I think sometimes we make things a lot more difficult then it needs to be.  This will be the first time I try to start cuttings this early. I know not everybody is sitting in the same climate zone, but when we are trying to start cuttings 5-6 months prior to when they can be moved outside seems like we are fighting Mother Nature.  2 years ago I tried to wait until March to obtain cuttings, but really had no luck as most the cuttings exchanges had already happened. Last year I tried to obtain cuttings earlier and store them through and start in spring, but my results were not that great in that manner either. I know cuttings do store and many do well storing them, but I don’t think a lot of the greener cuttings store that well. I might be trying to rationalize my poor rooting skills however, but I just think the best place to store cuttings is on the tree. I understanding that a outside tree cutting might be dead wood come spring  and that’s  explains much, but I have to think part of it is our impatience  that we have to come up with all the space, lighting, dormancy, etc… issues.  Next year I might go back to my original logic and time starting my cuttings to be ready for potting up on Mother Natures schedule.  I guess when my wife gets feed up with this irrational behavior and throws me out I won’t have to worry about who gets the figs, they will be getting good light laying right there is the street beside me in the gutter.

That was a good post strudledog, got a lot of laughs out of that one.  I think your observation is correct, that we make it too difficult sometimes.  My Dad always told me to remember the old addage: KISS, which he jokingly explained to me meant  "Keep It Simple Stupid".....LOL....    :)

Funny post. Seriously though I don't like storing cuttings either and have experienced better results when I get them started as soon as I receive them

I ask myself the same questions.  Why not just wait until spring?  Easy answer for me...I'm impatient, plus, I love a challenge.  This is my first time caring for plants in the winter and it's a lot of fun so far.  I'm still unsure what the outcome will be 3 months from now, but whatever the outcome, I've learned a lot, and it's enjoyable.

Vince,

I saw your video, hope you didn’t plan on Holiday dinner at your place.

Barry,

My wife would call you an enabler, offering up nice cuttings.  

Frank,

Impatient is a big part, but right now after being humbled a couple years forget the challenge I just want to succeed.

I'm with BLB and FiggyFrank!  BUT, because of my early starting, my guest bathroom has way too many guests!  They are all so green and pretty, though.  It has now become necessary to take many of them out of their cups, and pot them up into 1-3 gal containers.  The little cups are cute, but big containers take up so much room!  YIKES!

As fast as I take the root-bound out and put them in the gallon containers, more cuttings root to take their places.

Spring is a ways off!

Suzi

draw back to the fig fever i guess. i have always started my cuttings and growing in winter. around this time. so i have some lights and spots for the little guys planed ahead of time. if i were doing it just for me i would probly wait until spring, but i do sell alot of plants so i have to be busy busy busy over winter gettingthings ready for that first day and everyday after until frost.

Personally, I do it because I have to trim the tree in the fall anyway to get it covered! So rather than throw the wood out I amuse / frustrate myself over the long winter months trying to get it rooted .

strudeldog,

I agree with you about " making things more difficult than needs be". That's why I have been testing to find the easiest method for starting and growing cuttings. Once the cuttings have hardened roots, they need minimal care and can be grown in a window without much fuss. I have cuttings that have survived seven (7) months in 3 inch pots, I would not recommend it, but it is possible. After rooting then potting and 1 week in the "humidity dome" my fig cuttings/plants are grown as house plants, my only other house plants are one each Meyers lemon, Jade and Aloe. By spring I should hopefully have at least a hundred plants ready to produce.

The advantage to getting started in winter is to have an early start in spring and possibly a harvest within the first year.

Edit: I guess the "early start" only applies to those of us who actually have all four seasons.

Only reason why I'm rooting now is 'cause I have the cuttings I wanted. I don't want to store cuttings either. For my area, late March would be the best time to start. I'm not taking any chances with the cuttings I have. Waited too long for these :)

Pete, me too!  Today JD and I potted up ten, root-bound and fully leafed cuttings from their double cups and into gallon grow bags.  I'm like you, in that I waited a long time for these cuttings I wanted, and in some cases ALL the cuttings sent to me have rooted and are growing.  I need to make a big list those to whom I've promised cuttings and bonuses, and ask them first which of my extras they wish to have. 

