Here are pictures of some of my fig babies. The one's next to the cement (potting soil) mixer were rooted LATE into the season as a rooting experiment. Some of those under the shade of my pecan tree will soon be going in the ground.

IMO, the best time to begin rooting dormant figs in South Louisiana is in mid to late December.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Dan, glad to see you're experimenting.  I just started a batch also, using cuttings that have been in the refrigerator for 6-7 months.  I chose to use the small baggie method and 90/10 mix of potting mix and perlite (heavy on potting mix) with little to no water, and with the bin mostly open the entire time while indoors.  What I'm finding is extremely fast bud break (broken buds and fruiting within 72 hours of removal from fridge) and little to no rooting as of yet.  Maybe it is just the actual cutting, but I find that a much larger percentage of sticks are forming fruit immediately.  Previously, I had only seen this behavior with Black Mission.

.........interesting observation.

Maybe the cutting's actual "chll hours" affects when/if those little figs (not talking buds or leaves) will emerge............


Dan
Semper Fi-cus

........here's a picture of two experiments I have going on right now using summer cuttings. Other methods I am developing will be confidential for now. The one on the left is a FMV free Beall tree that is going to Herman2. I have another FMV free Beall tree that was rooted by the "peat pot method" that will go to H2, if this one does not make it. Part of my experiment is to see how it does going through the mail.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Dan, just touching base on this.  I started this batch Sunday before last (~15 days ago).  The cuttings were in the fridge for nearly 7 months.  I have root strike on about 40% in this short period of time.  I have seen only one additional fruit bud.

.......interesting. Both methods that you used were the same?

Hey Jason. I still have some good cuttings in the fridge myself. Been trying to decide whether I should try to store them until next season or go ahead & start them ASAP.

You planning to just maintain yours in the house through the winter or something else?  

@Dan, both batches?  I'm discussing the same batch in both posts.  Sorry, I may not have been clear.  I've never done a medium so heavy with run-of-the-mill potting mix (only 10% Perlite).  Unfortunately, I used three new variables - rooting near the end of summer, using cuttings in the fridge for 6-7 months, and a low-perlite medium.  I thought it was interesting that I had so many fruits forming, easily four or five times what I normally see.  I'm also seeing more root break than usual.  I'm amazed, given the miniscule amount of water within the medium.

@Bill - I got by for 7 months in the fridge with little issue.  I think what you see above is 8 varieties.  Many are in great shape.  I had to trash about 10% of the cuttings (rotten).  I would do this again.  I am still uncertain what I intend to do with them.  Plan to play it by ear.

Jason,
Thanks for the addtional info. I think I'm going to start some and save some for later on. Hoping that if I seal them real well at least some of the material will still be viable (for months to come hopefully).

I was cautioned about storing cuttings too long-term for at least one good reason. I was told that carbohydrates stored in the cutting will decrease over time. Because of this the cutting could quickly deplete it's energy stores when you go to root it.

I'm hoping I can get around this concern in one way by grafting some of the more valuable pieces instead of rooting them. The needed energy would be in the rootstock this way. I was pretty successful with a few grafts this spring so my confidence is fairly high for trying this.

Sorry Dan for taking your thread in a slightly different direction.  

...........got it now.
--------------------------------------------

Guys,

I have literally hundreds of ideas that I will never have enough time to pursue. So let me run one or two of them by you as it pertains to the shelf life of cuttings:

What about taking some of those 6 month old cuttings from the refrigerator, re-hydrate them by soaking in some fresh "aerated" water for a few hours......to see if this rehydration will improve the shelf live and/or the strike rate of these cuttings.Maybe cuttings will last for a couple of years "if" they are periodically re hydrated. Is there any advantage to a pre-hydration soaking in water BEFORE they are placed into a rooting environment?? Would adding a bit of 3% peroxide (an oxygen source and an oxidizing agent that kills mold/yeast/bacteria) to the water help in any way??

IMO an ultrasonic bath soaking WILL work better at re hydration. Check above first to see if a bath is worthwhile pursuing.

Another way to try re hydration......put some cuttings in your garden sprayer's "tank" that is partly filed with "aerated" water. Pump the garden sprayer up....the pressure inside of that tank WILL effectively FORCE liquids inside of the cuttings within a short period of time.

