Hello, I'm from Plano, Texas and am attempting to propagate cuttings I took from my parents' trees. They had two trees, about 10 years old with really tasty figs. I believe one was a type of Mission and the other Turkish. One of my father's close friends had them planted in their yard when my parents first moved into the house. They had recently sold the house when I decided to take a few cuttings and attempt to root, thinking it would be a nice gift for them. They loved those trees. I tried the plastic baggie method and was able to get several to root. I placed them in clear plastic cups with holes in a mixture of soil and perlite and placed them on an elevated tray in a large clear covered plastic box. I was excited bc they seemed to be doing really well and a few even had large leaves. But after a week they started wilting and all died. Maybe the roots weren't established enough when I placed them in the cups? Around this same time, my father who had been diagnosed with leukemia several years back, suddenly became very ill and passed away. I was very close to my Dad so losing the cuttings seemed even more heartbreaking. I was in the middle of rooting the cuttings when he died. A few months afterwards, I asked my husband to get permission from the new owners to let us get a few more cuttings. He took the cuttings this past winter and I've kept them wrapped in the fridge. Luckily, I still also had a few left in the fridge from the previous cuttings bc when my husband went back, he said one of the trees had been cut down completely. Two weeks ago, I got all the cuttings and laid them in boxes with sphagnum moss on top of the fridge. I air them out every day for a few minutes and lightly mist. That's where I'm at and am nervous about something going wrong again. I'm adding a few photos and welcome any tips or advice to ensure a better chance at success this time since I may not be able to get any more cuttings from these particular trees. The cuttings have come to mean something much more to me. The first two are the older cuttings from the tree that was cut down, both are rooting. Third and fourth are newer cuttings, also rooting well. The remaining four from newer cuttings show little or no roots but have green shoots and two of these cuttings with shoots are much thicker and longer than the rest. Approx. 14" long and twice the thickness of a pencil. Not sure if I should cut them in half (read this somewhere) or if I should leave and wait to see if they root. Thanks, I apologize for this lengthy post!

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. You have a good start, but don't overwater or mist. It's so easy to lose cuttings to mold. Go through the forum search function and read about the three cup method too, you might try that as alternative method just in case. Last thing, I keep my cuttings a bit smaller, around 5-6", so you may want to cut your longer cuttings to get more to play with. Good luck!

Thank you! I'll look into the three cup method you've mentioned and try cutting at least a couple to see what happens. I also gave a few cuttings to a good friend of mine who is an avid gardener but hasn't grown figs before. Hoping at least one of us succeeds :)

Sairahrm, from your pictures it looks like you are using peat moss instead of long fiber sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss let's more air to the cuttings for better success and to keep them from getting moldy and rotting. Since you were successful in getting roots, Congratulations! Your next step would be to pot them up in a small container. Use a potting medium that drains well. When you add it to the pot make sure it's moist but not soggy. Plant the rooted cutting in the pot and cover with a empty pop bottle or put it in a clear plastic container. Keep it in bright light but out of direct sun so it does bake the cuttings. Open the container daily for fresh air for a few minutes and check that the soil is moist but not too wet and not too dry. If all goes well you should see growth on average within 1 to 3 weeks.
Good Luck!

Tonycm, thanks for the tips. I realized my mistake with the peat moss a few days back. I was mainly looking for "sphagnum moss", and the bag I purchased was labeled "sphagnum peat moss." I didn't realize there were different types of sphagnum moss until seeing photos. But yes, fortunately a few have rooted. I am wondering if I should get the long fibered sphagnum moss now for the ones which are not showing much root growth yet (but have green shoots), leave them as they are or do I need to take them out and pot bc of the shoots? Two of the four which are not showing much root growth but have shoots are thicker and longer than rest so am going to cut at least one of those in half and see what happens. Also would the peat moss make a good potting medium for the ones which have rooted? Thank you!

Welcome to the forum Sairahrm. I am sorry to hear about your dad. I hope your cuttings will grow into beautiful trees.

Norhayati, thanks so much, appreciate it! Learning a lot here :)

Welcome!  I'm sorry you lost your dad, that's always very hard.  

I prefer this method.  There are many that work you just have to find the way that suits you the best.

http://figs4fun.com/basics_Rooting.html  Read the first page for principles then read the link at the top of the page "new alternative method".  The only secret is you have to rinse all the fine dust out of the perlite.  I use #3  that you can get at hydroponic stores.   I let the roots get at least 1.5" long before moving to a pot.

If you use long fibered sphagnum the roots tend to stick to it and when you water the sphagnum holds so much water that it can drown the roots.  

Thanks rcantor, appreciate all the tips and link. Looks like we have a hydroponic store nearby, will check.

Sairahrm if the cuttings have roots, even at 1/4 inch long, you can pot them up. They will grow.
I never use cups, once a cutting has roots it goes into a small pot and after you see that it's growing good
its time to up pot it to a gallon size container.
You can mix some peat moss in the potting mix but I wouldn't use it exclusively.
It's hard to get wet but once it's wet it's hard to dry out. (Not good for figs)
I use ProMix and sometimes add potting soil, mini pine bark nuggets, perlite and composted manure.
I have no set ratio, just mix it in til it looks good to me and have no problems with it.
What works for me might not work for you. That is something that you'll need to experiment with.

Thanks. The first time I tried, I was able to get them to root and then put the cuttings in a mixture of perlite and soil and a few in perlite and vermiculite mix in clear cups. They seemed to start out fine for couple weeks but then all died. I'm going to look for the coarser perlite and rinse dust as rcantor suggested and try a couple different mixtures that have been mentioned. To be honest, I didn't realize perlite and vermiculite came in different sizes of coarseness till now. Do you recommend a certain type and size of pot/container? Plastic with drainage holes used at nurseries? If you can't already tell, I'm pretty new to gardening in general :) I think I need to pot the ones rooting quite a bit over this weekend.

Smaller pots are better than larger. The larger the pot the longer it takes to dry out. With a large pot you may think it needs watered but in reality it's still damp in the center then you water it too much resulting in rotted roots. With a smaller pot you can control it much better until the root system is well developed. I usually start with 3 or 4 inch plastic pots with drain holes. (No solid pots that can hold water, it must be able to drain excess water) Once they're growing good and look like it is out growing the container I then up pot them to gallon size. Just remember that on the drier side is better than too wet. Too much attention can sometimes be a bad thing.

Appreciate it, Tonycm. Will try potting a few today and see how it goes.