Some of the fun bonus cuttings I've received were never on my wish list, and luckily they were not something I already had, but I think I'll ask prior to sending bonus rooted plants just to make sure.  Some folks really want something, and I'd be sad if I sent my extras to someone who already had it.  It's a big job, this trading thing... keeping track of wish lists and hoping to fulfill......... Tis the season to do it though! :-))

Suzi

Strudeldog,
    No problem with that table this year because the big Christmas get together is over my sister-in-laws house this time. So I have a "lease" on that table for another year.   Yaaahoooo.........!! 

As far as me sending cuttings....I must this time of year because all that wood would be dead come spring.  As far as starting cuttings this time of year.....gives me something to worry about, mess with and an excuse to play in the dirt.  It's not the smart thing to do but it's fun.  I hope I can get some roots on these sticks.....so far, no luck.

I think it helps people get through the winter... summer and the growing season can seem so far away and depressing with the shorter days of winter. playing with plants helps a ton.

CTFIGS,

I absolutely agree 100%

I don't take things very seriously.  I already have productive fig trees that give top of the line figs, so that's not quite fair.  However, figs are like those tulips once upon a time, and even when you can't get 'em now, you'll eventually be able to afford them later, when you have far more information about your chances than you do now.  For my purposes, I already know what figs to get, and how to get them, should I have money to buy them and permission to plant them.  So it's a matter of simply waiting, reading, and admiring other's successful efforts!

Oh heck yeah gardening is an all year round thing for me and most true gardeners. I have many indoor plants anyway, so plants in the house, on tables windowsills and under lights is no biggy, just normal everyday stuff around here. Working with fig cuttings makes for a great winter project. I do get a little worried though as the winter progresses and I get more and more into pots with less and less places to put them.

before picking up figs, i didn't care too much for "gardening". still don't think i'm gardening. i always enjoyed japanese maple, roses and plumeria, but they were all taken cared by my wife. i just love the idea of rooting a stick that magically grows into a tree that magically gives me wonderful figs. it's just amazing to me. watching cuttings rooting, growing and putting out figs is just wonderful.

No we don't. We use the freshest cuttings we can get, and work with them when they are fresh. Or we store them till we have time to actually do something with them. Often Spring is a busy time with planting and pruning and other chores. Summer is busy with watering, eating, preserving, etc. Often fall and winter are less busy time (especially if you have snow on the ground), so if you have the facilities, fall and winter rooting makes perfect sense. I had hundreds of cuttings from last January still in the frig, and I finally had time in October and November to get them started. They are in the greenhouse and I pot-up a couple dozen every week. Before long, I will to figure out some more space for the newly potted cuttings, but they will have a good head start when it is time to put them outdoor in the spring.

It is usually a matter of doing what you can, when you can with what you have, and making it all work.

Do you have any idea how many people in Minnesota have Winnebagos, basements, and one-cylinder kerosene engines? They have all winter to tinker, clean, paint, accessorize, etc. their engines, and then tour the country in their Winnebagos showing off their pride and joy engines. Starting fig cuttings is not so much different. I actually had time to prep some pix for the website the other evening - first time in months. A couple more weeks and cutting season begins, and then it is pure chaos.

Some great reasoning here, keeping your hand in the soil probably is good therapy for the winter blues. I might be a little different as winter is really pretty busy in the garden for me. Particularly this year in the middle of a move. Give me 40 F. and a shovel and I’m happy, and this year I better keep digging. Between fruit tree orders coming in and relocating some I have planted within the last couple years I will be planting probably 70 fruiting trees, that’s not even counting figs, berries.  And you mention Japanese Maples I will finally have a good place to plant my potted collection of about 120 maples many in 10/15 gal, and few in 30 gal. Add probably another 200 + other potted plants I have been growing up in my nursery area, and the shovel hours add up. Last week I estimate I dug up and re-planted 6000 narcissus /daffodils.  Surprising how a single bulb planted years ago is now an over-crowded clump of 30 that needed divided badly. The numbers add up quickly. I was only able to get them back in the ground in vegetable garden style in rows of worked ground. In coming years I will get them worked back into the landscape.  But there is only so much light this time of year. I think most of my cutting care will take place in bowels of night