Here is another idea for trial......Why not put some cuttings in your garden sprayer tank that is filled with some aerated water to which you will add some CLONEX RED rooting compound (it is very soluble in water) and a tiny bit of Dawn AB. Maybe this will improve the strike rate of cuttings that have been in cold storage for awhile. Maybe it will improve the strike rate of ANY cutting.

I could go on and on with ideas to try........Just don't let anyone see you putting fig twigs in your garden sprayer tank!!! They might think that you are a fignut.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I like those thoughts Dan. Especially concerning using your garden sprayer as a pressurized hydration chamber. I like the idea of finding valuable alternate uses for every day items :-) .

Along these same lines, I feel I have found a pretty good idea that may work very well. It's not all my own idea but had some help coming to these conclusions. Preventing the cutting from losing any moisture in the first place may be a good place to start. Don't get me wrong, the hydration ideas may be great when needed.

Here's what I started doing; First, wrap the cuttings tightly in a good quality celophone. Then roll them up in a good quality freezer bag and seal it. Roll them up in order to force out as much air as possible. Then just store them in the fridge.

I'll need a couple of years to see just how well this works for that kind of long term. But I feel like I might be going down a viable path here - maybe?

That sounds like a great idea.

I always wanted to try storing fig cuttings in Food Saver VACUUM bags and/or vacuum bottles. Never got a chance for those experiments either. Although I have used vacuum techniques to force liquids into cuttings.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Yes Dan. I think the vacuum seal would work perfectly. If there's no air, I don't see how any moisture could be lost.

Wal-Mart used to carry these great vacuum seal bags that came with a cheap little manual pump. I still have the little pump somewhere but they no longer carry the bags. I guess sales of the more expensive vacuum seal systems went down so they had to stop carrying the super ecno method.

Wal-Mart and I have a love/hate relationship. I hate the big box stores but I'd hate to live without the convenience. What can ya do? 

Well there might be a problem with vacuum too. If you pull "too high" a vacuum ,then you can actually boil water/liquid right out of the cutting at room temperature. So the trick MIGHT be to include a little bit of water inside of the vacuum bottle or bag to verify that it does not boil. IMO, it is worth a try. Just have not had a chance to experiment with that technique. Mold should not grow in that vacuum either.

Dan 

I received a cutting of NdC from a fig veteran that is incredibly generous which is in this batch being rooted.  It is to the farthest left in the picture above, it looks like a lime green blob is on it, but it's actually a wax cap, it's capped with wax on both ends to prevent moisture seepage.

Unfortunately, the sphagnum it was bagged with was a little dry at one point, and it must have been that way for about two weeks in the fridge, yet it still didn't dessicate.  Seems this is another old-school (but viable) option for prevention of water loss.

I was hoping to do a lot of rooting experiments this summer using dormant cuttings that I took last fall. However, my spare refrigerator went out and unnoticed by me for a week. I ended up losing all of those dormant cuttings. So I ended up doing more work on rooting summer cuttings.

This coming spring I want to do some studies on long term storage of dormant cutting. I especially want to try that periodic re-hydration idea I mentioned earlier. I also plan on doing a lot more work next year with summer cuttings. I want to at least determine what is the best way to ship those "summer" cuttings. It is SILLY for us forum members to sit and wait for dormant cutting season when those summer cuttings will actually root faster and more reliably. Dormant cuttings have their place and is the traditional route for rooting.......however; IMO we need to change our mindset to include summer cutting rooting as well.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I agree.  My dilemma this year is that I've been tinkering with growing situations which lend to tons of new, green growth, and I have had bad luck with soft green propagation. 

I will post pictures later of some results with pot culture in another thread.

When you say soft green......are you referring to wood that has not yet lignified?

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

One thing I have noticed with really soft tips is they seem to root faster if you leave the leaves intact under mist.
The reason it is important to root them fast is because under mist  really soft wood rots really easy if left too long

I can see where that would work fine.....as I have seen a guy try to root just the leaves themselves under his mist system and they did not shrivel at all. In fact, some of the fig leaves developed roots on them.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Hey Dan. What was the result of rooting fig leaves? Or is it still in progress? Interesting thought to even try that.