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Rooted, Now What?

I may have been able to start my first cuttings!  

I know that I should wait until the roots touch the side of the cup or the poly bag in order to pot them into a larger container (1 gallon?).  

Since my cuttings are in a humidity bin, how do I acclimate the ones that are ready to be moved from humidity bin to real indoor air?  I know for seedlings, you usually just remove the top when the first one sprouts, but I don't think this is the case for fig cuttings.  Do I have to create an intermediate bin or do I pull them out for daily for few hours of playtime to harden them off?

Thanks!

Jen
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I am very new to figs but not cloning or rooting so I will tell you what I think. Once they have roots they will get all they moisture from there. Wait for more experienced fig cloners to chime in though.
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First, how do you know you have roots if they haven't reached the sides?  If you are judging by the leaf growth that's not a good way.  If there are leaves and no roots and you start decreasing the humidity you risk killing the shoot and setting yourself back.

If you can see roots, start by cracking the lid open for 5 minutes at a time and then re-closing for maybe an hour and do this a few times during the day.  Gradually increase the time cracked open.  Then take the lid off for 2 min at a time and back on for an hour or 2.  Gradually increase the lid off time.  Then take them out in to room air for a minute or 2 at a time and gradually increase that.  All the above assumes you're watching the leaves and there's no wilting.  If the leaves wilt spray them with water and go back a few steps.
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rcantor, Will this affect the cuttings that aren't ready to acclimate?  Or will it just make them stronger?  I remove the lid for maybe 5-10 minutes 3x a day because I am curious and an overbearing fig mother looking for roots.  
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Bob is exactly right.  This is a very fragile stage and it will take a lot of patience to acclimate them successfully.  To answer your last question, yes, it will affect the cuttings that aren't ready to acclimate.  They need very little disturbance in environment fluctuations.
Even when I have roots all over the walls of the cup, practically root bound, I still have to be very careful with weening them off a humid environment.  The leaves will still droop if outside the bin for more than 15 minutes.
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I put my cuttings in the cloner for my experiment this year.  The majority which have come out had great roots and little to no top growth.  This made it possible to go straight to cups without any type of humidity domes (which I had all along when using Root Riot).

Since there was no humidity dome on the cuttings which had top growth and root growth, they too went right into cups as well.

Everything in cups in my reasonably cold basement seems to still be doing well.  I'm really hoping for more root growth than top growth until we get closer to Spring.  I'm more concerned with acclimating the leaves to light than I am with the humidity issue this year.

When using Root Riot and humidity domes I had lots of droop (and some death) as I tried to ease the cuttings out of their high humidity environment.

As an aside, my LSU Purple and LSU Gold cuttings clearly take the prize for "first to cups".  I think almost all of them were in Pro-Mix before any other candidate made it out of the cloner.


Andrew
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Originally Posted by rcantor
First, how do you know you have roots if they haven't reached the sides?


I'd like to know too. 

Jen, have you read through this? http://figs4fun.com/basics_Rooting.html

Although already in the link above, these are two photos show good examples of what's considered ready for transplanting:

[FP964-92]    
[FP964-85] 
Sometimes, your roots may be more white than yellow (I think it's high moisture that has a yellowing effect.)

I'm gonna defer to other people's expertise on tempering the figs from high humidity to drier air. Miami's humidity is always on full blast so mine go right from the rooting "chamber" to a shady spot outside. Building off that, I give them a little bit of daylight each day after about a week of shade. This gradual introduction to full sun is important - do not skip this. I killed my first I258 cutting by rushing the process.
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I meant that more as a "I know the next steps" are to pot up when the cutting has rooted.  
I have the following - 
1) Cuttings that have roots touching the sides with green growth
2) Cuttings with lots of green growth and no signs of roots
3) Cuttings with lots and lots of roots and no signs of green growth
4) Cuttings that are still napping.  

I wanted to move some out of the humidity bin, I guess it seems like an intermediate bin to ween them off their humidity withdrawals may be the best option and then pot them up after that.  
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Hi Cheekyjen,
If the cuttings are already in cups:
You should pot up the ones with lots and lots and lots of roots (3) .
The problem if you don't have enough roots in the cups, the media will fall apart and that may shock the cutting .
too many roots ... could mean lack of nutrients. At least I would give them a bit of fertilizer .
At that point keep them in a high humidity environnement, and two weeks after potting up, start weening them off.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheekyjen
I meant that more as a "I know the next steps" are to pot up when the cutting has rooted.  
I have the following - 
1) Cuttings that have roots touching the sides with green growth
2) Cuttings with lots of green growth and no signs of roots
3) Cuttings with lots and lots of roots and no signs of green growth
4) Cuttings that are still napping.  

I wanted to move some out of the humidity bin, I guess it seems like an intermediate bin to ween them off their humidity withdrawals may be the best option and then pot them up after that.  


