Due to the kindness of a few forum members I've now got 50 or so rooted cuttings in cups in the hoop house. They are all in different stages, visable roots with leaf growth in cups, some with just visable roots, and some with nothing showing in the cup or leaf growth.

When moving from cup to 1 gallon pot, can I assume it's a judgement call on when to make the leap of faith? For those that have killed off your pride and joy at this stage, speak up. I'll be sure to do the opposite.

What are members filling the 1 gallon pots with? I like the FoxFarm potting soils, but enough to fill 50 1 gallon pots becomes cost prohibitive. I'm leaning towards making my own with peat, pine bark, perlite and cow manure.

Mike...What I would do is as follows: cuttings with roots and leaves go to 1gal.

                                                  cuttings with roots and no leaves go to 1gal.

                                                  cuttings with no roots or leaves need more time

As far as filling the pots I use Promix HP(high porosity) and Agway pine bark mulch 50/50 mix...and you are right, it is expensive, but after all the time and effort put into the cuttings, I don't want to foul up this transitional stage...the home made mix that you spoke of may work real well ( maybe the cow manure might be a little hot for the rooted cuttings, but I'm not sure).

Thanks Vince. I was thinking composted cow manure, not fresh. You know the stuff you can buy for a few bucks a bag, just to put some type of nutrients in there. Pine bark and pro doesn't have much of anything in it to feed the plants.

Ok that's great, composted cow manure sounds good...as far as feeding my plants after uppotting into 50/50 mix...one week after uppotting I start a weekly application of diluted Foliage Pro 9-3-6...the dilution ratio is 1 teaspoon(5ml.) Foliage Pro to 1 gal. of water...all my trees(including the new cuttings), seem to respond really well to it, so I mix up a 4gal. batch in a back pack sprayer and do them all once a week(including the self watering pots) which I spray down the filler tubes so it can wick up into the root system...one 4gal. batch does every tree that I own(about 200 at this time), and takes about a half hour.

Hi
regarding soil:
I think a garden mix is always dependant on finances...
If i had money to buy something expensive for 100 cuttings ( rmember they finallly go to 10 gallon in my case ) i would buy somthing like pro mix.
for me i go the cheap way- 20% nursery mix and 80% loam garden soil- i have gew in that and they look fine and the soil doesnt compact.....
i take the loam from a yard near my sons school....

regarding transferring cuttings:
i preffer to transfer as soon as possible since the drainage in cups is not good and promoted root rot.
as soon as i see 2-3 roots i transfer them. more than that and 50% of my cuttings rot.
i also like to wait for leafs but you can transfer the cutting to 1 gallon and keep them shaded in that stage and sprinkle them  each day with water.

Good luck

Eli...after the 1gal. stage I put the Promix aside and I change over to Miracle Grow Potting mix(way cheaper)...after the baby stage, the trees seem to grow in almost any decent potting soil...even with my inground trees, after I dig the hole, I pour in a full bag of MG potting soil and plant the 1gal. tree in that, and from then on they take off. 

Hey Vince, just curious about the Foliage Pro. Are you watering the plant every week or spraying or both? Are all these trees in the sun?  I use Foliage Pro also, spray the young ones every other day but they only get water about every two weeks.

Mike...I spray all the trees with Foliage Pro once a week(on Sat.)...at this time all my trees, including the new 1gal. trees are in full sun, and get watered every second day with a garden hose...pretty soon when it gets hotter, I will switch to everyday watering.

in cup and 1 gal it's 50/50 MG seedling soil and MG perlite. once out of 1 gal, it's 5:1:1.

Well, I spent some time after work getting dirty.

Made up some mix, mostly with half bags of stuff I had hanging around. Some pine bark, pro mix, cow manure, and perlite.


Looks good to me, and similar to the fox farm potting mix I'm a fan of. I've got about 50 cuttings to deal with, all in various stages.


As you can see, some have really taken off, while others are just sitting there not doing much of anything.

Took the first ten that had substantial roots and potted them up. I'll get to the others later in the week.

Now, we wait....and wonder if these will produce figs this year or not. I wouldn't think so but maybe I'll get lucky.

The two VdB trees I have in the hoop house are filling out nicely and looks like they are starting to produce a main crop.

Nice looking plants!
On the mix, I use a mix similar to Vince's for all my trees big and small but with super coarse perlite. With more Promix BX as the tree gets older. If you are using spagnum peat moss in the big bales don't forget the dolomitic lime. I use Promix as a convenience but have use peat, perlite, and pine bark fines before. It isn't too bad if you buy the compressed bales(like peat moss). Be careful with the compost, it might be too rich for young roots and it might clog your fast draining mix.

On transplanting, I don't use cups. I go from rooted in bins to 1 gallon fabric pots. I find the combination of fabric pot and the pine bark fines and pro mix BX to be forgiving as far as moisture.

i had bark and root rot on more than 30% of my cuttings in cup stage.
today i transferred them from cups to wider nursery cups used for herbs with better drainage and they are doing well.

maybe i should put more holes in the clear cup?

Nice job Mike...the trees are looking great...please post some followup pics later in the summer...good luck.