Hello.

I have a Black Madeira cutting that I got from UC Davis in late March.  I put it in a shoe size plastic tote with moist uncut moss with an @80F heat source.  It has no root initials or shoots but is still green inside and firm.  Is it too late to try some rooting hormone gel?  If so, what medium would be the best to put it in?  Could the heat be too much for BM?

Thanks in advance for any input!

some cuttings are just slow, and for whatever reason some cuttings of BM just refuse to root. i don't think it's too late for root hormone. i only rooted 5 cuttings of BM so far and all rooted fine. only one failed to grow after 1 gal stage.

I would take a tiny slice off the bottom of the cutting and go ahead and try rooting gel. BM cuttings do seem slow so I wouldn't worry yet. I try and keep the temp anywhere from 75 to 85 but part of that is I had a lot of left over reptile heat pads that are set at 85 degrees. On stuff I can control I set at 75 to 80.
Good luck.

Thanks for the input on the BM. 

I agree that the rooting gel shouldn't harm the cutting.  Since the cutting was about 10" long, I cut it in two to have fresh ends, scored the last 1" or so and used q-tips to coat with DynaGro gel.  I potted them in a mix of 35% Vermiculite 60% Perlite and 5% generic potting soil, just moist enough to feel that it's moist.  They went in the heated sterilite tub and will get lightly misted with the other cuttings.

To test if my potting mix would work, last week I buried three 2" single node cuttings (from a variety that I got sent 3 long cuttings), all with what looked like buds forming, and all three have leaves and roots already.

Being new to figs I know I shouldn't be put off by a difficult variety like BM, but I just have to do what I can to make it grow.  If this fails I'm going to plan B-just ignore it until it grows!

Thanks again!

BM progress...or so it would seem. 

I just put this in the back of the humi-dome and forgot about it for about 3 weeks now.  It may be hard to see but there are 3 buds finally opening up after 2 months.  I don't see any roots on the sides of the cup and I'm sure not going to poke around in the cup to check.  Maybe by August I'll have a root on it  :s



I don't think the dyna-gro rooting gel did anything for me though.  The other BM cutting I have (bottom 1/2 of the cutting above) has no buds or root initials.  But it isn't mushy or moldy, and it's still green inside.  So, I decided to try RichinNJ's method of perlite only in the humi-dome.  It sure can't hurt anything.  It's like some of these BM cuttings are immune to dying and growing; very frustrating.