Jen I do use a smaller bin that I keep between 60-75% humidity (I <3 hygrometers! Lol) for the purpose of slowly acclimating my newly rooted cuttings like you have mentioned in post. For me it has been very helpful, especially with so many cuttings rooting at different stages. I don't want to expose the cuttings without roots (especially if they leafed out) to my constantly opening the bin throughout the day so this just makes it a lot easier for me.. There are many effective ways to go about acclimating your newly rooted cuttings as mentioned by other members above, but just wanted to let ya know having the 2nd "in between bin" really has done the trick for me quite well so far.. Good luck with your fig babies! :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheekyjen
I meant that more as a "I know the next steps" are to pot up when the cutting has rooted.  
I have the following - 
1) Cuttings that have roots touching the sides with green growth
2) Cuttings with lots of green growth and no signs of roots
3) Cuttings with lots and lots of roots and no signs of green growth
4) Cuttings that are still napping.  

I wanted to move some out of the humidity bin, I guess it seems like an intermediate bin to ween them off their humidity withdrawals may be the best option and then pot them up after that.  


Right.  :)  And what Jaime said.  :) 

The ones with roots and no shoots should be potted up to full sun and room air right away.  Whatever environment the leaves come out into they'll be adapted to.  You'll save yourself a lot of angst by having the leaves come out to full sun and room air. 

Whether I use cups or plastic bags I bury the cutting so that only the top 1/8" or so is sticking out.  That keeps the cutting moist but any shoots that develop are out in bright light and low humidity.  I don't use humidity chambers.

You might consider altering the environment of the ones that are napping to make it easier on yourself.

Anything with shoots but no roots should stay in humidity, anything with shoots and roots should be weaned cautiously.

Here's the reason, from something I posted elsewhere

No matter how good the roots are you have to transition the leaves from high to ambient humidity slowly. Leaves have pores in them that let water vapor and other gasses in and out. These pores (called stomata in the plural) have a mechanism to open and close. As humidity decreases they're supposed to close up so the leaf doesn't dry out. If they've been in constant high humidity they never close and the mechanism to close them hasn't been used so they don't work well. The closing mechanism is not a muscle but it acts like one. It has to be used in order to function properly.

So you have to expose them for brief times to low humidity or let the humidity drop slowly so the closing mechanism gets some time to 'work out'. It won't be able to close effectively right away on first exposure to low humidity.

Read this http://figs4fun.com/basics_Rooting.html first then click on the new alternative method and read that.  :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rcantor

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheekyjen
I meant that more as a "I know the next steps" are to pot up when the cutting has rooted.  
I have the following - 
1) Cuttings that have roots touching the sides with green growth
2) Cuttings with lots of green growth and no signs of roots
3) Cuttings with lots and lots of roots and no signs of green growth
4) Cuttings that are still napping.  

I wanted to move some out of the humidity bin, I guess it seems like an intermediate bin to ween them off their humidity withdrawals may be the best option and then pot them up after that.  


Right.  :)  And what Jaime said.  :) 

The ones with roots and no shoots should be potted up to full sun and room air right away.  Whatever environment the leaves come out into they'll be adapted to.  You'll save yourself a lot of angst by having the leaves come out to full sun and room air. 

Whether I use cups or plastic bags I bury the cutting so that only the top 1/8" or so is sticking out.  That keeps the cutting moist but any shoots that develop are out in bright light and low humidity.  I don't use humidity chambers.

You might consider altering the environment of the ones that are napping to make it easier on yourself.

Anything with shoots but no roots should stay in humidity, anything with shoots and roots should be weaned cautiously.

Here's the reason, from something I posted elsewhere

No matter how good the roots are you have to transition the leaves from high to ambient humidity slowly. Leaves have pores in them that let water vapor and other gasses in and out. These pores (called stomata in the plural) have a mechanism to open and close. As humidity decreases they're supposed to close up so the leaf doesn't dry out. If they've been in constant high humidity they never close and the mechanism to close them hasn't been used so they don't work well. The closing mechanism is not a muscle but it acts like one. It has to be used in order to function properly.

So you have to expose them for brief times to low humidity or let the humidity drop slowly so the closing mechanism gets some time to 'work out'. It won't be able to close effectively right away on first exposure to low humidity.

Read this http://figs4fun.com/basics_Rooting.html first then click on the new alternative method and read that.  :)




Thank you for this explanation of the process, it was really helpful! I understood that it was the leaves that needed a subtle introduction to the lowered humidity levels outside the bin but I did not know they needed to basically learn how to use their "muscles" lol just like babies of all sorts I suppose :) It made a lot of sense and I just really liked the way you described this process :) Made it easy for those of us who are very interested in understanding the how's and why's without having previously majored in biology or botany! :)
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Yes ditto here for another newbie.  I feel like I am really in the thick of things now.  I have experienced gnats, leaf drop, mold and the joy of rooting and leafing.  Still having a blast trying to figure out the figs.  
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