don stated the longer a cutting take the more can go wrong. my biggest obstical in my winter propagation is fungus gnats. oh I hate them. there is a product I found on ebay that is really cheep and works well called gnatrol its an organic bti.

as for learning to root cuttings many will tell you to try this way or that but you will have to find what works for you. I have tried many ways and came up with one that worked for me. score cuttings or something is the title of the thread ill see if I cant find it and bump it up.

You can pretty well count on all the expensive ones are finicky to root and if you get them to root, getting them to stay alive may be even more tricky.  Since losing all my rare ones last winter indoors, I have done quite a lot of study on the subject.  Common denominator in most cases is too much moisture early on which also lends to not enough oxygen in the root zone.  Need a really well aerated media, very low moisture content while rooting and very careful with moisture until the roots harden off.

So far, coarse sand is working in my rooting attempts.  Can't say far as them staying alive for how long yet.
 

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts on this. It seems universal about the BM being one hard sucker to root from what I gather.. And I'm not surprised to hear that most of the rarer & more expensive varieties seem to be the main culprits. I guess they would be less rare & hence cheaper otherwise.. Makes sense.. But still makes me want to get better at it so I can pull it off one of these days! Lol! Well.. Practice & gaining know-how seems to be the key.. Charlie you seem to be getting plenty of it! Lol! I absolutely lovee to read of your experiments with different media types, please keep em coming! I definitely appreciate everyone's thoughts here & the experience you are sharing :)

Acciano, Black Madeira,Preto,Stella.

Last year the gnats were horrible.  With sand I have yet to see even one in nearly two months.  Gnatrol won't affect the flying gnats, only their larvae in the media.  I set off a bug bomb last year to get rid of the flying ones and also used the yellow sticky traps and fly ribbons.  Even after all that I still had gnats until the day I moved the plants out in Spring, about 75 out of over 300 that sprouted.  Some more plants died after that.    

By far is the most difficult varinat to root is LSU Red. Rooting Rigatta Rosa was also difficult. Never had any problems rooting Blk Madeira.

Navid.