I use dip n grow, only thing i found that works wonders for me, pulling about 95% root rate. keeping fungus gnats away is another issue though.

i also do i light scoring on the cuttings before treating with dip in grow. exploading root systems. but to each thier own youo gotta find what works for you.

Dave

Maybe the key is the IBA concentration, with better results with low ppm IBA.
Do you know what ppm IBA you use? Dip n Grow has different products.
By the way, 1,000 to 4,000 ppm IBA are very usual concentrations.

1.0 % Iba
.05% 1-naphaleneacetic acid
98.05% other


I mix this to water. 7-1 for harder wood and let em soak a min, i know t says only 5 sec ut when your doing alot you know. 10-1 for softer cuttings.

treat dormant cuttings. i soak in slightly warm water with some antibactiral dish soap for 10 min. line up tops and bottems. and look at quality. ie number of nodes, cracks ect.

freashly cut at a 45 degree angle with sharp bypass pruners leaving the bottem node untouched. i then lightly scor the bark from one side using the edge of the pruner between the bottem two nodes. i will lightly scral the surface of the nodes that will be under the soil line. pop cutting in mix to soak while doing te next one. once mix cup is full i pot mine rith into 4x4 inch pots with a light mix 50% perlight and 50% miraclegrow seed starting mix. they grow like crazy.

Good luck
Dave

Hi Axier.  I seem to remember another member, ascpete, mentioning in one thread or another that
     a) he did some controlled (or at least semi-controlled) experiments on fig rooting, comparing Dip'n'Grow-treated with a control group (no Dip'n'Grow)
     b) he had great initial apparent success by using Dip'n'Grow, but that
     c) subsequent to that he found that the Dip'n'Grow-treated trees weren't doing as well.
I think I remember point "c" at least... but I can't find the threads about his conclusions any more.  Maybe he'll see this posting and comment.  Pete, if you see this:  I found the thread about points a and b, but am I dreaming that I saw you subsequently post about point c also?  I couldn't find it just now when I went searching, but maybe it was some other thread from your initial one?

Anyway, if I'm remembering this correctly, it would match the point you're describing, Axier.  But on figs rather than the plants you reference in that Cornell paper.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

Thank you Dave.
So, 7+1 for a 1% IBA is a 1,250 ppm IBA solution, 10+1 is a 909 ppm IBA solution.

A bit lower than most of my solutions, but when I used 1,000 ppm I got bad results too.

Mike, thank you, very interesting, I don't remember that post.
So I am not the only one with bad results...
It seems that, according to Pete trials, he saw the same thing, an explosive root initial (in my case) but subsequent to that, the decadence...

Just curious, I use 5,000 to 6,000 ppm IBA for rooting softwood kiwi cuttings with very good results. It is evident that each plant tolerates IBA in a different way.

I used both dip 'n grow (10x dilution) and clonex this year.  Essentially every cutting has rooted for me.  At first I lost almost half when I potted up (apparently due to not getting the amount of water and root gas exchange right) but I have refined the technique and have much better success now.  Around 10% with good roots were very delayed in pushing out leaves.  Some have eventually leafed out but I still have a few that are stuck at this point.  I'll keep watering them for another month or two before I give up.  Of course I didn't do the control experiment so I don't know how things would have turned out had I not used rooting hormone.

Axier, please see my thread Root Riot Graduates started today. I used Clonex  3g/L IBA along with scoring on each side at the bottom 1 inch. I could not
ask for better results in rooting and growth.

Hello Axier,
 Yes to both (delay and absence). I did a few comparisons of Rooting Hormone and concentrations.  My conclusion was that a lower concentration achieved a balance of increased root growth and Quick leaf growth. I have done a few hundred cuttings (of 5 different varieties) as a test, and I still have the same conclusion (results).

Conclusions is here...

Experiment #1 and Experiment #2 are here.

I used Dip N Grow Hormone, and did'nt know the actual PPM concentration, but 15X (<edit> 15X=750Iba/375naa PPM) dilution was the best over all concentration. Note, without hormone I still have a 100% rooting rate with long fibered sphagnum moss, it just takes longer.

Mike, ... The conclusion is in both topics somewhere, but may also have been stated on other topics relating to hormone use. In my observation, in a side by side comparison, the rooting hormone at higher concentrations always break bud and leaf out slower than untreated cuttings.

