Thanks again to everyone on the board. I have learned so much already, maybe I got to ambitious. I saw on this site pics of people using those storage containers to keep the cuttings in once they are potted. I went out and bought two because my cardboard box one didn't seem to do the job, the leaves and buds shriveled up pretty quickly in that. I put them in the plastic container and used plastic wrap to cover the top. This is probably where I went wrong, but I put in a big cup of water and some wet paper towels for moisture. It did seem to be very humid in there when I would open it. This was a few days ago. Today I think I can see the growth getting greener and some more leaves coming up, but I also saw some mold on some of the shriveled up stuff. I pulled off the moldy parts that I can see and I am airing it out. I also took out the paper towels and cup of water. What is there anything else I should do to for this?
I am also having some mold issues on cuttings in the bag. I think this is because I took out cuttings that were not rooting in water and switched to the baggie method. I guess they were to water logged? I read on here to use a little bleach in water and wipe them off. I wiped them down changed paper towels and reduced the amount of water I used to dampen them. Is that all I can do?

Lastly, Some of the earlier rooted cuttings that I individually wrapped in plastic seem to be doing very well. they have nice sized leaves on them and green growth. I see roots also rapped around in the bottles I am using. Is this enough for me to take them out of the plastic?

First thing I would tell you is about posting -

Try putting each image on a new line in your posts.  For example:

IMAGE 1
IMAGE 2
IMAGE 3

Right now, you have them like this:

IMAGE 1 IMAGE 2 IMAGE 3

It makes it so you have to scroll sideways for miles to read your text.
If people can't read your text easily, they're less likely to respond.
There should be an "EDIT" link in the bottom right-hand corner of your posts you can click and it will let you go in and fix the format of stuff you've already posted.

Thank you I do appreciate the help. Up until last year the most gardening I had done was mowing the lawn and trimming hedges. I had noticed the pic issue as well on my other posts. I tried to get the lined up, but I guess I gave up to easily. I figured it was picassa. I will pick up some egg crate tonight. I am using miracle grow potting mix. It does seem very dark. I read a few posts mentioning it wasn't that great, but I bought it before I knew... I watered them when I first potted them and waited for it to drain after every few days I was hefting them to see if they felt light and I added water. I definitely take our advice on the watering method.
I have read to about keeping the leaves away from plastic which I have tried to do. In the last picture that one is getting harder the leaves are getting big. Do you think I can take the plastic off?
Also, I don't want to keep asking nit picky questions, but do you think the plastic wrap is to much for the top? I figured it was better to let more light in. should I put the lid on?  I do not have it really tight on there.

All I can do is give advice about what works best for me, and I can't stress enough that "your mileage may vary".

My personal preference is to keep the lid on loosely, slightly off so that two adjacent corners are cracked no more than a half an inch.  I take the lid off every two days, use it as a fan to circulate some fresh air into it (three or four back-and-forth waves over the opening), then check my cups for water content.  If everything is OK, I put the lid on, partially cocked again.  I repeat this throughout rooting.  I keep my bins in a room with lots of windows, but NEVER in direct sunlight.  I actually keep them against a southern wall about 2' under a window sill, so the light can never contact the bin.

I know some people like to use saran-wrap tents over their trees or their bins.  I'm not knocking it, so don't get me wrong, but that is a hell of a lot of extra work for something that is basically a weed (whether we like to admit it or not, ficus is weedy) and will grow with minimal work on your part. 

The #1 mistake I made when rooting was not properly watering for the potting mix I was using (chunkier mixes have diff't water requirements than fine mixes), and I honestly believe this is the most common mistake everyone makes with any plants, not just figs.  The #2 most common mistake being "caring too much"; you can easily love a plant to death, this is especially true of starting figs.

You have three forms of light:  direct (or "unfiltered"), filtered, indirect.  Your figs should not be getting direct/unfiltered sunlight at this stage (the one fig is getting close, but still needs time).  When it is time for some direct sunlight, you either need to filter it (frosted window or light sheer curtain) or limit the amount of direct light.  Mine usually take about 2-3 months after the first leaves are forming before I get to a point where I'm even thinking about introducing filtered light, much less direct sunlight.  You should have at least 2-3 fully formed leaves before thinking about moving to filtered sunlight.  Direct sunlight will absolutely burn leaves that were not grown in direct sunlight, and I can show you what it looks like when this happens!

