Grasa, you've been making some nice contributions lately by sharing some of your cool experiments with all of us. Keep it up! There have been many successful experimenters in days gone by that often did things that "couldn't be done". I have to admit, when I first saw your posts on grafting buds onto other cuttings, my first thought was "that's not going to work". I am, obviously eating my words now ;-) .

BUT, when I saw your posts about grafting roots onto cuttings, I sat up in my chair. I thought "now that just might work"!

So hats off to you my fellow fig nut :-) !

Last month I decided to follow your lead by trying a few of these root grafts for myself. Here are a couple of pictures to get things started. These pics were taken on the 23rd of last month (I'm still figuring out my new camera. So the pics don't show a date stamp :{ ). I'll have many more to follow:

I love this and Grasa's experiments as well. This is exciting stuff and it inspires me to try new methods.

John. I think Grasa has really put us onto something here. Still has to be proven out for the long run. If it does though, this will be a great shortcut to getting roots on our cuttings. Will beat the heck out of worrying over cuttings & waiting for roots to sprout. Of course, this is all based on the premise for those of us who have other fig trees already established. 

Again, if it works out for the long haul, this should also require less energy expended by the cutting = smaller cuttings can be used with (possibly) better results. That is, better results for things like small "one-noders", skinny cuttings, as well as over-sized cuttings, etc. We shall see.........

Really neat, thanks Bill and Grasa.

And we can maybe relax and not sweat so much over that single coveted cutting we managed to acquire. I have felt the sorrow of seeing a special opportunity mold and rot away. This could really help us all and better spread some of these great trees.

Bill
Goog idea to post your experiment. I hop you will post follow-ups to show the progress.

I thought if you keep a node of the cutting below the soil as assurance in case the graft does not work for some reason, the cutting will have another point to root from.

Now that is interesting Bill, please do keep us posted. 

Yes Ottawan, I do plan to post follow up pics & info. 

In fact here are a couple more:

I'm really not very happy with my pictures above. It's partly due to my new camera. I'm just not real crazy about it. The lighting was wrong in these pics also. But i guess you can see them well enough to get an idea of what's going on.

If you look closely at pic #3, you can see a new, small root initial starting. Look next to the ruler just about the 12.

   Grafting roots directly to the cuttings!   That is very interesting and useful to know about.   I do have a concern.

A few years ago I got the idea to graft a few unusual cuttings to insure that "they would root," guaranteeing that I would not lose a variety that was hard to acquire.(fortunately rooting successes are much better now) 

I ran into one problem with the few grafts I tried - I ended up transferring a strain of FMV directly to my rootstock plant that it did not have before, which in this case was a branch on a fig in my collection. (This rootstock fig may have had mosaic but never showed signs of it).     Oops...    I am careful when pruning to sterilize the pruners moving from one plant to another and then ended up screwing up.   

The opposite issue can result - if the rootstock (roots) are infected with a strain of FMV or a strain that is more problematic, it would transfer that disease to the scion.  

Ideally I would like to have some "clean" rootstock that could come from seedling material although I think that I read that even the seed coat can't protect it from all viruses.  

 Anyway, I do find this information very interesting and useful.  Thanks also for the photos!

Ingevald - 

 

Yes, you're right about the concern of transferring FVM to a rootstock that was previously free of it. I've just been using rootstock that I don't care about whether it has FVM or not. Or, more ideally, using a rootstock that already has FVM and is a vigorous grower in spite of it. Jon's Unk. Pastillere, for example, seems to be one of those. 

Excellent thread. Thank you thank you thank you.
No one had a nervous breakdown or had a hissy fit.
No one got insulted or insulted anyone else.
Keep it up -- I'm a fan!!!
mgg

Bill,
Thanks for posting. Although I will not be doing root grafting I plan on grafting to a few hardy local unknown rootstock. I have several large air layers that will be planted in ground in spring as rootstock, so am always interested in additional information. Please keep us updated on your progress.

Bill,

Thanks to you and Grasa for exploring new territory.  It looks like you wrapped Parafilm over the rubber bands, is that right?

Bill considering that nurseries tell us to 'trim roots' before planting, I am doing a batch where I am triming the roots (allowing many terminals to grow again) and see how it goes. I put them back in the rooting box for a while longer before I plant them. You have so many roots there and they look very good.  I found that joining them at the very bottom was best and I planted them in larger containers like 2 liter soda pop bottles and alike. So far, the cuttings I grafted roots all made it.  I will document them better from now on, so others can see what was done.

