Hello everyone!
I'm living in Germany, but after staying in Portugal for 6 months, I got infected with the fig bug! ;)
For my birthday, my husband (an arborist) gave me some 30 fig cuttings from a tree he had to prune.
I researched a while and the bag rooting method seemed the easiest, so apart from some cuttings I put into pots right away, they are all waiting in their bags.
Now I'm having trouble with mold - the cuttings are close to the stove at around 85 degrees, and if I air them out, the dry stove air dries them rapidly, but leaving them closed they seem to mold so quickly!
How long does it generally take them to start rooting? The leaf buds of some of them are showing some green already, but no signs of roots.
What can I do about the mold?
Should I just all put them into pots to avoid the mold problem? I get the impression the paper towels I wrapped them in make it more likely to mold.

hi, i have an issue with mold also. however, if you let it air out every other day or so and make sure to dry the moisture off the cutting, that might help. also, before putting into the baggie, make sure you clean them with anti-bacterial soap and tooth brush so all the stuff that mold can use as food hold is cleaned away. 85 degrees F is rather on high side of the rooting temp. typically 70-80 works fine.

i use paper towel for the rotting also. i always make sure i squeez out all the water before wrapping the cuttings. otherwise, there will be too much moisture. too much moisture in hot and humid area will invite mold and rot sooner.

You must air it out with some frequency.  The frequency you need to air it out depends on how air tight your container is.  Maybe you could use more paper towels in the bag and poke a couple little holes?

Some people use sphagnum moss for this reason.  It is said that it inhibits mold, which may be true.  To me the primary benefit is that it holds tremendous amounts of moisture and releases this slowly into the air.  So I use a small plastic boss with sphagnum moss.  The box is closed but not completely airtight.  In this way, fresh air is slowly introduced, but the humidity in the bin never goes so low as to dry out the cuttings. 

If you use a completely airtight plastic bag, then you'll have to manually air it out every couple days, at least.  With the method I described above, you can leave it pretty much as long as there is enough moisture in the sphagnum to prevent drying out.

Yes, the moss does cut down quite bit with mold issues, most cuttings throw out roots within 2 - 4 weeks in warm ,but not too hot dark storage, then I migrate to moss in a cup with inverted cup for humidity control and light exposure.  The root mass usually develops fairly fast this way. I do clean and treat the bare stock with anti-fungus/mold prior to rooting, which aids alot in not bringing spores into the rooting process/stage.

It also helps to put air in the bag - blow it up then seal it.  Whatever you're using in the bag to provide moisture should be damp, not dripping wet.  Squeeze it out as much as possible before putting it in the bag.  you want 100% humidity, not wet cuttings.   :)

100% humidity, not wet cuttings - exactly!!!