You know sometimes things go well and sometimes not well.
This time not well 2 VDB'S are now dead, it was experiment with rooting gel which started out good but condensation killed both plants roots as they browned . But good thing i have healthy mother plant coming out of dormancy in garage.
Spider mites i never dealt with till recently and never seen them until it was to late when i only noticed them with jewler eyepiece and 2 plants had them, one did not make it and the other one is struggling but has a chance as i hopefully caught in time and sprayed it.
I checked my others nearby undergrow light and there ok and will monitor closely. Everything was cleaned in area. I dont mind loseing plant that i try to root but when i lose a plant that i buy or is given to me for some reason it really bothers me much more.
So in my fig world things do go bad along with the good.

Martin
I am new to this forum and raising figs. I have 1 hardy chicago and 1 dark portugese. Both 2 years old  This year I bought a brown turkey from millers. All are in pots.I live
in upstate NY zone 5 same zone as you. I would like to get two more figs. Do you have any suggestions for this area.
Vince

Hi Martin,

Sometimes I think you have to blame bad genetics on the cuttings part maybe.  I had a whole branch at the end of last summer that I cut into many cuttings.  Not one of those cutting worked out and I tried everything that was known to me.  They just did not want to root and when they did the roots rotted or fell off.  Finally the second to last cutting had worms eating it when I pulled it out of the cup.... It was a big dissapointment. The mother tree is nice and healthy and a few blocks from my house?? I feel your pain :)

Vince,
ive heard nothing but good things about Marseilles Vs.

Kim,
the VDB was no big deal to me the other one was very special to me and since it was i should have watch over it more and seen the signs earlier as this was given to me healthy and should have grown fine.
and life goes on!

Good point, Dan.

It raises a few questions

1. Is clear plastic storage box OK for placing baggies in it if placed in normal room lighting so one can see the rooting progress or it has to be darkened?

2. What role actually the moisture in the moist paper wrapped around the cuttings plays? I was thinking that it provides some humidity thus slowing down desiccation of the cuttings?

Ottawan,

(1) I put my cuttings that are in baggies inside my "nursery" primarily for convenience sake but the temp is held constant so that is a bonus. The nursery is actually near a window so it receives a good amount of light without any detrimental effects.

(2) Moisture is needed to keep the cutting from drying, but I suspect that (similar to seeds) it is a catalyst for starting the rooting process also.

(3) I put many cuttings in a single bag but I wrap them individually in their own newspaper. I do not mix cuttings of different types or sources because I have found that the single biggest contributer to mold is the conditions prior to taking the cutting and if they have any damage. Since different cuttings and sources had different conditions, I think it is safer to keep them apart.

(4) I agree about keeping away from heat sources but more from a perspective of minimizing fluctuations. I have not observed the problems with condensation. My nursery, and rooting bags, inevitably have condensation because of the humidity levels. It has not caused me any problems.

Sorry Martin, I guess we are hijacking.

Hey guys being highjacked in fig land is fine i always enjoy reading the post of different things pertaining to all things about figs. Now if i was in airplane which i dont like that would be different.    ; )

when cleaning figs with Clorox, alcohol, and hydroxide peroxide how long do it suppose to fiz and bubble until you know its clean of mold?  

lol...thx, i guess i did over do it there. i read on a gardenweb post that its good to use alcohol and peroxide to rid mold. well i wanted to know before i started thx