I've known for a few years now of a method for rooting deciduos hardwood cuttings in the ground during winter. I'm curious, of course, about how well this might work with fig cuttings.

Although I've yet to actually try this method myself, on any type cuttings, the process goes something llike this:

1.) Gather your cuttings in the late fall/early winter once the parent trees  have gone completely dormant.

2.) Line the cuttings up so the butt ends are made even with each other and tie them into bundles.

3.) Select a site outside that will receive full sun.

4.) Dig a hole in the ground deep enough to cover the cuttings with about 3-4" of soil when placed in the hole vertically UPSIDE DOWN. Be sure that they are placed in the ground with the BUTT END UP & BUD END DOWN.
I'm sure the depth may vary depending on how far north you are.
I've also heard of a slight variation on this where the cuttings are placed at an angle instead of 100% verticle.

5.) Cover the cuttings completely with soil and leave a marker so you can find them in the spring.

The following is an excerpt from some information I have;

{Over the winter the cuttings will develop callous and possibly some roots. Placing them in the hole upside down puts the butt ends closest to the surface, so they can be warmed by the sun, creating favorable conditions for root development. Being upside down also discourages top growth.

Leave them alone until about mid spring after the danger of frost has passed. Over the winter, the buds will begin to develop and will be quite tender when you dig them up. Frost could do considerable damage if you dig them and plant them out too early. That’s why it is best to leave them buried until the danger of frost has passed.}

6.) Once you've dug them up just plant them out doors in a pre-selected location.

I don't know if it would be best to provide them with some partial shade at this point or not - ?

7.) In the fall when the trees have gone dormant again you can dig them up, place them in pots, and bring them indoors for winter storage.  

Does anyone have any reasons why this wouldn't work for fig cuttings? It seems reasonable that it would/should work as long as the cuttings were deep enough so as to not freeze solid.

Some concerns I have would be - Will my cuttings be safe until spring? Are there any critters out there during winter that might nibble on them? Will someones dog dig them up just for fun? I'm sure some of you can think of other dangers. If the answer is yes to such questions, what sort of methods might I use to protect them? Please share your experience/thoughts here.

Well, in the end, I am going to give this method a try. I have a large bundle of cuttings that I got from an unknown local tree that will be useful for experimenting with.

Some of the advantages I see from this would be convenience. You could just bury them and basically give them no more care until you dig them up in the spring.

I appreciate any input on this.

-Bill. 

Bill,

Okay-
I have been an almost daily reader of this forum for over a year but just finally registered 2 months ago.
Now, finally, my first post.
I also have been interested in this method.  Jack, I see you are Zone 8.  Has anyone further North had luck with this method?  If so, how deep do you place the top (bottom) end?

Kyle-
Zone 5 Colorado

Jack,
Thank you for your input on this. I like your idea of using a container to encase/protect the cuttings. Keeping it covered would give you much more control on the moisture levels too.

I had been tossing the idea around on how to protect them in the ground as well. I think I may try just using some 1/4" wire mesh very similar to your 30 gal barrel method. I also like the thought of leaving some of it sticking above ground. This would serve, at least in part, as a marker.

My ground drains really well here so I shouldn't have to worry about them getting too wet if I use the wire mesh. I'd say they would stay moist enough too without any additional watering. I'd probably try it with just my garden soil, for the first time around anyway. If I didn't absolutely need the sand this would save in cost, extra work, & time a little bit.

Kyle,

The person I got my information from lives in northern Ohio which is zone 5. Apparently he has been using this method in his area on hardwood cuttings for many years. But I'm pretty sure the info was NOT designed with fig cuttings in mind. That's not to say that it won't work in any zone the ground doesn't freeze too deeply.

In this fellows info he was reccommending leaving the butt end of the cuttings only about 3" below the soil. This sounds a little shallow to me but that's what he reccommended. If it were me, I might go a little deeper to be on the safe side. I'm just going to experiment a little to see what works best.

