most of the root hormone package i have read does not suggest using on plants that will bare fruits and vegetables. however, i know lot of people are using them. 

how safe is it to use on food crop? 

Oh I didn't know about this concern.

But I have heard of people using willow branches chopped and soaked in water and using the resulting water?

i'm not organic by any means. i dump chemical fertilizer on my figs almost every week during the spring. but i don't like using chemical bug killers and weed killers on my fig trees. usually use soap and alcohol.. weed with my hand one at a time. but root hormone is very tempting. specially those i would like to see growing quickly. so far i have been staying away from root hormone since i don't know what it would do. it's not like i'm going to go for another kid or anything.. and extra arm will come handy.. still.. 

i know lot of people use root hormone and at the amount they are using, it probably have no problem. but something just doesn't feel light and figs root without any problem. like someone said, "only need one cutting to strike.. you can have 100 trees". 

but at the same time, i lost enough figs that were said to be great due to rooting issue. specially those that i only had 1 cutting. upping the chance on those would have been nice. 

Hi bullet08,
As long as you don't drink from the bottle ... don't let the product touch your skin ( I think that it is written on the box ), nor don't breath over the hormone dust ...
If you're really afraid of it, simply use it this way :
let the tree grow and airlayer the upper branches.
You'll have that strain saved for you, and you'll get ride of most of the remainings of the product that "would still be present in the roots of the original cutting".
You can still mess the tree for too much water , temps too cold while rooting, not enough water, cold or rodents - So rooting hormones are just an help.

As for fig trees, honestly except for the particular case that you are speaking of (pricey cuttings ... or beloved ones), I don't see the point in using rooting hormones for every cutting.
The most important is to keep up with your local constraints - temps especially - yes I know, I have 3 cuttings growing at home during the winter ... -
But well, they just help me feel busy while the other trees are dormant in the garden - They are my lab mice.

Pete, it's a good question.  I wear medical gloves when I am working with rooting hormone (usually dip 'n grow) and dilute it according to the instructions.  I carefully dispose of the diluted product when finished.  I'm not worried about eating the fruit from a tree derived from a cutting treated with rooting hormone.  By then, nearly a year (or more) has passed and then tree has increased in size/mass many fold.

Dear Pete

The guys in my hydroponic store tell me that Clonex is a lot healthier than Dip N' Grow (for fruits that humans will consume). That said, I still use Dip n'grow because it gives me better results.

Rafael

PS got the cuttings, thx

rafael, 

glad it got there ok. good luck with them. the cuttings i took at the same time is putting out roots already. i'm making back ups to put into ground.. or i think i'm putting them in the ground.. 

Is that going to be your first in ground tree??

i keep thinking about putting the trees in ground, but keep backing out of it. Paradiso Gene and Kathleen's Black will be two first. i have grown tree and few backups, so if things go wrong, i won't miss them too much. 

I have used all sorts of rooting hormones on mostly non food crop ornamentals in the past, Clonex gel was my favorite. The only edible I rooted was a bunch grape cuttings once and used some with and some without. All rooted regardless of hormone or not, but I didn't evaluate the extent of rooting. These days I strive to be completely organic for food crops, potted ornamentals get MG. It is tempting to use rooting hormone on figs, it does make things root like crazy, but like you said they don't really need it and as you quoted "you only need one" and then you can layer that one in the future. It's my understanding that whatever the diluted amount is, the hormone never entirely leaves the tree. In today's f'd up world of hormone growth/production accelerators, and endocrine disruptors being inadvertently introduced into our bodies around every corner, I feel this is one area I can control and not introduce something else into my body's chemistry. No matter what the amount.

Sorry not to go off topic.   But for those concerned about their pets getting into the mix.

Has anyone tried willow branches and was there any noticeable differences?  If so how would you do use willow i.e. chop it up let it soak in water and then use the water or would I tonly help for those that root in figs in water? 

Jon P. may know i think he's tried that stuff on his coconut to see if it would grow new hair roots.

doesn't work on the coconut, but i heard it's good for the headache. 

I would hate siting in a round table with you guys... it takes me a while to get what is being said. I am not good with sarcasm...Regardless, the label says not good for food or feed, and to this date, I could not get anyone to really explain what that really means.

