Jason,

Could he dab some tree paint on the place where he remove the shoot?  You can get that black tree paint in cans as well as spray cans, or you could spray a bit into a cup and use a disposable paint brush to dab the paint onto the wound.

noss

I have no idea, and I'm being totally honest.  If I don't know what I'm talking about, I'll usually be the first to tell you ;)

For all I know, tearing off lower-level branches last year could've been what caused me to lose a couple of my trees last year.  I just don't know. 

I did have a good bunch of trees that had branches removed which survived, but could it have stunted their growth?  I dunno.

I also had a few that branched underground.  A few of my MBVS trees did that and they turned out fine.
(Some of them were single-node cuttings, I wasn't going to risk it).

I have no evidence that it's bad either way.  I would love to hear input from some of the veterans :)

So some of my roots in the 16oz plastic cups are approaching this level:
The roots are almost all the way up the cup... and getting some side feeder roots.
Should I still leave it in the plastic storage box/greenhouse or up-pot it and gradually move it to sunshine, or ( put a solid color cup/sleave on the outside of the cup and ...
Think i saw a thread here before about this, but can't find it at the moment.

PS theres a little brown on the roots near the slide slits since more air is there, Guess this is fine?

When the roots reach air, it's normal for them to turn brown. 

Cool, thanks for the links...
So i think Im not even close to move them out of the plastic storage box (whose clear sides are covered so no light gets inside to mess up roots)...
Pic is attached from the leaves...
So i guess what i got out of your post is that: basically if the leaves are not opaque yet, then don't move. right? Its been 2 weeks since Ive seen roots approach the sides of the cups (transferred it 3 weeks ago to cup, and 6 weeks total since started in the ziplocks).
I was worried the roots would just run out of space, or the 80% perlite won't be enough to live in.... but seems like my leaves are just babies compared to the roots and the roots will stop moving upwards when they hit air

Question #2...when a root starts turning brown like in the ziplock, is it a goner? i was 3 days straight it the bag with no air other than me blowing in there and it started turning brown/shriveling at the ends. Had enough moisture in there, and 3 days ago when I did take it out, it was only for a minute (and not the 5 minutes i think you said it takes to shrivel the roots). Hoping it doesnt die. Im not moving that guy to the cups yet as it only has 1 longer root.
I had one like that so far, and I just transferred it to cups and it did root (but it did have other roots on it).

persianninja,

Some fig varieties/cuttings will develop more roots than leaves. Like when I was propagating LSU purple from scion last year, I did observe this condition.
For your 2nd question, I don't think the browning of the root means its a goner. Again, many of my cutting's roots turned brown and they were all fine. So don't worry. When you do transfer them to the cup make sure NOT to over-water them.

Navid.

hey nkesh099,
If you can see the roots tip turned black and shriveled up on last pic. So not just browning.

P.S so when to move it into a larger cup (and different potting mix as right now pretty much 80% perlite) and gradually move into sunlight?
For some reason i can only see my attachments on threads half the time unless I add them as images.... Here is the roots a week ago on that cup that has 1 small very light green leafed fig you saw in the last post's photo:

Ok, the root part's that is black, is dead. But if the new pic. is from the same cutting, I would not worry about it. The roots in that cup looks perfect. Wait maybe another month to move that cutting (the one in the cup) in a larger cup or pot, so it can develop more root mass. After transferring it into a bigger cup or... put it in shade for a while, then gradually introduce them to sunlight. Last season I was so eager to move some of my cuttings into semi-direct sun that I lost those cuttings. They had good root system and nice leaves, but could not survive the dramatic shock. With cuttings you just have to be patient.

Navid.

Oh that pic with roots was from a cutting that developed roots 3 weeks ago. the one with 1 slightly black tip root is a new one that is just rooting now. Has another root about to come the other side. I was just curious why part of the root would have died as I thought I kept it slightly moist in the bag. Maybe the rest of the root is fine and I should wait till the one root grows in a few days and transfer it to a cup then (think one of my rooting cup cuttings had what I thought were dying roots but it sprang back to life so maybe this one will be fine).

Navid, thats a common persian/iranian name, are you Iranian :) ?

That part of the root may have turned black because of mold. Try to not to keep it too moist in the bag. And, yes, I am from Iran.

Hi all
Is there any technique to force the lines-text to wrap around despite the wide picture in the thread? It is hard to read such mile long lines. It happens when wide open pictures are posted.
One way could be to add pictures as tiles or icons to be opened when needed unless I am missing some point not knowing the system running the website.

I dont see a way to set width/height when using regular image button, and my attachments don't show up at the bottom of posts curiously most of the time for me (even when I am logged in), but they reveal themselves when I click advanced... so I just press the image button and link to the posted attachments links as that always works... but they are big pics as that makes the lines go longer :(. Theres gotta be a way to set width/height, most forums allow it. Maybe he can upgrade the forum one day. Sorry about all the pics :(. I think they'll probably help newbies though. So Im keeping all my questions and pics in this one thread through the whole process as a good reference.

persianninja
Of course your pictures are informative.
The issue is an old one and some pictures in many older threads have highlighted this problem. This thread was fresh so I brought it here up in case someone finds a solution.

