I haven't been posting lately because of family issues. My mom had to move into a nursing home and with the death of my wife's sister we became the sole care provider of my father in law who is now on his death bed. All of this has taken so much of my free time and much of my will power. Although I usually find time at work to keep up with the forum, I haven't much time to post much.

Some time back I came up with the idea of taking the bottom out or cups and using heavy foil to make a cover. A snap lid would have been better but I didn't have any to fit my cups. Planting the rooted cutting in the upside down cup made for a more stable cup, you can hardly ever knock one over, and you end up with a large quantity of potting mix at the bottom for the roots to spread in. I have most of my cuttings potted up except for a few that I started late. I almost forgot to take pictures but here are some pictures of one such transplant.

A good habit is to label pot before doing the transplant.


The rooted cutting before transplanting


Water generously before attempting to remove from cup. After soaking, massage the cup to break the roots away from the walls of the cup where they might be stuck. Squeeze the cup forcing the roots into the mix.


Fill pot with enough mix to place the cutting at the right height.



Remove the foil bottom and set the cup in the pot on the potting mix.



Slowly raise the cup while holding down the cutting and that should leave you with the cutting sitting nicely on the potting mix.




Gently add mix around the cutting to the top of the mix. The excess water that was use at the beginning will disperse into the potting mix leaving you with a nice clean transplant with little or no disturbance of the roots.



Please ignore the wrong date on the pot. Life is going by faster than I can keep up.
"gene"

Gene,

I figured that was the case and that's why I haven't bothered you.
Of course that didn't stop me from sending you some funny emails to distract you from the issues you are dealing with. I hope all is well and it is our job and duty to take care of our loved ones.

I hope everyone pulls through.

Looks like you are doing a fine job there with your idea. I will try it next season.

I checked the Peters Honey I am air-layering for you yesterday and it seems it's going to be longer than I anticipated.
All I can tell you it is longer than 3ft. now.
Yes, that was dirty to put that there! LOL

Just something for you to look forward to. Good medicine for better health.

Good luck

Rafed, thanks for your kind words and I do love the humor you send me. It does help take my mind off of the current situation for a while. Well I'm down to maybe a half dozen cuttings left to move into pots. I will probably do that next week end. My potted trees are doing well even the newer ones that I have put in the shade house. Some of them will be move out to full sun soon. Its a good time now because we are having lots of cloudy afternoons with scattered showers which makes for a cooler afternoon. My success rate was more like 50% and that was mostly due to the fact that for a few week I could only give minimal time to my cuttings. Some dried out and some rotted in the the bags because I did not move them to cups fast enough.

I saw your fig list and it's impressive, just a few more than I have, like 100 more. While potting this morning I came upon a Peters Honey cutting that you sent me that I had given up for dead. I was salvaging the potting mix from the unsuccessful attempts by pouring the mix into a bucket. When I pour the Peters Honey into the bucket, I saw something light colored in the bucket. I picket it up and lo and behold the dead and decaying looking cutting had some roots at the very bottom and a bud had grown from the bottom node upward through the potting mix about 2 inches long.  I put it back into a cup with fresh soil, I hope it survives but I'm really looking forward to the one you're air layering. You're a real pal.

The idea of using an inverted cup came to me while attempting to pot up one of my first cutting. First the roots were stuck to the side and when I cut the water bottle from top to bottom on both sides to get the rooted cutting out I rip out some of the roots and the soil crumbled all over the place. The cutting didn't survive. I know there was a better way. I also took a hint from Jason about messaging the cup to break the roots loose. This works best with a very damp soil thus the watering just before doing the transplant.

I've had a great cutting season thanks to so many of you. Rafed you've been most gererous as has Sue, ricci, jason, mike gorski, sal, steve, tim and joe. I want to thank all of you and anyone else I might have forgotten. I've also received loads of good information from Dan, Al and Richard Watts. Of course supreme thanks to Jon for a wonderful site with all it information posted for all to read and learn. I cannot go any further without also thanking all the members who post here. By reading all about your successes and failures I have learned a lot. Thanks one and all. "gene"

Gene
Wish you all kind of strength to handle the current situation; and thanks for posting details. I like the note of more soil where it is needed and also makes it more stable and easy to move out unless the plant grows big too fast in which case the pot has to be cut.

Gene,

Hang tight.  Thanks for posting this, I have been curiously waiting to see how this cupping method goes for you.  Have you tried to use a plastic lid on the bottom to hold the soil in, instead of foil?

Jason, I didn't use snap lids because I didn't have any to fit but I will prepare myself to do that this winter. The foil worked well but it was a little trouble to cut them so I'm sure the lids will be great. I convinced myself, if no others, that this is my way to go.
"gene"