Martin thanks for the interesting link. Looks like you did great with those and I hope you get your reward. Since I have a bunch of these I think I'm going to leave some of them with more than one shoot and some I will allow only the strongest shoot to stay after I start seeing roots.

Jstall, when I first started I put just enough water in the rooting mix to sightly form a ball and stay together. On my moisture scale it read around 5 or 6. I haven't added any water yet and my meter is still reading 4 in most of the cups. My reasoning for not adding water is that I see a very little amount of condensation on the inside of a few of the cups, and I do mean a very little and not in all cups. This I'm considering as excess water so I'm adding nothing as long as the meter read at least 3. I think at below 3 I will put a drop or two and see what happens. As I mentioned before, I put a piece of news paper in the bottom of the greenhouse and have added a little water to it. That piece of paper is to help hold the humidity constant.  If the air get too dry moisture leaves the paper and if the air get to wet the paper absorbs the excess. I do not have any condensation on the wall of the greenhouse. This seems to be working. I do open the cover for a couple of hours a day on most days. With the cover on the relative humidity stays around 75 percent which only means that the air is not completely saturated with moisture and that it can still hold some more before it starts showing up on all surfaces. That would be bad.

Here is a not so good picture of the greenhouse. Some of the cuttings are still wrapped in paper towel and standing in the cups. This way the sprouting leaves don't have to touch the damp towel and perhaps rot, but at the same time the lower end where I'm hoping to get roots are still wrapping the the moisture.


Here is one of the few cups with a little moisture on its walls. I hope it doesn't cause a problem like root rot. I just notice when previewing this post that a small root is visible a little to the right of the bottom air hole.




I hope this is helpful in some way.

Gene, excellent instructions, very clear. Do you have any that are leafed out heaver than the ones pictured? At what stage do you start watering more.
J.A.

Jstall, # 14 and # 17 that are pictured a few post before this one are my most prolific growers as of now. It's funny how some put on leaves and no roots and others started with the roots and no leaves. The mystery of figs. Also remember it's only been 3 weeks since I took them out of the fridge.

As far as adding water, I don't plan to unless the moisture in the cup drops to a reading of 2 on my meter and then it will only be a few drops at the time. The roots seen in the pictures are not yet able to absorb water. They need to branch out with feeder roots before they can take up water. When my roots start branching out and I have a nice root ball and leaves are looking healthy, I'll pot them directly into 1 gallon pots with some MG potting soil without moisture crystals or fertilizer. At that point I will start to water but only sparingly to keep the moisture on my meter about 4 - 6.

Remember they are in a sealed environment in the greenhouse and moisture should remain nearly constant. Moisture does travel out of the cup when I open it for a while and the reading on my meter drops, but after being closed again, the moisture level returns back to where it was. Any lost moisture is replace with moisture from the newspaper in the bottom of the greenhouse. Its quite remarkable how it works. I was a little skeptical when it was explained to me, but let me tell you, it does work.

Now if I can get some mature trees out of this, it will be great. If not, well then back to the drawing board.

Hi Gene,

Looks like you are really doing great on your rooting project!

You have had some really good instructions, it is just a shame your instructor has painted himself in a corner so to speak!


Good luck to Ya.

Thanks Cecil, I just hope I don't run into a disaster on the way. At least not on my first big try. I'll be happy when I can up pot my first one.

"gene"

You will be fine!

I have in the past made a big mistake potting the young plants too soon, just let them stay in the containers they are in for a while yet, you might have to cut the sides of the container to get them out because of the shape of the bottle.

I'm with you in cutting them out of the cups. For my next attempt I will be using drinking cut to eliminate that problem. I would hate to damage anything taking them out.

I agree,

The less you disturb the tender little roots the better.

BTW, is that drain holes up the side of the bottle? and if so why?

Cecil, actually they are not drain holes but rather air holes. These allow air into the root area and at the same time allow excess moisture to escape. This should help prevent root rot from excess moisture and also by allowing fresh air in should prevent mold from growing in the cups. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

HAHA, OK

I say if it works, don't fix it! Looks like it works to me!

Thanks

Lookin Great, Gene. I like the idea of the additional air holes on the side---makes a lot of sense. Tim

Gene looking good I too make holes on the sides of the cups not too many but a few and seems to work well. One of the cuttings I moved early cause i got desperate has not grown one bit in 3 weeks best thing is to just leave them in the cups until you see good root mass. Oh I forgot to mention I just used Cactus soil on one of my new cuttings for the first time seems to work really well it rooted before any other cuttings in regular potting mix and the roots seem to be thicker for some reason.

Here is an update on the cuttings I started. Eleven of seventeen rooted and in cups Six still wrapped in paper towel and 1 discarded.

This picture is of my most aggressive growers. I had to purchase another container (greenhouse) and stand it on it end to be able to contend with the go getters. They were about to hit the roof of the other one.



This is one of the not so aggressive ones, but it is advancing well



Off topic note: I had more to write and post but I just got word the my wife sister passed away. Please keep her in your prayers. Thanks

 So sorry to hear this Gene. Your Sister in law and family will be in our prayers.
 J.A.

Sorry to hear that Gene .

Hi Gene, our thoughts and prayers to you and your wife's family.

Joe, Martin, and Tim thanks from Linda and I for the thoughts and prayers. The are much appreciated and needed at this time.