As for whether it's getting enough light ... Think about it ... I've had cuttings start leafing out in bags in rooms with no light.  Others here at the forum have had plants come out of dormancy under their houses and grow several inches and leaf out with zero light.  So, really, putting a lid on top of your bin is not going to hurt these guys.  They're not manufacturing a ton of chlorophyl at this stage (not enough leaves), so why on earth would they need direct sunlight? 

Remember - these things are cuttings, they started as pieces of wood - for the first two months after roots show up, they will probably have less than 10" of hair-thin roots and maybe 1-2 square inches of leaf surface total.  I cannot express to you enough how minimal their needs are to stay alive when they have so few roots or leaves.  All they want you to do is provide a pinch of water to stay hydrated, and they'll do the rest for the first 6 months or more.  If you need any more evidence of how little their needs are, there are some interesting pictures all over the internet and this forum of figs growing out of gigantic boulders and mountains of solid rock with absolutely zero soil/nutrients.

As for your medium choice (potting mix/soil choice) I don't have a problem with Miracle Gro, personally, although I try to encourage people to stay away from 1) anything with fertilizers, these are usually little round bead looking things, and 2) avoid anything with the word "soil" in it - "potting soil" and "potting mix" are NOT the same thing. 

I would also share this ... as you go along, I would play with mixing your potting soil with perlite or some other light, big, chunky stuff while trying to root from cuttings.  If I "conveniently" forget my Turface/Sphagnum trials (which was a waste, personally), I actually started just like you, with a full-on potting mix and no chunky additives.  I kept having problems with overwatering.  Within two batches of cuttings, I had moved to a 50/50 mix of plain old chunky perlite and potting mix, which resolved 90% of my watering problems because water would drain right through and not sit directly on the roots.  Now, at this point, I'm doing something like 80/20 (80% chunky perlite, 20% potting mix).  Some guys, like Jon at Encanto Farms, use nothing but perlite, maybe adding a sprinkle of compost or straight perlite with "compost tea" for watering.

Again - I will remind you - the purpose of potting mix is to provide a moist, nutrient-rich environment for a full-grown plant to thrive (my opinion!).  These cuttings aren't full-grown plants. They get the eenergy to root and grow leaves from inside the wood.  They don't need a lot of soil.  Even in the wild, full-sized trees can grow on top of rocks with no soil or nutrients.  For these reasons, I do not think it is necessary to provide soil-heavy blend, a fig cutting will root happily in a cup full of rocks for months, if not years.  Don't let the idea that "more nutrients = better" get stuck in your head.  Some plants just do not like having an abundance of nutrients.

The best thing I personally think you can do for your figs is to provide a big, loose, chunky mix.  This will provide air pockets (allowing humidity) for the roots and prevent you from drowning the roots with water.  I only keep the15-20% of soil so the trees have "some" nutrients when they hit the 4-5 month mark and I can usually keep them cupped up longer. 

For some reference:  An experiment of leaving your new rootings in cups versus transferring to pots ... http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4912281

Problems you might encounter while transferring from cups to pots, and some advice from other members (see James' comments, especially, for some sage advice) ... http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4602240

I also hope that some other folks will come in here and share their experiences, or at least confirm that they generally agree with what I'm saying - we all have our own methods and madness.  I always stress - never, ever, ever take anything someone here tells you as the "definitive word", because rooting is still mostly voodoo sprinkled with a little luck and some basic plant growing fundamentals.

Thank you again for taking the time to type this all out for me. I just got back from home depot and picted up a sheet of egg crate for the containers. I already platic wrapped them, so I guess I will ride that out. I have been mixing the potting soil with Perlite. I actually need to look at the bag and see if it says soil or mix. I just grabbed it at the hardware store i don't know if it is 50/50 perlite/soil or more, maybe 60/40 give or take and I poked holes in the bottom and sides. The room I have them in is upstairs so it will stay warmer. They room has two open windows and it does get some morning sun, but not directly in, plus its been a bit gray lately with all the snow.

For my platform, I used steel mesh and wrapped it around some 2x2s.

I'd like to share some photos with you from my rooting experience last year, as I was tinkering with mixtures.  Here are some mixture ratios and what they look like.

