I will be trimming this lady's fig tree in a few days.. I should end up with a LOT of cuttings.. this is a very big old fig tree, I'm not even sure what kind of fig it is,, ..

I would like to try mass propagation...anyone have any ideas??I am thinking I will keep all the cuttings from 2" dia down..

I've rooted grape cuttings in a 5 gal bucket of soil. 25+ cuttings in a bucket. You could try this in a plastic tote with a lid. It might be a little touchy pulling them apart though.

Good Luck!

Just get a bunch of 16oz-20oz cups, put drain holes in them, put slightly damp soil in, insert a cutting per cup.  Leave outside, maintain wetness.  Whatever roots roots, whatever doesn't doesn't.

Personally, I would start with tip cuttings, and whatever cups you have left, use the best looking non-tip cuttings.

If all the frost is out of your ground, you can just stick them directly in the ground. I also took some 25gal pots and mixed compost with perlite and stuck them every 2-3 inches apart. Than took another smaller pot and placed it into the larger one this held the moisture in and created extra heat. It was the first week of march when in did the mass planting. I also took one raised bed and covered it with black plastic. Than cut 2inch x holes every 6 inches and stuck a 12 to 15 inch cutting deep in to the soil. I also found that when you do this whatever is left above the ground will die. This year if i do it again i will leave very little sticking out of the ground. A couple of month's after the ground warms up you will want to check for shoots around the x cut in the plastic.
Good luck.
You have nothing to loose by trying, and everything to gain of successfull

Al
Burlington County NJ Z6

I grew all of my fig cuttings directly in-ground last year with good success, and spaced pretty close.  You do have to be careful in separating them out, but you need to be careful anyway if you don't want to damage new roots and leaves.

Here in Georgia though: 1) You are going to need to amend the soil; rock hard red clay won't do; dig up a good sunny area small bed and top it with several inches of good potting soil; and 2) You won't be able to do this until around the first of April here in North Georgia, a little sooner further south, but they won't root in cold soil.

Great idea though.  I'm going to grow a lot of new fig trees also to give to children and families all around the area, so they will always have some good healthy fruit to eat. 

Best wishes to all.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

I'm thinking I will have WELL over 100 nice cuttings.. I have sandy loamy soil here since I am in coastal Ga.......there are places out here that are very sandy if that will work better........ maybe I should get out the roto tiller and till up a patch and stick then right in the ground and just do like 20 in cups ,, I'm thinking I might do some tilling this weekend anyway to put in sweet onion sets... we MIGHT have another frost if so I don't think it would be heavy.. I think its supose to get up to 80 today but I'm sure the grond its still pretty cool............if I do it this way ,,, what lenght cutting will do the best ??how much of the top of the cutting sould be above ground?? Should I space the far enough apart to just let them grow till next spring before trying to move them?? And if so how far apart should I plant them (I have plenty of room)??

I'm just loaded with questions....

John,
I live in the upland pine's of South Jersey. Our native soil has a PH of 4.6 and is all sand. I need tons of lime to try and sweeten up the soil. It is amazing that fig trees will thieve in this soil without adding lime.
My test this year with direct planting will be to coat the exposed 4 - 6 inches with wax to keep them from drying. I placed a jar of candle wax on the wood stove to melt and took very very cold cutting from the frig and dipped them into the hot wax in Jan. The wax did not hurt the cutting since when pulled out immediately the wax hardened quickly. I than set these into my starting pots down to the level of waxing. I did this with 12 cuttings and all started sprouting leaves within 4 weeks the few that i did not wax and did not cover all dried up. I now believe i can do the same outside. Keep in mind that when the soil warms up to 50 rooting can start taking place. You will not have top growth and by the time top growth develops all chance of frost are over.  The longer the cutting the deeper you will need to dig to remove, which means you should plant them at least 18" apart or further if you have the room. When i dug mine up from the raised bed trial the root mass was as large as a 2 gal. pot. I did leave a number of cuttings in ground over winter and need to wait until spring for results. The variety i used was Italian Honey from a bush that freezes to the ground each year. The largest branch was the size of a quarter. The cuttings left in over winter were pushed about 18 inches into the ground last spring. I have no intention of digging these new trees since the initial root are very deep. If they survived this winter they will most likely develop roots closer to the surface and if they send up a shoot i will compost around the shoot which will develop more rooting.

Al
Burlington County NJ
Z6

satellitehead,
I am using the "alternate cup" method on about 40-50 cuttings now (with the red cup sleeve now since alot have good roots on sides of cups). When making the cups ready for a cutting, I put the drain holes in both cups with a cheap soldering iron relatively quickly. Just curious if you do it a different way (just poking with knives?). I do like the perfect round holes from the soldering iron ... but do have to turn on a fan to not breathe in the horrible (and probably cancerous) plastic smell lol.

I use the old fashion ice pick to make my holes.
Cathy

@grant, It is common practice in some commercial nurseries to use sand as a rooting medium. 

And for what it's worth, I've had my cuttings in pots all winter long, through sleet, snow and hail.  They still look viable.  We'll see if they send shoots in spring.

The big thing to watch out for is that you don't leave em out when temps drop below 40º or so, it will damage fresh growth and potentially kill your plant.

@persianninja, I use a soldering iron but I wear a protective mask and do the job outside so my house doesn't smell like burnt pvc.

Gotcha satellite. I have a good aerosol mask when i was using extreme paint stripper on my motorcycle engine. Didnt think to use it. Good idea :).

I think most propagators who do in ground cuttings would use a mist or sprinkler on a timer to keep the soil and exposed wood moist.
If I could not do that, I would probably try burying the sticks horizontal under approx an inch of sand/loose soil and watering it once or twice a day. Each cutting would have 2 or 3 nodes. If you are going to rototill, you could then make a 6 inch shallow trench with a hoe. Lay them parallel to each oher in your trench then cover.
Quick and easy I would think.

kyle