Pete, why would you poison your food source with your own hands? This goes for every body. Keep it safe , clean and organic.
Although... in 2004 my neighbor came knocking my door saying his dog chewed up the rooting hormone plastic container and the powder was still on the dog's lips and nose... I still hear that darn dog bark avery time deers go by but I haven't counted his tows lately nor have I seen him. Roomers have it the owners keep him in the basement! ;x

well.. rooting hormone isn't exactly poison. it's similar to naturally occurring hormone that stimulate root growth in callus of the cuttings. large number of medications that are on markets are more or less mimicking naturally occurring compounds. they all serve their purpose. question is.. how long will they stay in the plants/trees and what would be the impact to human health in long run. i'm not finding anything on that. most of things i'm reading is "i'm not sick from eating the vegetable i rooted with IBA".    

well, Doug, you may have an excellent point , but make sure you ask the question when you are buying your cuttings and not getting them for free. you might piss few good hearted donors ;)
 anyhow... it has been long established that Fig cuttings don't require any help from humans to root, so why get experimental with rooting hormones? It says it right there HORMONE! and we all should know that Hormones are nothing to be tempering with. ** Pete I hope this part answers part of your question (or you can google "the side effects of hormones, or growth hormones on humans"...etc)

I have chopped up willow branches and let them soak in water, about 1/4"-1/2" in diametre.  I left them for about a week.  I watered cuttings of African Daisies with it, it did more for those than those without but I didn't do a comparison with rooting hormone.  I can't remember success rate of it, it's been a long time, probably 60-70% success if I had to guess.  I have read before if you reduce the willow water you can get a gel that you then use as a rooting gel but never tried it.  Since it is a natural product one tree or one branch will contain different amounts of hormone so it should work but just be wary of this fact when you go to try it, how effective it is I would say it's better than just water but is it only 5% better or 100% better I can't say.

I usually like to use stim root #2 for semi hard wood cuttings but this year with the few cuttings I started, I used nothing as I ran out of stim root and I don't want to buy a small bottle for something I rarely use, figs are pretty good rooters on their own I have come to expect although when used correctly it will produce better results generally speaking (ie when stuck in peat based soil, bottom heat etc) than without for me.

Pete,
The "food Crop" warning on IBA Rooting Hormone is a catch all, and would possibly apply to crops like Spinach and lettuce... early maturing edible plants. Many fruiting plants are propagated with Hormone (Tissue Cultured), Blueberries, Raspberries, Grapes, Bananas etc.
http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/chem_search/reg_actions/registration/fs_PC-046701_1-Aug-00.pdf

pete,

that's good to know. one variety i'm planning to put in the ground is not rooting at all. if it's still a dud by mid feb., i might get some clonex.

Partial excerpt from fig scion experiment i had saved with other files .

There is small rooting percentage for the
production of cuttings under normal field conditions. This is caused by various factors,
including the rooting environment and the growth regulator endogenous content, whose
effect will be reflected upon the cultures productivity and quality. The cutting's rooting is
regulated by a number of factors, whose lack can limit the process. The tissues capability
of forming roots depends on various endogenous and/or exogenous factors and their
interaction (Nementh, 1986; Haissig, 1982; Thompson and Thorpe, 1987). Auxins are
part of a growth regulators group having a great effectiveness on inducing rooting. IBA is
the most commonly used synthetic auxin for the adventitious rooting induction and is
mentioned by many authors, as being a rooting promoter (Wang and Andersen, 1988). It
has been used to induce rooting on many plant species due to its property of causing
primary roots formation (Awad and Castro, 1989). An auxin exogenous application
produced roots in various species (Sriskandarajah and Mullins, 1981). The use of
artificial substrates has been currently used in agricultural production as a means for
rooting, growth and plant production (Bunt, 1983; Gabriels et al., 1986).

There are many
types of different substrates available, as for example, sawdust, sand, soil, carbonized rice
straw, vermiculite, and many others, making it difficult to choose their best one and the
best mixture (Blom, 1983; Gabriels et al., 1986; Chen et al., 1988). Each material has its
own physical and chemical characteristics and a specific use (Bunt, 1971). A rooting
substrate must be of low density, have a fair water retention capacity, aeration and
drainage, also both have a good cohesion between the particles or close to the roots and
finally, it must be preferably sterile (Mello, 1989). Stratification is a technique that
consists of lying alternate layers of rough sand or soil. The cuttings must be removed
from the stratification as soon as the callus and/or buds have been sprouted (Fachinello et
al., 1994).

martin, thanks. good to know. IBA seems to have been used widely.