ROOTING FIGS IN A BAG

Take dormant cuttings approximately 8" long, and wrap in very slightly damp paper towel or newspaper, covering the entire cutting except the bottom 1/2". This allows the bottom end to "callus", which helps to prevent rot, when rooting. If you are doing several cuttings, roll the first one in the damp paper, then add one, and roll, and add, and roll, until you have 5-6 cuttings in a bundle. Place the bundle(s) in a plastic bag (a Ziploc or zipper-bag works well). Place in a warm place, not in the sun, with a temp of 70-80 degrees F. Check frequently for signs of mold, and air out the cuttings is necessary for a few hours. Re-moisten the paper if necessary (this is not usually needed if the bag is tightly sealed). Under the conditions of warmth and humidity, Roots will develop, starting as small white "bumps" called initials, and gradually growing into longer roots.

When there is good development of roots and/or initials, unwrap carefully, and pot up as follows. Use clear plastic picnic glasses, of about 45 ounce capacity. Drill poke 4-5 drain holes in the bottom. Place about 1/2 coarse, well-wetted Vermiculite in the bottom of the cup, insert the cutting, and fill the cup with coarser, well-wetted Vermiculite. Alternatively, use 50% Perlite and 50% Vermiculite. Place in a container (I use a plastic storage box), with a wire rack or other suitable arrangement, which will allow the water to drain through the cup and keep the cup from standing in any water. Return the cuttings to your warm place. To maintain humidity, you may want to partly cover the container to simulate a greenhouse environment. Allow for some air circulation to avoid mold. Water as necessary.

The most important element is providing overall humidity, without keeping the root zone overly wet.

Jon,
Someone on the GW fig forum had suggested using the compressed peat starters for air layering. I decided to try it on my Celeste but hope its not too late in the season.
Will see what happens. I had tried the bag method on a couple of Brown Turkey pieces that UPS had snapped off during the shipping of the tree to me, but had no success, both just shriveled up even though they were wrapped in barely damp paper and bagged then placed on my seed warming mat. The paper was never dried out and you could see some condensation in the bag. I had tried the compressed peat on a cherry tree branch this summer with success, had it wrapped in clear wrap so I could see when roots developed. If this works on my figs I may just have to stick with this method.
Woody.

Woody,

Nothing wrong with Air-layering, as long as you have access to the tree, but isn't much good when the tree is 3000 miles away from you. Some cuttings respond less well to the bag method, and some responded very well to using that technique, which had heretofore resisted almost all attempts at rooting.

Sometimes you have to experiment to find the right tool for a particular variety. I wouldn't have put the cuttings directly on the heat mat, as I think that probably overheated them. Warm room temp seems to work best, something 70+ degrees, though some did well at 65 or so, and others didn't do much till they were quite warm. I did find that mold was a bigger issue at higher temps.

Welcome to the forum.

Jon,

I may try the bag method again after my trees get a little bigger, will have to keep them trimmed up any way as they grow. Only have so much space in the basement to over-winter them. I think that the 10 varieties I have now will be close to the limit my wife will tolerate, although I am thinking of adding a Hardy Chicago from Hartmann's Nursery and planting it outside. It must be great to have the space and climate you have.

When I do try it again I won't use the warming pad. I had put them on it to begin with because it was fairly cool on the porch and I had room next to the tomatoes I was starting from seed. Whichever method works best will eventually lead to the problem of finding homes for them (that limited space thing again). I joke with the wife that someday we may have to set up a booth at the farmers market to sell off the extras. I would hate to waste a potential tree by throwing away the cuttings. Won't have to worry about cuttings till next year anyway, but do have a few sucker sprouts that I may remove and put in pots after they go dormant.

I like the new forum, works good and no BS advertising. Hope its as much a success as your fig trees are.

Woody.

Well I will have to try this method next spring.
A bit of a tyro question... So you are getting roots before bud break? and you pot-up and provide light when?
Very happy to have stumbled upon this forum.
As a member of SSE I have drooled over your list of varieties in the Yearbook, but find it hard to choose which to try.
Brian

Woody,

It is probably OK to use the mat, but put it in a closed container as a heater, and space the cuttings off of the may, so they are warmed by the air, not the mat.

I did the Farmer's market thing, and am now having to graduate to an on-line nursery approach.

Brian,

Yes, you get roots before bud-break, and also vice vice versa.

Jon mentions " (for rooting ....Use clear plastic picnic glasses, of about 45 ounce capacity."
I have been looking for 45 oz clear plastic glasses (at Wall Mart etc) and the biggest size I have located so far is 16 oz (480 ml, 5" tall and 3.25" top dia). Most bigger ones I found were not transparent plastic. Do 45 oz clear plastic glasses exist (or is it a typo error)? Also, is the 16 oz good enough in case I can't find the bigger ones (which I am still looking for).