This is 50% potting mix, 50% chunky perlite:



This is 40% potting mix, 60% chunky perlite:



This is 30% potting mix, 70% chunky perlite:



This is 20% potting mix, 80% chunky perlite:



This is 10% potting mix, 90% chunky perlite:



I like to be somewhere between the last two pictures.  As you can clearly see - the cuttings seem to absolutely love this mix.  The less dense your mix is, the more room the roots have to stretch out and easily grow.


This is the spacer I put in the bottom of my bin.  It allows water to drain, it allows circulation of air on the bottom of the cup, and it also keeps the cups up off the floor (out of any runoff).

This picture is the perlite i started experimenting with this winter for my cuttings. I use about 70/30 ratio im just guessing.
Its a true coarse type perlite.
No its not the best stuff to use i'm saying its just what i like now to use.

Also a guy on ebay is selling Krum coarse perlite here north of me in illinois but after a phone chat his is not as coarse as i wanted.

I put a 1.00 worth of quarters and dimes to show the size .
Darn it i lost 2 dimes when i was putting them in as i tried to move them.   ; )

Edit: this is actually number 3 size i bought. There is slightly bigger size number 4.

Thanks for the pictures, it helps a lot to see it. I think I am closer to 50/50. My mixes look a lot more like your first and maybe second picture. I did it pretty unscientifically. Here are the pictures I took. I have my first round of cuttings at the bottom that I individually covered. They all mostly seem to be doing well and growing out.

@Martin - I think you should call that PERLITE BOULDERS rather than COARSE PERLITE.  Maybe I should start calling mine "sifted perlite".

@71GTO - Looks like you're on your path to being incredibly successful at this!  Everything looks great.  Always be adventurous.  Once you get something that works for you, keep being adventurous.  Martin is a great example of someone who really pushes the boundaries and inspires a lot of us guys to step out there and get crazy sometimes.

Thank you so much for the complement! I really do want them to work! I have no idea what I will do with them all our property isn't that big, but I have time to put thought into how I will keep them all. My wife already thinks I am nuts. I now refer to our office as the greenhouse and I get the evil eye. Although, she knows she wants the figs as much as I do.
I checked the mix and perlite I am using. It is Miracle Grow Potting Mix and Miracle Grow Perlite. The Perlite does not have any indication of a size. I also linked a picture of the room. The windows in the room are facing Eastish so some sun gets in during the morning, but not bad. I don't have any shades yet since we just replaced our 90 year old windows last week. I will have those temp paper/cloth shades up soon until we decide what to get.

Thank you as well for posting Deiseler. I have a few More cuttings left in baggies. I do not know if they will root, but if they do with you with both of your advise. I am going to go with a greater perlite to mix ratio. I am running out of Perlite as well. When I do I will go to a nursery or Home depot and try to find maybe larger Perlite or at least see what my options are. This time as soon as the first roots showed up I just ran to the local Ace hardware and put what they had.

FWIW, I also use the MG Perlite when there's nothing else around.  I shake the bag up to get the big pieces to the top, then skim off the top 2/3 of the bag, and use the remaining 2/3 (which is normally dust) in my other potted plants. 

71GTO
at the stores you probably wont find a larger coarse perlite .
But its working for you and i would stick with whats working, there is nothing wrong with the regular store bought perlite as its proven on both forums with many members showing there success.
I just like to change things up out of curiosity .
Those plants will grow fast come nice weather and if space is tight you can always give some away to relatives, friends, co-workers etc.

Last year when I tried to transplant cuttings that I grew in just cups (without peat pots) I had trouble with the root balls falling apart. I just couldn't keep them together. I had much better luck with the peat pots. So, how do you guys keep the root balls together? I didn't use the coarse perlite but I do think my mix was more like 75% perlite 25% seed starter. Maybe thats the problem?

I don't do a lot of teardown on my root balls.  I rinse and shake what will come free and transplant.

When you rinse do just pour some water over the root ball and shake a little to loosen the ball up or do you you run it under a sink?

i just take a water hose and lightly spray it down.

when you break the bond between soil/medium and roots, it stresses the plant, making that kind of bond again is tough.  for that reason, i don't dick around with my root balls much.  if it falls off with a light tap and light water pouring over it, then it wasn't very bonded.  if it doesn't, i don't mess with it.

Hi Jason,

Why do we want to knock medium off the roots?  I've never done any rooting except with a tiny bent tip from a tree I had shipped to me and I stuck that into a pot with regular dirt in it and it grew.  I did knock as much dirt off of those roots as possible, but didn't think to rinse it off.  It's doing well in the pot I repotted it to.

