A little droop but holding fairly well

except that these aren't counterfeit :)

But these are quite small, aren't they? I'm talking cuttings up to around 1m tall, with most of it in pm, & maybe 6-10" showing atop. 

Don't the big ones have a lot more roots?

Yeah, and come to think of it, I think I might have missed a trick here. I start off with a big 'un, but because most of it is below ground, I actually end up with a dinkie, which kinda defeats the porpoise. So, just to regroup my thoughts here:

1. Being 'greedy', I don't wanna throw these long leggy whips away.
2. They're too small/leggy for layering
3. Don't wanna cut them up to make lots of smaller cuttings which may or may not take, so
4. Decided that the best idea is to leave 'em long, but bury most of the length in pm to improve success rate.

Yeah, that's it. Knew there was a rationale behind there somewhere. So I guess the point is this: how much of these leggy whips can I leave above ground before I start risking viability, and if more than a small fraction of gross length, how many leaves (going back to original ?'n). These ?'ns have largely been answered above, so mainly rhetorical/recap.

I'll post a pic (or 2) soon to shown what I've done, but revolutionary it ain't.

UPDATE: So it's been around 6 weeks since I started these cuttings, and they all seem to have taken. Can I now take 'em out of the shade & remove plastic covers, etc? 

Hi loquat1,
Can you post a pic of your cuttings ? I lost track of what they are .
Air-layers or green cuttings ?

Hello jdsf,

No, not air layers - these are cuttings, but much larger cuttings than I would normally attempt. I was basically experimenting to see what size I could get away with, in a similar vein to my over-sized air layers. These whips were either too small or too leggy to layer for my taste, & I didn't wanna throw them away, so thought it was worth trying to start new trees from them via cuttings. 

Pics? Sure. I did promise to post some earlier, but never got round to it. Will post later today or else early tomorrow. Thanks for your interest.

Rcantor,  :0)  Good one!  Yes, over the hill.

Sorry jdsf. Went to take some pics yesterday, only to discover I had a blat fattery. Now fully charged, but currently chucking it down, so may hafta wait till 'morrow now.

Might be a complete waste of time, but starting off another batch of even bigger cuttings today. These will probably fail coz it's a bit late in the growing season now. Thought it was worth a try anyway, since the alternative is to throw them away. I have no other use for them. 

Sorry for the delay jdsf. Here are those pics:

These are the newest cuttings, so too early to tell if they will take. They are around 4o-42" high. Since I don't have a pot that's tall enough to sink most of the length in the pm, I had to improvise by stacking no less than four 5ltr containers together. 

 

These are around 7 weeks old, used a rooting compound, and have taken. Again, no pot tall enough, so improvised here with a bin, further extended (where necessary) by plastic bottle 'necks'.
 

A closer view of the above. I think there are 6 cuttings there. Should be fun untangling all those roots!
 

This is also 7 weeks old, no rooting compound, and the tallest is 44", also taken. So I have my answer - large cuttings (up to 44" at least) are possible. But begs the question: how much bigger can they get? Hmm, makes you kinda wonder, dunnit?

 


And here's a close-up of some of those roots from the above cuttings, just in case you doubted if they had taken:

 

I'm telling ya, nobody is more surprised than me. I fully expected them all to keel over & die. Not only did that not happen, but one of the cuttings even produced a figlet for me!! Amazing, or what?

 

All together now.

 

Hope you enjoyed the show.

Hi loquat1,
Nice setup !
When the cuttings are a bit long I set them in diagonal in the pot.
My mid-July cuttings have rooted as well, but most of them lost their old leaves . I have 3 that regrew new leaves already.
Just one question : That long cutting rooted on a long part of it, what is your plan for its installation ? Will you be digging a deep hole to bury it completely or treat it as an airlayered cutting that rooted and cut it by the middle ?
Good continuation to your experiment !

Good question jdsf. You anticipate well - I had considered the same 'problem', and came up with the following solution.

I could dig very deep holes - except that all these cuttings are destined for other homes - friends, family, a couple of UK forum members, even strangers. I don't have room for more of the same, so they are all going to be given away. I'm just sorry I can't ship any to my US buddies, etc., for obvious reasons. 

But obviously I can't give them away in this state, so the plan is:

1. Separate them very carefully, firstly by removing those 'neck' extenders, then the bucket.
2. As you say, they will then be too tall to go in any pot that I have, so depending on length they will be cut in 2 or more pieces.
3. The 44", for example, will give me 4 rooted cuttings, but only 1 with any top growth. The other 3 will be, in effect, root balls that will be completely buried in PM. 
4. So the only remaining question is how those other 3 will fare? My guess is that they will push through in bush style..............or die. 
5. When I know the answer, I'll update.
6. But yeah, I take your point. In the end, I've still ended up with small cuttings. On the plus side tho, I've still got a guaranteed rooted cutting, and potentially more of them if the others push through as well.

Thanks for your interest.

PS What's the legal deal for sending cuttings to France? I'm guessing it's about the same everywhere.

Yeah, pretty much as I expected. Thx KK. Looks like all these cuttings are gonna hafta stay in the UK.

Hi loquat1,
You can ship "Ficus" to France without problems - free market exchange named CEE.
We French do have to put our dogs in quarantine when going to your place - because you're supposed to be free of dog's rage.
Did you have an idea :)  ?

Well, I was gonna send you some cuttings, but then I noticed your temp. range. How is it that you can get down to -25C in France when it seldom drops below -5C here in London? Oh yeah, I remember. Gulf Stream & continental land masses, etc. etc. Anyway, I doubt these varieties would survive those kinda temps. Are yours greenhoused?