Has anyone ever tried rooting fig cuttings in well-drained moist soil and if so, any success?

grapes love water.  figs don't!  Figs need barely damp soil and grapes love moisture!  Both root easily under the right conditions!

Suzi

Yes, I have placed sterile perlite /moss mix into a 1G nursery pot, damp moss, not soaking, placed in a large zip lock and forgot about it. they were trimmings i did not intend to root, but could not bear to throw out, but wanted to see what would happen.  I use this technique to root grapes each winter and it works great for the grapes.  Anyway the figs started nice, but the success was based on the basics of a even steady temperature location and sterile humid starting.

Yes and yes you can basically just put a cutting outside in the dirt early spring and it will most likely root 99 percent that I have done that way grow just fine I just don't have enough room to plant them all that's why I use cups

I rooted green cuttings this way this summer. I just potted them up, placed in the shade, and kept moist but not soaked. Prior to planting, I stepped on the bottom end of each cutting to crush a bit. The soil was a loose mixture of potting soil, Perlite and bagged "orchid bark" ( bits of fir bark). They rooted very well.

I put my last grapes together with my figs in same container. Both rooted beautifully.

Sorry, I could not upload the pictures, here... but I put them here, so you see, both are happy together here in the NW.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/sandwich-fig-with-grape-6084684

These a few cuttings that I started at the same time my inground trees started budding out.  The cuttings were taken while the trees were dormant and stored in a ziplok in the vegetable drawer until putting in the pots with about 1 inch left uncovered.  I used 6-8 inch tip cuttings.



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3 or 4 years ago, I got my first UC Davis order.  I knew about Grapes, but nothing about figs.  The figs all leafed out in the planting bands along with the grapes, then they all died.  Every last one!  I didn't know they don't like a lot of water and the grapes all thrived.  But, the figs I laid in the ground outside and ignored, all grew!  I'd see these huge leaves pop up, and wow!  A FIG!! 

This was before the days of the damp Sphagnum moss/baggies.  Our vineyard and figs now thrive.  I just root them differently!  Actually, the grape canes are so long, I often just bury them in the dirt, held down by some river rock, and they root like an air layer.  No room for more this year!  Grapevines love space and grow and grow and grow.  Figs do too, but they aren't as choosy in their fruiting habits as grapes are!  Finicky little friends, those wine grapes!!  They only produce on second year buds, so pruning is critical with them.  Figs will fruit on anything.  Especially new growth.  Not grapes!  No way!  So you need to save some canes from this year for next year's crop.  It gets confusing with all those canes, and they are legion!!

Suzi