I have a bunch of cuttings at various stages of rooting.  This is my first attempt at all of this and I have 2 groups that have a bunch of roots showing throughout plastic cups and have pretty nice looking leaves.  When I ween them off humidity a good bunch of the leaves start to die off.  I assume they dont have enough of a root system to support the growth but im unsure if I should just trim the growth and still ween them off or put them back into full humidity.  Im worried at this point im going to start loosing a lot of them to mold so not sure how to proceed.

I have them all in clear plastic cups, in potting mix medium with 40%ish perlite.  I have perlite in the bottom of large bins with some water in for humidity and then the cups without holes in the bottom, stuck in the perlite for vertical support.  They have been in there since about 10/19 now.  I just dont know how to get them from where they are now, to the outside air and bigger pots.

Now Ive seen a lot of posts which amazingly helpful advice that really just summarizes down to "you did it wrong, next time do it this way".  While that is amazing advice and something that I look forward to, I would REALLY love someone to also chime in with an actual solution or option to go from where I am at now (no matter how much I may have done it wrong) to get a viable crop of cuttings if at all possible.  Thank you!!

-Lou  

Are you saying your cups don't have drainage holes in the bottom? If so your cuttings are drowning. They wilt like that when the roots rot from excess water.

It's not possible to maintain proper water level in the cups without drainage. Make holes in bottom and hope for the best.

They do not and the reason why I opted for that was because the perlite had so much water in it I was worried too much wicking would occur.  I have not actually watered these figs from the top since 10/19 when they were just packed in moist soil.  All of the water has been coming from the humidity in the chamber.  The cups have had small beads of water on the inside but they are definitely light and not water logged at all.  I want to say 2 days ago on this last ween is when I tried to finally put 1/8th a cup or so of water in each cup.  Im 100% game to put holes in them all and drain the water from the perlite if you think that is the issue still.  I understand if I was watering them from the top or they were heavy cups full of water but as of now they arent.  (just trying to give a better idea of how this is setup)  

Im willing to try that tomorrow, can poke holes with a soldering iron.

Fignutty also the other piece of this is, while in the bins with the tops on they are fine.  That wilting didnt happen until I popped the top open by about 2 inches.  Then the wilting starting occurring which is why I was assuming it was more humidity related.

Looking at your cuttings I see the opposite of my usual problem, the newest leaves are the ones that wilt and drop off first when there are not enough roots... Did the stems wilt or did the older leaves just turn crispy?

If the stems and newest leaves were staying turgid while the older leaves were having problems I think the problem is with the older leaves not being able to adjust. The smaller leaves will adapt to the new conditions as they grow. 

HoosierB that seems a lot like what is happening to be honest.  Here is 4 more photos.  2 show the cup of one of the wilters and 2 show (2) more different bins if ones with great growth in full humidity, no holes in the cups, and no wilting.

Thoughts on remedy?  Cut the dying leaves and continue weening?  I keep trying to cycle the same "growth stages" into the same bins.  I have some that had no foliage yet and no visible roots as well.  I also know a lot should be done in no light and I missed the boat on that early.  (learning curve) 

(also a learning curve on how images vs files work here sorry)

The one cutting pictured has lost most of its leaves and should be able to adjust to your next growing area... Keep an eye, or rather finger on the green growths, touch them every now and then to be sure they are stiff and not wilting. You can clip the crispy leaves. When it gets going again you can repot it. Any others that have roots and few to no leaves can be treated the same. Better to get them into their growing environment asap if the balance of leaves to roots allows it.

Start slower with the others, close the latch on one side below the lid and see how that goes. Or start even slower by fanning the tubs 2x daily for a minute to get a good air exchange without stressing them too much. Another option is to lower the light intensity when you lower the humidity to lessen the amount of water lost and stress on the leaves. In the future avoid 100% relative humidity it makes leaves soft and unable to control water loss.

If you find the soldering iron difficult to use with filled cups slice off half moon shapes where the side meets the bottom for drainage holes. 

I wouldn't try to wean them until you're sure the roots are good and well-established. I had a lot of sudden leaf death when moving from the bin abruptly, or even leaving them outside of the bin too long. I like to use a clear plastic bag to cover each plant for a while until it gets acclimated to that (usually 1-3 days), then cut a small hole in that to reduce humidity for another while, then a larger hole, and so on until the bag can be removed entirely. 

