I have recently had a good first run with fresh cuttings and decided to start from scratch with some high dollar fresh UNROOTED cuttings deposited directly into a Deep Water Culture / DWC / bubbleponic setup. I have 6 buckets each with their own airstone. Temps in my basement stabilize between 65-68 degrees F. I am using dyna-gro 7-9-5 nutrients and they are stable at about 1.3EC and 500-600 ppm on a 500 scale. I am looking for anyone with history of growing in a DWC with figs. My goal is rapid growth. I have ponte tresa, and black Madeira in these pots and don't want to make mistakes where others may have had similar set ups. Anyone is invited to chime in with relevant results and info. Thanks in advance.
Major questions..
At what nutrient ppm or EC do figs start to burn?
What is their preferred range of nutrients and temps for growth?
Thanks!!!!!

You obviously know what you are doing. However, It never ceases to amaze me how difficult people seem to make the rooting process. I start cuttings in moist coco coir and pot up once I see root initials. That's it. It's not rocket science. No ppm needed. I'm 95% this year so far with 300 +\- cuttings rooted and another 150 or so still rooting. Good luck with yours!

Rick Hi. 

Its all karma man. If you want your PT and BM to make they will.

I think that putting fresh cuttings in water is one thing and putting deep dormant cuttings in water or high humidity conditions will prone them to rot.

If it was me dealing with expensive cuttings I too would suggest Al's method.

Adelmanto
I live in Maine and our fig capabilities are slim to say the least. I am trying to expiramenting with basement gardening. I'm not interested in dormant winters. I'm looking to develop technique for maximum yearly growth. Thus the need for expiramentation.
Thanks for the reply. Hopefully I get some replies From DWC experience, rather than "why not DWC"

Understood. I started this January with cuttings and now have 12" of growth (inside under lights) The key is the lighting. I'm not sure how the figs would react if you put them outside for the summer and then try to bring them into the basement before the leaves drop. I'll give that a shot this fall myself.

I'm sure it will work. I've seen a papaya tree grown in DWC. I've tried it for my tomatoes and the results were 3x the amount of tomatoes compared to the soiled plants.

http://seattlegardenfruit.blogspot.com/2015/08/tomatoes-hydroponic-vs-traditional.html

Charlie Little also has a sand experiment completely soil-less without the bubbler and has some amazing results. His cuttings reached the ceiling within a few months.

I don't think anyone's doing it with figs on this forum, sorry.  You can teach us.  I'd be really interested in what you find.  And the fact is that coco coir works really well for some and not at all for others.  There are a lot of environmental factors that we rarely measure so everyone's growing conditions are different.  

If there's any info out there for other fruit trees I'd look at that but also know that figs seem to like limestone a lot so I'd start with a higher pH than citrus (maybe 7.8?) or tomatoes but at least the same amount of calcium as tomatoes.  At least they're not contradictory goals   :)   Fruiting requires K+ even more than PO4.  Too much N will inhibit fruiting but for a baby plant you want to grow quickly you can start with higher N.  Many fig plants take a few years to produce good quality fruit so don't rush to judgement. I personally wouldn't push a fig to produce fruit in its first year.

So no data but perhaps a little help in perspective and starting points.  :)  Best of luck with them.

I've grown a lot in a constant-flood gravel bed, which is basically DWC with a support structure.  That support structure (all the gravel) allows for growing big heavy things that utilize the gravel as an anchor to keep themselves upright.  My fastest growing, most productive trees grow in-'ground' in my constant-flood gravel bed.

I don't grow hydroponically, only aquaponically (with fish).  I don't track things like EC and nutrient levels, so I can't offer any precise help in that regard.  I can say from experience that my fishy water won't burn my cuttings, and that a tub full of fertilizer water (initially prepared for a different purpose) burned/fried/dissolved the cuttings I put in it, but I don't have any experience in between those two extremes. 

Here's a pic from a few years ago so folks can see what my gravel growbed looks like.  The water is always around 8" deep in there, and well oxygenated.  The fig tree in this pic is a Black Mission tc that never fruited (I allowed it to grow another year after this pic was taken, and it remained barren, so I replaced it with trees that were immediately productive).  Nowadays this tunnel has several in-ground trees that do very well and are very productive (Hardy Chicago, Alma, and LSU Gold), and this is also where I stick a lot of my young potted figs.  

 

Greenfin, I browsed your website the other day. What you do is amazing! Definitely inspired me to play with my greenhouse this coming winter.

Thanks to all for the replies. If I get lucky and get good results, I will post info.

Richard  , glad to see you are having so much fun with figs !

Kerry, you started it all for me. Thanks so much. Lost a good amount after 7 weeks to Pythium. My own fault as a novice, a learning experience, still... I have nursed 50% back to health and am just starting to have a second growth spurt from them. Hydrogen peroxide, go figure! I will be buying more from you to replace my lost stock. Had a 98% rooting! Only 2 HH didn't make it. Thanks again.

Kerry... Oh just as extra info. I think Florea might be slightly Pythium resistant. Of all my clones,, all 60 of various strains, My single Florea was the only one to show no signs of wilting or damage from Pythium! Very interesting!