Jack, we know you're in zone 8. How deep do you leave the butt end of the cuttings? 

In my zone the ground never freezes any deeper than a few inches at most. Further down ( I guess about a foot or so) the soil maintains temps pretty much in the low fifties. 

Obviously this method wouldn't be much good if you live on top of permafrost. As for zones around Z4, I just don't know.     

Bill,

Sounds good jack. I look forward to trying this method.

Hi, I know that in Vermont as long as there is snow the ground does not freeze,I have done cuttings this way,not fig, also I  dig up compost in the winter. Rex

I've been having excellent results with Jon's "New Bag" method but I too have read about this method for rooting hardedned grapevine cuttings also.

Their instructions were to bundle, flip, bury butts 4 inches from top, add sand/soil, and water wel once.

I'll see if I can get a bunch of bt or unknown cuttings to experiment with because I'd like to try different widths, depths as well as note the results with different buryng medium used. I suspect the sand would drain much better than soil and behave like perlite and allow the roots to spread easily as compared to soil only.

Saxonfig, very intriguing method for rooting the cuttings directly in ground. Would like to ask you if ever tried rooting the cuttings this way? If so, how did it turned out? Thank you.

Navid.

I have taken blackraspberry cuttings and just planted them where I wanted them in the fall and they would grow in the spring. raspberry  and blackberry cuttings are hard to start.so I treated them the way you guys preroot figs then put in a tight container with high humidity and I have roots all over the cuttings.Rex

Hey Vince. Yes I've also heard of and seen (on youtube) others that have rooted grapes this way. I'm guessing it must be a fairly common practice with grapes. I've also known folks to just "plug" grape cuttings into the ground in fall and end up with growing vines come spring.

Great information saxonfig, thank you. Will give this method a try next season to see how it works for me in my climate.

Navid.

Yeah you might want to try it with fig scion thats would be of no loss just in case.
Perhaps use some white types.

LOL Martin. Yeah, I have only a few light colored varieties, the rest are the dark ones. At the beginning of the last season I gave away most of the light colored varieties that I had in my collection and only kept few of them that were the best.

Navid.

Bill,

I started rooting cuttings in the ground last October.  I buried about 5-6 inches of the cutting and surrounded the remainder 3 inches above the soil line with mulch (to retain water and as a cold/wind block).  I did not cover the cuttings, but it could easily be done with a tarp being the entire cutting is below the mulch line.  All tips are still green but there has been no top growth.  I'm tempted to dig one up to see if it has rooted already.

I rooted cuttings during winter (well winter in Houston) once before.  That time I had them in containers with my normal growing mix.  I had great success.  I assumed the cool temperatures had kept the top of the cutting from growing , while the sun warmed up the containers enough to encourage root growth.

I was motivated to try this again in hopes that an early start would mean more substantial root growth before the summer heat/drought sets in. 

~james

I learned a little more on this topic last winter. After posting the info in post #11, I decided to do some more experimenting. I had some extra cuttings to work with and here's what I did with them:

I cleared an area up next to the south side of my house and then laid a bunch of cuttings on their side right on top of the loosened soil. I placed them so the butt ends faced the house and the tips were further out from the house. (A side note here; the cuttings where behind the drip line, under the eave of the house). I then covered them with a good layer of mulch. Enough that I felt they would be protected from the coldest temps in my area.

Then around late March/early April I pulled back enough of the mulch to see the top end of the cuttings. Then I re-covered them with just a fine layer of mulch. Some time later, most of these cuttings started to grow. Not sure how much time had past, but it had gotten plenty warm enough that the cuttings had warmed up enough to send up this new growth.

I left the cuttings to grow as much as they wanted until about August. At that time I dug them and potted them up. Many of them didn't have as many roots as I thought they would but most still took off and grew well for the rest of the season.