@ Steve. Yes that's Parafilm that I'm using. I've had this same roll for about 14 years (believe it or not:)) and I've used it more in the past two years than all those previously combined. I imagine it won't be long now until I'll need to order another roll.

I used only Parafilm on the two cuttings in the second and third picture of post #9. I'm hoping I will be able to just leave it on and plant these directly into potting soil.

@ Grasa. I think I used more roots than I needed. I intend to use shorter pieces in the future. If more is not necessary then smaller pieces would be more efficient as well as more convenient. 

This little project is going pretty good so far. I plan to do quite a few more. If I'm diligent enough I'll have more pictures and results to share later. I have a fairly high confidence in this method. I'm very grateful you shared it with us Grasa.

I hope you don't mind Grasa, but I thought it might be a good idea to share a link to some of your other threads that you've started on this grafting method. You deserve the credit.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Root-Grafting-LSU-6163930

Just want to share my latest pictures of root grafts. This post is sort of a tutorial. Hope this helps some of you who are interested in trying it.

I'll be back later to add more information about each picture:

EDIT 1/19/13: Just getting back to filling in the details here. From left to right:

- Picture #1.
The "volunteers" are prepped and ready for surgery.

- Picture #2:
The tip of the first piece of root is trimmed on both sides cutting it into a wedge shape. I use a basic box knife when making cuts like this. This is the same type of blade I use in all of my grafting procedures. Buying an expensive grafting knife is a waste of money - IMHO.

- Picture #3:
Here I've begun prepping the scionwood by making the incision from the butt end of the cutting upward. The cut is made only deep enough to separate the bark from the hard wood beneath. Make the cut just slightly longer than the length of the wedge shape cut on the root. I've lifted the bark slightly so the cut can be clearly seen.

- Picture #4:
This picture simply illustrates the root resting in place under the bark.

- Picture #5:
Here I've cut the thin strip of Parafilm which will be used to wrap the first root. It's a little tricky holding the root securely in place while getting the first couple of wraps started. After that, I can release my hold on the root/graft union and continue to wrap the union as securely as possible. Only so much tension can be put on the Parafilm without it breaking. But it can still be wrapped tightly enough to ensure that the root is bound securely in place.

- Picture #6:
Here the first piece of root has been secured to the scion. The second root has been cut into the wedge shape and the next cut has been made in the scion wood in preparation to receive the second root.

- Picture #7:
Both roots have been securely bound in place.

- Picture #8:
Here we see the finale result. I have wrapped the rest of the scion with Parafilm forming a complete seal over the entire cutting. This is done in hopes that it will prevent desiccation of the small piece of scion wood. It might also help prevent/reduce the possibility of mold forming on the scion in a high humidity environment.  
 

Thanks for the tutorial, Bill. So then you just pot them up and wait for the roots to take? Is top growth a fair indicator that the graft went well?

John. My plan is to pot this directly up in to a basic potting soil that I mixed up with a little bit of everything in it. Wasn't real careful about the ingredients. I'll do the potting up tomorrow. I placed the root graft in some damp sphagnum until then. 

I'm guessing that the cutting could put out a little top grow even without the roots having started growing. If that was the case though I'd imagine the growth would collapse sooner or later without any support from the roots.  So, even if I see some initial growth, I won't be counting any chicks until it puts on some considerable growth ;) . 

After I put the roots in, I put them in moss and manage the 'healing bond' Only after I see the root taking off I put in cups.   Your taping is very nice and your results may be even better.

Thanks, Grasa and Bill!  I may try this on a CdD Blanc that isn't rooting for me.  Wish me luck!

-Grasa. It remains to be seen if my potting them up right away is a good idea or not. Just experimenting like you here ;) . Also don't know if my results will be any better than yours or not. Thanks for the compliment though. I've done a lot of typical grafting over the past couple of seasons. So, I got a lot of practice in. Wrapping the Parafilm is also easier than wrapping that heavy visqueen I've been using to wrap my outdoor grafts.

-Bob. I wish you the best and I hope it works out on the positive side for you. It's a fun experiment at the very least anyway :-) .

Bill, Grasa, I love this idea! Great work guys! I have a few questions. This idea has me thinking about doing this to my 2 Black Ischias. I have 2 small 1 year old Black Ischia UCD. They hardly grew last year.

Question #1: What root stock did you use?
Question #2: Once the grafting tape is added, what next? Do you pot up is normal soil mixture? or New Zealand peat (long fiber)?
Question #3: Why the rubber bands?

thanks!!!!