Also, how many weeks on average it may take for roots to appear (say at 75F) on the average rooting type fig (i.e. excluding the like of the Black Madiera etc.).

Is there any benefit to wait for the roots to become longer before putting them in the rooting mix i.e. why not put them in the rooting mix once the onset of roots (or good visible size of roots) is noticed?

Ottawan,

They are 20oz. Not sure what was in my mind when I wrote 45. They are from Fabri-Kal, called Kal Clear, http://www.f-k.com and I get mine from Smart and Final (don't know if they are nationwide). I did have some larger ones, but rarely see them available (they might have been 28 ox). 16 oz will work, just leave more cutting exposed - so less rooting surface, and more surface to desiccate from, if humidity isn't controlled.

What am I doing wrong with my first cutting ever. After ten days in the baggie, I got initials on the top (bud side) 3" of the 8" cutting but none yet on the side that is supposed to be buried in soil later including the half inch portion outside the moist paper. Do you think more patience will do it?
Also, when does mold normally appears if it occurs? Should I still expect if I have not seen yet?

Ottowan, welcome to rooting figs!! ;-)))

Each cutting has it's own idea of where to grow roots, and sometimes you have to work with them as they are. If the roots are at the top, you may have have to pot them deep, with the tip sticking out, or try potting them horizontal. I find less root growth if the top is completely covered by the paer or paper towel. 

It is easy to understand the impatience of someone starting their first ever rooting of fig cuttings. As`soon as I saw some initials on the cutting in the baggie, I transferred it to a mix of 50%/50% Perlite/Vermiculite. I could see that the mix may absorb some water but most of it runs out. So, my question is how often do I have to water this mixture in the glass which is placed in a big container with 78F (constant) and 70% Rel humidity? Or I just leave it without watering assuming there is enough moisture held in the mixture.

Another question on the baggie method; does one has to press on the moist paper wrapped around the cutting or is it OK if there are some small air pockets between the cutting and the paper?

The paper doesn't need to touch the cutting. It is there to provide moisture.

If your humidity is high enough, you probably don't need to water but once a month, if that much. In principle, you are watering because the soil mix is drying out. If the humidity is high enough, the soil can't dry out, so it doesn't need to be watered. At the ultimate extreme, if you submerged the cutting completely in water (NOT recommended) it wouldn't dry as long as the water completely covered the cutting, so it would never need to be watered, but that approach leads to other problems, such as rot.

You need a balance between moisture and fresh air.

I'm new to the forum, though I've been reading it for a couple or three months. I've been growing figs in pots (I'm in Reno, where it's either cold and dry or hot and dry) for several years and plan to start plants from cuttings for the first time this year. This thread has been very informative in that area, so I thank all who have contributed.

Three questions that I haven't seen covered is how long do you keep the newly potted figs in the vermiculite/perlite medium before moving them to a more permanent pot, at what point do you begin feeding them and what do you feed them with. I use a homemade fertilizer mix for my potted trees (can't remember the recipe offhand but have it written down somewhere) but I would think it's probably too strong for newly rooted cuttings. Perhaps some compost tea would be the best food for their first feedings.

Please enlighten me.

Thanks,
Neil

See if you get your questions answered at these site in case you have not seen these:
http://figs4fun.com/basics.html
http://figs4fun.com/Rooting_Bag.html
These may seem brief but these are very thorough in coverage.

All Jon's hard work.

Thanks, Ottawan and, of course, Jon. Those were great links and answered my questions well beyond my expectations. Jon, as I'm sure you know, you have done all of us fig growers a huge service and I thank you. I suspect the upcoming growing season will be far and away the best I and my figs have ever experienced.

we used willow tea to "water" my cuttings seemed to help . seems to have a bit of a anti mold element maybe.
also a few sprinkles of brown kelp in the tea helps . kelp acts like a growth hormone. farmers have been using sea kelp for eions to promote plant growth in gardens. be sure to put the kelp in the tea after the tea is heated and cooled too. leave teas out to break down a few days before using it to water.
recipe

would look like

huge pot, huge arm loads of any kind of willow sticks and bark to finger pinky size., river willow work great .
cut willow up into pot...... cover with water and bring to a boil.

when cooled add teaspoon of brown kelp.
leave willow and water to sit for about one week.
after one week setting out
it is perfect if it looks like boiled tea, before you add water .
I use this to water new plants starts , seedlings etc
just a few times each seem to do the trick

I mean when a river over flows it banks it is sure to break and and spread willows around. I am sure that was designed.

boots- Interesting you mention the "willow water". I was just doing some recent research on this. Apparently willow trees (any variety) have a natural rooting hormone throughout the tree. From what I've read you can take a cutting from a willow tree up to 5" in diameter, stick it in the ground, keep it sufficiently wet, and it will root and grow.