A couple of things I plan to do differently this winter:
1) - I intend to do use the same process only out away from the house in a more exposed area. Just want to see if the cuttings will actually be adversely affected by more natural conditions or not - rain fall etc.
2) - This time around, I plan to just leave the cuttings in the ground all the way through the winter and spring of the following year. I feel this will give them more time to get a fully established root base. I will protect them in situ through the winter months by covering them with mulch.

Has anyone else had success with just burying cuttings and then having them pop up in the spring? If I can repeat my success, this will be a great passive way to root some extra cuttings. Not recommending this for those who are trying to root a rare variety just one or two cuttings. Might be best suited for some bulk cuttings that you have plenty extras of.

Anyone doing this spring?  How is it working for you?
Anyone doing this in early spring into the summer?
Looking and learning!!!!

Zone 8
South West TX

Hello SW TX. 

I did put some cuttings out this spring as outlined in paragraph 5 of post #16 above.  However, I didn't store them all winter this way. Just didn't get them out until about a week ago. 

All I did was pull back some mulch under one of my trees and laid the cuttings around the base of the tree (Made sure to clearly mark the different varieties). I then covered them with a thin layer of mulch. Just enough to keep them from drying out. The mulch is little thicker over the butt end of the cutting. I'm guessing that a nice thick layer over the entire cutting might protect them better but I just didn't want it to be so thick that it would hinder the buds from pushing through at the tips.

I'm already seeing a few little buds beginning to raise their heads. This doesn't mean they have roots yet but does indicate some life in the cuttings.

Something to keep in mind here concerning buds pushing before roots. Even though cuttings don't have root growth yet but are showing top growth, this can still be a good thing in this scenario. Generally, if a cutting starts making a lot of top  growth before it makes roots, this can often mean its demise when starting cuttings indoors. This because the cutting could expend all its carbohydrate energies on top growth but have no roots to support it. But when this occurs outdoors, the natural sunlight can actually provide a little energy via the new leaves. This can buy the cutting just a little more time to start making roots (thus tapping into the nutrients from the soil) before it expends all it's energies.  All in theory anyway ;-) .

I know that the "old timer" method of starting cuttings was to just stick cuttings out in the field and hope for the best. I also know that pretty good success has been had when doing this. So it stands to reason that we can still do this successfully if given a proper chance.

If anyone else is having success with the "stick 'em and forget 'em method", it would be nice to hear your experience on it.

Hope this is helpful!

I guess you knew this comment was coming, huh?  So, you trying this method have no gnats in the soil?  I find those creatures everywhere... I had a few fig cuttings i started last summer's end and being local varieties i did not pay too close attention.. now going over my inventory and finding out that if I put 4-5 cuttings, the gnats ate most, but one...so, at least one survived.. all others, they ate everything.  they got all the rain and cold we have..miracle that a few survived. now the trick is to wait to find out what survived...

Thanks Bill, This info is a lot of help. I put sum cutting in tubs and layared damp sand over them. Kinda like others do with the moss. Will see in a few weeks if root form. When I get good root I will put in cups.

Thanks Grasa I think if a person stands still where you are they would sprout roots or mold. Here where I am you either dry up and blow away or turn to stone!!!!

Zone 8
South West TX

this method is  not new. It is the method outline in a bulletin published by the Texas A&M extension service. It is or was used by commercial propagators for rooting figs.

Bill  and Jack,

     Thanks for this thread. I also recently  heard that one can carry over tomatoes by buying them in a pot of moistened sand in an unheated garage. May the figs will have to share space this winter.

I put some cutting in damp course sand today. I covered up all the cutting. They are in black tubs in the barn out of sun lite. Hope this will cut down on the mold issue I am have with cuttings that are 6 week old. Most of them are making it but some died. I am trying something different because it is going to be hot very soon. Do green wood cutting mold worse than old wood cuttings?

Zone 8
South West TX

Anyone still doing this?

Here is the Video that was mentioned already I believe! Hope this helps!

Frank