Cool, i am a web developer so if forum ever needs help upgrading I'll be happy to help out :), n i'll try to resize pics beforehand...

Guess I had another question. When do you all start feeding plant food/nutrient mixes to your figs and what type?
I saw Miracle Gro All Purpose Plant food, and various other nutrient liquids/spikes at Lowes today, and got me thinking what to use down the road. They all had various numbers think that stood for phosphate-nitrate-something else...

Ive seen peeps use generally in gardening use time release fertilizers, compost teas, fish guts, manures to provide nutrients etc, but I was thinking more short term, like in a month when I up-pot it and gradually move it to the window, does it need any nutrient at that stage and what kind?
and many months from now when it goes outside and possibly planted in ground, what to use then?

Thanks everyone :)

persianninja
 I start giving my new trees half strength miracle grow just after I pot them up into 1 gal. pots. They go from cups to pots then to filtered light for about two weeks then full sun and once a week a drink of miracle grow fertilizer.

Persianninja
So much has been written about fertilizing on this forum and GW forum that can be easily searched out for reading by doing search with "fertilize'.
The main point is to avoid fertilizing at rooting stage, then when enough roots have been established you may start with very dilute solution for the potted figs and gradually increase. Once the plants are outside in summer time, you may add the other stuff you may mentioned.

The following link may help in avoiding confusion about the N-P-K ratio (such as 20-20-20, 12-12-12 etc etc) indicating which ratio makes the best utilization of the contents/constituents of the mix (not meaning that the other ratios can't be used but meaning that part of the three constituents are under-utilized and wasted if they are not in the ratio 3-1-2):
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0522082023639.html

Okee Dokee, I see that in that link it says 3-1-2 is ratio the plant uses otherwise other stuff is wasted. Makes sense :)
Saw one guys used for figs Bio-Turf 8/9-3-5 but only found it on one website, Dynamite Select All Purpose (15-5-9) on Amazon seems like a good option, and one article i just read said 'TreeHelp Complete Fertilizer for Fig' had 3-1-2.
Sweet, Thanks again,
Think I got alot of the knowledge i need for majority of the critical steps in figs lifecycle.

Hey NorthEast Newbie, I got 1 of your Stella's rooting and the rest are all going to root soon :). The ones from Herman that were super quick (like within 2 weeks-1month) to root are the Paradiso Whites/White Atreanos, and probably a couple LSU Golds/Marseilles Vs Black (1.5-2 months to root) should be fine to plant in next few days in addition to 1 or 2 I got so far from them... None of the Sal Corleones are good enough to get roots yet, but they are are all coming along and look like they might sprout some of that sweet white stuff soon :). I'll stop by Bass's and get a few more plants in the Spring. Got a unknown Iranian fig transported and planted here (Philadelphia) 10+ years ago I'll share next year with more peeps. I've become a fig maniac haha.
Thanks everyone!,
Arian

hmmm didnt think I'd have any more follow up questions but ran into one today...
Im not overwatering my plants I think... but some of my leaves aren't looking great.
Some young leaves are looking like they are getting eaten up and they have a slight color on them
Some pics attached if u can see the really small young ones and even some bigger ones looking discolored ... Any idea what it could be? Roots look good on these plants.

One thing, it appears that there is not enough light and the colour of the leaves makes it look tender and light like the leaves on plant that wake up from dormancy in the dark. Increase the light.
The mis-shape could be due to FMV (or other reason). Growth will take care of it. I do not see much colour problem to be worried about at this stage. The plants look healthy otherwise.

Hmmm they have been in the box/cups for a 5 weeks (since roots formed in newspaper Jan 4th, so 4 weeks since roots started showing on sides if cups). Have good roots now. The box has a towel over it so hardly any light comes through. Hmmmm maybe time to start moving into indirect sun? Ill try one

You need humidity as well so a better arrangement will be using Fluorescent lights over the storage box. I use plastic storage box from WallMart measuring 25"L 19"W 17"H. I have placed Fluorescent lights hanging over it. 

I agree with Akram.  These look like they were rooted in a dark room.  The stems and leaves are very white, indirect light would help green them up.  I can't tell you about the shrivelly or dry look.  Is it too little humidity or too much humidity?  Can't tell.  I would think too little. 

Thanks satellite and Ottawan, you guys were right. They definitely needed sunlight,
I moved the storage box near a window gradually this week. and what a surprise. The leaves that didn't get brown are getting bigger and darker green as you can see in the pics.  The box is on top of a desk and there is a air conditioning/heater vent 4 feet underneitth, so I spray the sides of the box and get some nice humidity in there throughout the day.

I got a 150 alpine strawberries growing under florescent in my basement... Hopefully natural sunlight will do for the figs or I'll have to buy more florescent for all these plants around the house :).