Rewton, I have not tested against a control batch, because of this I am not sure, but I have rooted cuttings for a lot of years and I never saw this absence of sprouting in well rooted cuttings.

Newnandawg, Clonex has other ingredients apart from IBA, maybe these have a beneficial effect.
I will follow your post.

Thank you Pete, very interesting and professional your trials, I will read them with calm.
Your conclusion goes in the same direction as mine, the higher ppm IBA the lower sprouting, so IBA inhibits sprouting in figs, it depends on concentration.

Taking into account that it is a dangerous risk and the easiness for rooting of figs, in my humble opinion, it is not worth the beneficial of IBA.
I have no doubt, I won't use rooting hormones for figs in the future.

See this interesting comment of the document from Hartmann and Kester's Plant Propagation book:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/davies/pdf%20stuff/ph%20final%20galley/Chap%209%20-%20M09_DAVI4493_08_SE_C09.pdf

By the way, a book of high academic level, a propagation bible!!

In the page 42 of 65 (319 of the total document):

Thanks for posting the links to the PDF documents (Book). I am definitely interested in the information.

I haven't had that problem with the rooting hormone.  Some of mine put out leaves before roots.  I fertilize mine when the roots appear, though.  If you have any left with roots and no leaves you might try some houseplant strength fertilizer on them to see what happens.

interesting. i thought about using hormones number of times, but never did. when i first started rooting, i heard how hard it is to root certain figs and thought hormones were the way to go. but it seems i don't have any issue rooting any of the cuttings. no need for the hormones. they will root in their own time. few weeks difference in time for the rooting wasn't that important to me.

I believe this picture speaks for itself... Hormone treated (undiluted Dip n Grow) on left Untreated on right. Only 50% (3 out of 6) of the hormone treated survived to the 1 gallon stage. All six (6) untreated survived to the 1 gallon stage.



<edit> I am now setting up to start rooting my purchased cuttings using a 15X dilution of Dip N Grow, maintaining a high ambient temperature (above 70 deg F) and high ambient humidity.

From observations of all the tests that I performed, These factors will produce faster growth in a shorter period of time. Plants started with low concentration of hormone and maintained at a constant warm temperature (controlled environment) have the same observed growth as plants that were started three (3) months earlier without hormone.

Thank you AscPete for your scientific contribution (mine are only words).
Yes, it is very evident! and frustrating...

good luck with your De la Reina. something i can only dream about :)

question, showing my ignorance here,  do the dip and grow and clonex have the same active ingredient?
Have people noticed the same thing with clonex?

Un diluted Dip and Grow will produce wire brush masses of roots, but will stunt the growth of leaf buds eventually starving the plant. Another mistake is dipping the entire cutting into the hormone solution,  will result in roots and never any leaf buds. Those that look stopped but have active green buds but look stalled can be fed a very low level liquid fertlizer to kick start the growth. One of the universities had a set of papers on this topic, will try to find.

Greg, ... Yes "IBA", but I have never used Clonex.

Jack, ... Undiluted Hormone was only a suggested experiment (by another forum member). It did perform exactly as you stated, and I did try fertilizer (1/2 teaspoon / gallon of All Purpose Miracle Grow). I actually did expect it to fail by using all the energy reserve of the cutting to produce roots.
Most of the rooting tests were conducted with normal concentrations at the  manufacturer's recommended dilutions, initially starting with a 10X dilution, those results were in the linked topics.

Here is a picture of those cuttings for comparison...Untreated on the Left, Hormone treated at 10X dilution are on the right.


The same condition applies comparing Hormone treated and untreated regarding slower budding and leaf out.

Note with larger caliper cuttings a higher concentration (10X dilution) increases root formation without noticeably slowing down bud break and leaf development. On one (1) inch and larger caliper cuttings it speeds up the total rooting process.

Several in Agri tracks at universities have tried the diluted vs un diluted ratio experiments, that all i was saying, and tried to summarize what I have read.

Here's a photo of my typical results.  I score 2 opposite sides and paint Clonex on the green part I exposed.  Often leaves come out before roots.  My workspace varies from 70-78 in temp and is well lit during the day.  Not only are there 2 apical buds active, but if you look at the tip of my ring finger you'll see another bud swelling.  It's right above the scores producing roots.  For a cell phone photo at night it's not all that bad.   :)      This is my scramble time - getting everything potted up and getting all of my back up cuttings into media next.