An old Italian man who lived next to me as I grew up had a BT for as long as I can remember, He would dig a hole next to it and useing a comealong he would pull it down to the ground and drive rebarr XXXcrisscrossing it, then cover with dirt and leaves (he was 93 when he died 10 years ago) as a kid (53 now) I would sneak over and liberate some good ones now and then, he knew because he told me about the little drop of honey means it`s ready. Someone else bought the property after he died,(a gardener) he rooted one for me 8yrs ago 7ft now, in ground from day one, the first two yrs I buried it , been wraping it ever since,very little dieback I wrap it with a thermal cement blanket one used for laying on side walks so that the cement cures in cold weather, I started a few plants from it just by pushing a stick in a bucket of plain dirt and watering it.The Old mans son got one from him 20 yrs ago it is 15ft when ripe. I cut it down to 12 this yr and wraped it for him in Nov. I tied a rope around it hooked it to my truck and cinched it up tight.he was too sick he had leukemia(63yrs young). He went into the hospital the 1st of this year .When I went to see him he could`nt talk becuase of the tubes I put a cutting I had in a cup of water that spouted one leaf out of the top (no roots)into a cup of dirt and walked into his room with it, he had all kinds of beautiful flowers all around him with card on them I guess I looked silly to the people in the room, with this stick in a cup. He looked at it and put the biggest smile he could. One of the visitors was Italian, he said thats a fig ,then it made all the sence in the world.He died the next day. His sister took the fig back to Ohio with her, I let her know it was from her Fathers tree, sure hope it roots.I`m glad I found this forum, I`m learning now ! I have about 30 cuttings trying to root, first attempt molded, I got some in the bag some in just a cup of perlite, some in just water, and a few horizontal in hot dog containers with perlite, something got to work. I`m in North Delaware temp is 36 now. Pete

Hi Pete,
Welcome to this great fig forum.
It seems that you have done your homework, and going well on your way.
If you have some specific question(s), feel free to ask; some fig expert will
answer you for sure. Good luck with your current fig rootings.

Welcome Pete. What a great story. When my father was in the hospital with cancer I thought about bringing a tree for him to look at and care for. We had been estranged for many years and when he got sick I went to see him several times and had some nice visits. He was an avid gardener and used to care for a fig tree many years ago. We found common ground for conversation about the election, the NY Giants and fig trees. He passed away last week and I wish I had brought him that fig tree.

Glad to see you joining our community. Happy Growing.

Steve, sorry to hear about your Father!

Welcome oldiron56
 
 
 
Cecil

Oh oldiron56,
Sorry about the loss of your father. I know what it all feels/means.
I lost my dear dad as a teenager.

Welcome to figs and the forum.

Welcome to the forum,  I really enjoyed hearing your story. It touched me. 
Steve, I am so sorry to hear about your father.  Now you have an extra guardian angel on your shoulder to look after you every day!!  God Bless you and your family for your loss.  I lost my Pop, he was wonderful.  I think of him every day of my life.  But he is still with us.  Ciao Ciao

Steve,
i'm sorry hear about your Father.  Wishing to you and Family the best.

Oldiron,
that was a nice thing you did.


Welcome to the forum , i sure you will enjoy the conversations from the nice people here.

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

Pete, sorry didn't want to hijack your thread just wanted to relate to your story.

My best to everyone.

Thanks all for the warm welcome, I just wanted to relay another power of the Fig. I will let you know which method of rooting works for me the best. I have roots showing on some that are just in a jug of water, but they are about half way up the cutting, not at the end, and they been in the water for at least a month, I have all of them on top of the freezer now, didn`think of that, 70 degees now, I have one bag on top of my modem on the desk, 86 degrees, learned that here too. Sorry to hear of you Father Steve, mine is 77 thinks he`s 40, God bless him ,gotta spend the best tjme we can with them while they are here.   Pete

Ciao Pete,  just my opinion, be careful rooting in a jug of water, especially if it is a very special fig  cutting that you just can't be without.  Maybe a fig from the family or something of that sort.  Maybe a special variety.  I found that when you root in water they get water roots and the tree may suffer when it is eventually put into the pot or the ground. I don't know the correct term for this, but sometimes they don't grow strong enough to support life later when rooted in water.  Good job with the heat.  I think as long as it is warm, but not too hot, they root much quicker and stronger when in a good heated environment. 

Maggie your right, the roots I see are long and stringy like thread, not like the ones I see on this forum, and the cuttimgs that I am using arn`t any thing special,they are from my BT, I have alot. I want to make sure I find a good or (Best Way) of rooting before I ask anyone for somthing special, I want to be confident in the method I use. As it is, I have only the BT and one small bush I rescued from sure destuction that I think is a Brunswick,at least that is what the leaves look like,I didn`t see any fruit because the workers had cut it down to the ground, I just dug what roots I could, planted it in the garden, what came up that year the rabits ate. I put a wire mesh around it this year, I might see figs. I got some good figs from the BT this year but the Creacher stole most       Pete

Oldiron56, welcome!

The few times I've started cuttings in water I don't wait for the roots to form. Once I see a good swelling of root nodules, I plant in a mix of MB and perlite. Has worked well for me. New roots exploded and these from late summer cuttings.

Steve, My condolences on your Dad's passing. It's a hard time in life.

Sue

wow sounds like ur pretty passionate for this man sorry to hear he passed away

Thanks Sue and everyone for your thoughts. They mean a lot. It is a difficult time.