I've also had good luck potting up in a 1-gal and keeping that under a bag or even in the bin for a while to establish an even larger root system before trying to acclimate the plant to regular humidity.

As long as I know I should be ok to trim the dying / dead leaves and or leave 1 semi living leaf and it has a shot, im much better off. I just start weening, see a negative reaction and get scared of losing them all so I put the lid back on and nurse them back.  I want to kick these out of the nest as soon as I can to make room for the next batch of whatever I want to grow.  Theres about 150 cuttings rooting right now.

I really appreciate both of y'alls help.  I quite honestly have very little clue other than what ive read and thats just enough to make me semi dangerous to the cuttings. :)  Theres 12 or 12 different varieties in those bins and ive never grown a fig before.  Hadnt actually tasted one til maybe a month before I collected cuttings.  Someone local has a couple Beautiful Peters Honeys Trees that im waiting to get some cuttings from soon.

-Lou

Sarakt, I appreciate that advice and while it sounds like a great solution, I dont know if the logistics of it with this many cuttings would work in the space I have.  Thats why ive been trying to shuffle plants of similar root growth into bins together to give them the best shot at reacting the same.  I may try it and see.  Im really hoping their will to survive outweighs my shortcomings. 

Hi Louneo,
In the first picture in the middle two roots are translucent ... That means two dead roots . The others around are still solid white - so still looking good.
If they were mine, I would offer more space for the leaves to adapt before weening .
If you have a free same container just secure it upside down on the current container to make a closed area. This will give more space to the leaves.
Then next week or so, put a stick in between the two containers to allow some air and progressively broaden the gap and in 3 weeks remove the upper container.
Good luck !

On your second picture, those fig leaves are next to the fixture of the lamp ... Those fixtures will turn really warm . So If those leaves dried in that place, I would say that they dried from the heat from the lamp and not from weening. You'll need to pull the lamps higher to keep the distance with the growing leaves.
That is a common problem : you need to adjust the height of the fixture to keep the gap in between the topmost leaves and the heat of the lamp.

If they were mine....I'd pull them all out of that bin and pot them up with some compost.  I think you need a grow tent!  Make sure they are getting a good cross flow of warm air + some T5 lights but not that close....about 3 to 4 feet away.

I definitely think space is quickly becoming my biggest issue.  I have a greenhouse im building that is half done that I guess I need to fast track so I can get some grow tents put up around these to keep in the humidity while allowing them a chance to grow a bit.  Thanks guys, I am in 8a as well Snaglpus, down here in Wilmington, NC.

Also Jdsfrance, thank you for the information regarding the roots, I appreciate that and its something I will look for.

My personal preference especially during the winter, when rooting cuttings is to use a self watering container and add water from the bottom at around 72 degrees in front of a sunny window. This way you never over water and the potting mix absorbs the right amount of water. This method will reduce the chances of a cutting rotting before it has a chance to root and push new growth.

I like to use a container that would last me for at least the first season before I'd have to re-pot to a larger container and therefore reducing the chances of shocking the plant during this process.

Water control potting mix from Home Depot is not complicated and should provide enough nutrition for several months after new growth begins.

Using this method my success rate has been around 70%. 

Good Luck.

I am new to fig growing so please take this comment as more of a question to others/yourself.  If you are not watering the cuttings and relying on the plant to absorb humidity, and you remove the humidity by creating the opening at the top of the container, wouldn't the plants be suffering from a lack of water?  I imagine that all of the humidity would escape if an opening is created at the top of the container.

Suggestion:
 Close the opening until plants recover.  They previously thrived in this environment.

Then
 Poke drainage holes and start watering
 Create opening once / twice a day for a short period. 
 Slowly increase periods if plants allow

Aporto, that is what im currently doing.  However I imagine there needs to be a very fine balance between watering and then adding the humidity again which could easily and quickly cause an overwatering issue.  Part of me wants to cut off most of the leaves surface area until they have weened off.  The other part that makes this harder for me is im doing it with ALL of my cuttings so trial and error is a lot more scary when its all or nothing and its not just 1 tree :)

If I were you I think I would try coco coir. It is very forgiving with moisture levels.