Talk figs.

What is your easiest and hardest cuttings to root this winter?

So far and by a long shot my easiest is Black Greek. Roots everywhere.

The hardest is Petite Aubique. Don't know why but it is having a hard time getting with the program.

I had one cutting each of Persian White and Well Sweep. Both failed. Very disappointing as I really wanted those two.

So far, Mario's Salce is rooting like a charm, as has kubota's UNK Calabria. Looking forward to tasting those figs.

hmm.. don't know what happened. any way.. this was what i was typing before this computer rudely replaced with only one word out of my update. 

all of them were easy. they all rooted before moving into cups other than Unknown Greek and Noir de Caromb. however, Unknown Greek and NdC both had nice top growth and good callus on the bottom, so they went into cup all the same. 

lost only one variety. not sure what happened. all the cuttings from same variety all molded heavily and all rotted. i wasn't have to save it at all. it rotted too quickly and all over and i wasn't able to do anything to save any portion of it. 

Hi Mike,

I usually shy away from conversations like this.  I find there are so many variables that what is difficult to get rooted one (or more)times, roots without much effort another. 

For this year, I have not started rooting yet (normally, I would consider myself to be late).  I have several trees I had originally planned to dig up which are now going to be rootstock for grafts.  I will graft as many as I can then root what I have remaining.

~james

Maltese Beauty -
Level: difficult
Result: Live

Blk Madeira (MN)
Level: difficult
Result: Dead 05/12

GM#5 Maltese Falcon
Level: Easy
Result: Dead 09/12

Florea (MN)
Level: Easy
Result: Live

Ronde de Bordeaux
Level: Easy
Result: Live

Lyndhurst White (KK)
Level: Easy
Result: Live

I have more.... But every cutting is different
-jennifer

I rooted 36 different varieties this winter and had 35 successes.....granted on most I had 3 cuttings but in most cases all 3 rooted or 2-3 rooted.  I don't think I had any where just 1-3 rooted.  But did have one where none, 0-3 rooted and that was on Excel...no idea why but it was a total loss.  None even made it to a cup.  So I would say my Easiest was Beers Black...huge fast growing roots (Thanks JP) and hardest of course Excel.  At the moment have 120+ cupped up or close to that.

WillisC,. that is a great percentage of successes. And to have that number in the cups. I have almost that number and probably 50-75 more in the baggies sp moss.

the easy ones
Petite Aubique 1 out of 1
MvsB 5 out of 5
osbornprolific 6 of 6
 
Hardest
Florea 1 out of 1 still no roots might lose cutting
VdB (maybe not so hard but takes awhile to root)
Ld'A still looks good, still no roots at all.
hardy chicago lost 2 out of 4


i have many more cuttings going but these are the ones that stuck out.

Maltese beauty wanted to die on me but it is now growing very well, I cut off most of the buds to try grafting, 1 out of 4 took.  The end rotted once on it so I cut it off then stuck it again and within a week I had roots after waiting about 5 weeks for nothing so I am happy.  I would call this difficult.

Maltese Falcon rooted really well for me and now it is just stagnant.  I have a bud forcing out growth slowly but it's about the size of a match head.  I would call it easy to root but I must be doing something that it doesn't like to keep it going so I moved it to a faster draining mix to try to activate it, the old roots are still alive and well.

I have had an impossible time rooting Sicilian Red.  :-(

Hardest
Panachee 0 for 6 (still looking for more to kill, LOL)

Easiest
Ventura 15 for 15

WoW Danny, I want thing about getting Panachee but your percentage scares me a little.

Mike,
Crazy, I had cuttings from two generous members and killed all of them, never got to root stage.  I generally kill them after developing great roots but not these guys.  I still want one but I don't know if anyone is willing to sacrifice any more victims, LOL

Easiest:
Florea
Salce
Unknown Calabria/Chiappetta
Petite Negri
Sal's Corleone

Hardest:
Mbvs
Genovese Nero

Mention of Excel with 0-3 surprised me, my results are never as good as many here, but I had best results with Excel last year. Sometimes it's just the condition of the cuttings

Strudeldog, you are so right. I have been comparing the easy and hard ones that have been posted with my attempts. It seems that many of the
hard ones posted were easy for me and and easy ones were difficult. I am sure it is the cuttings along with the method used by each of us also.

i don't think there is "easy" or "hard" ones. it's more of condition of the cuttings and how it's handled during the transit. fresh cutting taken just before shipping that has gone through nice weather during the transit shouldn't have any issue. then there is rooting set up.. temp and moisture level. and that certain window when you need to move them to the cup/pot before mold and rot start to set in. 

Yesterday I found out two of my Macool cuttings, already rooted and leafed, were killed by some f#\@ing fungus gnats larvae. I tried to save one of the cuttings but I don't have much hope. Very little usable cutting left (only one node). I was extremely sad and pissed but kept telling my self... there will always be another cuttings.. :( BTW, they are easy to root.

Peter, what was your tell-tell sign that fungus gnats was the cause?

So far I've successfully rooted cuttings from about 25 varieties and all have been uppotted to a soil mixture from the perllite/vermiculite cups. I might be losing 1 of them.. LSU Purple. The roots looked a bit suspect when I uppotted it and now the single leaf is wilting so may be loosing that one. Success on all the others though.

easy - Black Jack

difficult - Green Ischia (brought back from the brink of moldy death, but now still a slow grower and may eventually lose it)

Easy Sunfire, difficult Purple Jordan

Mike- I started to noticed the leaves are starting to wilt. The new green stem is shrinking and starting to turn brown. So I pull them out of the pot. Most roots are already gone. The skin of the cutting looks rotted. So, I scrape some of the rotted skins with my finger nail and found a bunch of gnats larvae under the rotted skin. I personally squeeze each one of them to death!!