I finally planted my neglected hardy Chicago cutting today. It failed to root after 6 weeks using the plastic Baggie method, and got moldy around week 4. I had some other ones in the fridge and accidentally left the plastic bag on top of the fridge when I was planting the other ones. 3 days later I found it and two of the three cutting had sprouted roots. I have it another week to let the roots grow and then planted it this morning in a one or two gallon pot. I hope it takes. Just wanted to share my not so interesting story as I am killing time at an airport delay.

It could have been the warmth from the fridge that got it to actually grow.

Rooti g in bag without media. New growing method lol. Hey it works.

Looks good!

Great to hear that others suffer from the "what is that doing there syndrom"   Last month when I was outside finishing up some sips, I moved a newspaper that  I had received wrapped around some orchids  I ordered from Hawaii.  I had read the newspaper and saw it had an interesting recipe.  I tossed it in the dishpan I was using to sort things and promptly forgot it.  In cleaning the dishpan out and throwing trash away, I found a bag with two cuttings in it.  They had roots and leaves.   No medium either.  I put them in a gallon pot and they are going like crazy.  Go figure.   I have lots cuttings that I babied and did all the right things and they just sit.  Of course they are the ones I paid lots of money for.   I even had some cuttings that had molded, I washed them, dried them and stored them properly again.   More mold, washed and dried again, again put them away.  No mold   No nothing.  Threw them  and the bags they were in in the trash can on the deck.   Low and behold when I emptied the trash, I saw the bags with leaves sprouting out.  Huh.   Go figure.  Figs will grow out of wall, sewer ditches out of embankments,, out of cracks wherever they want to.  Key is when they want to.   Have a great day. Joyce

Thanks. This is my first time trying to root cuttings so I find it funny that my attempts failed and got seriously moldy and only through neglect did they root.

That type of "mold" you see there happens all the time when rooting cuttings and in my experience does not indicate a problem or negatively impact the cutting.  You can rub it off and the cutting will still be nice and firm underneath.  Or if you don't rub it off, as you can see, the cutting is still fine.  It's really not growing from or in the cutting itself, just on the outside of the cutting due to ambient moisture (presumably). 

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between this stuff you see here and "bad mold".  So if you're not sure best thing it to wait and see rather than give up and throw the cutting away.