Martin, you must have lucked out when you got your coarse perlite.  I got a huge bag of perlite from a local farm and feed mill and it's so crushed.  They exchanged it for me, but the new bag is not much better.

I'm thinking it will have to be sifted before it's fit to use.

noss

Viv (hope that nickname is ok), I think you're talking about something grown in dirt, while I grow all of my cuttings in, well, rock, basically (perlite).  So where you would be knocking off dirt from something rooted in ground and putting it right back into dirt (sounds counterproductive, eh?), I am pulling my cutting out of a cup where it's a big ball of small rocks and roots with almost zero dirt and putting it into a mostly-dirt pot.

So this begs the big question:  What is the best thing to do with a big ball or roots and rocks? 

Knock the rocks off?

Massage the root mass apart?

Try to remove all the rocks to bare-root?

I really, honestly do not know, and I am not ashamed to admit it.  (open to ideas)

I believe it was Al (tapla) that indicated the bond between roots and growing medium like perlite is sensitive, and breaking the bond actually damages roots and causes stress/distress to the plant.  Someone I respect said this - and it's been stuck in my craw for a long time.

The main reason I rinse the roots and knock off a little excess myself is because I use such a high-percentage mix of perlite, and I want to remove any perlite that's not stuck to roots directly - this helps me get rid of any un-stuck perlite, which provides more room for soil.

In my mind - which isn't always that amazing (translated: I have no scientific evidence on this) - If I take a hunk of perlite-laden roots and pack that in regular old soil or potting mix, what happens then?  I imagine (may not be reality) that when I pour water into my pot, it's going to run right through the perlite and hit a wall of soil and sit there in the perlitearea, drowning my roots. 

It seems like a catch-22, really.  Do you risk damaging the roots - the hydraulic pump/uptake for your plant - or do you potentially drown them by doing nothing? 

I opt for the middle-ground.  I remove as much as will fall out freely, then plant them in soil.

I admit - this is something I'm uncomfortable talking about, because I don't know if what I'm doing is viably "correct" or "logical".  I hope by bringing it up that some of the hort/botany nuts may come in here and give some amazing advice.

Usually more roots and rootball will stay intact better.  I try to word it so its understandable um in my case i like to have many roots right off the stick .If one has a lot of roots at the stick itself thats good and will hold nice when transplanting. These roots you do not want to disturb, the longer ones hanging outside if you loose a few will not hurt it but right at the stick no good.
When i transplant i massage cup around and useing 1 hand tilt container into other hand and then into a premade partially filled container. I then hold stem straight as i use a spoon and fill in the rest .
In my case as i started useing big perlite this was my experience today when transplanting.
I no longer use clear plastic cups to see roots, i use 4 inch black plastic containers and wait till i see roots growing out bottom, today i had one such and transplanted it.
What i always do is have new container prefilled with similar mix and i masssage container around sides , with 1 hand i tilt container into other hand and let plant slide out.
Now today i did same and some big perlite fell no big deal roots were intact and i simply place in new container and held with one hand and useing spoon filled in the rest.
I try to disturb roots as little as possible.
Its now in 1 gallon pot from 4 inch pot with nice root system.
It may not be perfect but its what i do to give folks idea of what may or may not work for them.
I do suggest though be patient and wait as long as possible for lots of roots before tranplanting roots will stay intact better and if you loose a few in process no big deal.

Hi Jason,

Yes, Viv, is fine.  :)

I appreciate your openness with developing techniques and being willing to talk about it.  It helps people learn when someone does that and that's what we're here for.  The things you said make me wonder if immersing the rootball in water and gently swishing it around would loosen the perlite, which would then float away?  Keep being open with things--it's great.

Yes, I had to get that garden dirt off the little Hunt baby.  It was so happy when it was put into the pot with good potting soil.  What you say about a big glob of perlite on the roots makes sense to me.

Martin, 

Hey, Jason I have another quick one about taking off the plastic cover. You had mentioned not putting them in in filtered light until they have 2 or 3 fully formed leaves. Are fully formed leaves just the full shape of the leave opened or should they be large leaves?  I am still going to leave my plants in the same location, not near the window but in a room with light coming in. There are the two I am looking at taking off the plastic.