If I recall correctly the chemical responsible for the rooting properties is called "salicin". It was also the willow tree and this chemical that is allegedly resposible for the developement of common asprin. Check out this article: http://www.bluestem.ca/willow-article1.htm
[Edit; the above link contains some good info that I didn't include below.]

I've read about some folks using this willow water or willow tea to root plants & trees with some pretty good results. Hey, it's free too! There are alot of Black Willows (salix nigra) that grow in my area. I just might try this stuff on a couple of the cuttings I may be getting from some of you nice folks. I guess, if I'm feeling organized enough to do so, I may even make a documented experimment out of it and post the results here. That is if it hasn't already been done.

I've seen a few different methods used to make willow water. One was this chick in Australia (I think) who was actually using it to root fig cuttings! She simply chopped up some willow leaves, put it in water, and dipped the cuttings in. She made a point of getting some of the chopped leaf material on the cutting before sticking it directly into potting soil. Apparently this was working for her.

Another method was one that a Bosai grower used. All he did was cut some thumb size branches and stick them in a bucket of water for about a month. By this time the willows had rooted and the water was kind of slimy. He claimed that after using this slimy water as a rooting hormone his rooting success went way up.

The third way I've seen the willow tea made seems to be the most common as well as the most reccommended:

-Go get some finger size and smaller branches.
-Strip the leaves off.
-Cut the branches into about 3 inch segments.
-Place them in a large pot and pour boiling water over them.
-Let the "tea" set for one day to a week.
-Strain out the pieces of willow branches, saving the water for use.
-You then soak your cutings in this tea for anywhere from 2-48 hours depending on the type of plant cutting you're soaking.
-Proceed with your favorite rooting method from here.

Apparently you can also use this tea to water your cuttings no more than a couple of times during the rooting process. Using it to water growing plants/trees may be of benefit as well (?).

Sounds intersting to me and I'm going to give it a try to see if it really works.         

I have heard of the willow tea use in rooting, usually as a soak for a day or two, from what I read. Hadn't heard about the kelp. I was also going to try a soak of humic acid, which is supposed to promote growth.

Does peat humis contain humic acid?

See http://www.ductile.org/Magazine/1999_2/leonard.htm

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humic_acid

See http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/newsletters/hortupdate/jun02/art4jun.html

                   Can You use 2 liter plastic bottles

I was reading about starting figs from cutting. The large plastic cups mentioned here is not sold in my area, I can't find them anywhere. Could you take a 2 liter drink bottle and cut the top off and use them so you can observe the roots growing? If so about how high from the bottom should you cut it off, so it will be the right height?

Also I would like to start some cuttings, does anyone have any extra they would like to get rid of so I can be another fig grower or is it too early?

Thanks,
Wade

Thanks for the links Jon. I always feel a little silly when I forget how simple it is to just enter a couple words in my browser search engine - 'duh, wiki of course!' (AKA Wikipedia answered my question in less than the first sentence.) Thanks for your patience with us new guys.

Welcome midnight1957. Apparently the size of the container isn't that critical. I've seen others posting here that have successfully used 20 oz soda bottles. A taller container seems to be better than a squat one so you can bury as much of the cutting into the media as possible. Keeping the whole cutting moist/humidified but not wet seems to be the key.

Between this forum and Jon's site there is much more info on rooting cuttings. There are those who are much more qualified than I am as well! I'm just passing on what I've learned so far. Keep reading, there are alot of fig saavy folks posting on here. 

"Humic acid can be extracted from any material containing well-decomposed organic matter - soil, coal, composts, etc"
Interesting considering how native americans used to burn the forests around them, for one reason was to make charcoal just for use in the gardens. they did that in north and south america.

also there is a very interesting article about burning manures and using those ashes on their garden and how much it increased production over raw manure and a chemical fertilizers .
use.http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/hooker87.html
since both seem to work similar to kelp... it must have to do with more bio-available nutrients maybe.

maybe these things all carry the nutrients small enough to be available to the plants . I have used kelp on my animals and plants for years now because it has so many trace elements .

boots- I hope you didn't feel I was trying to 'steal any thunder' from your post about the willow water :-). Just adding my 2c.

I appreciate that you brought it up here though. It helps knowing that I wasn't the only one thinking about it.

I had been thinking about experimenting with it on some cuttings but I'd hate to do anything to mess them up because these will be from some 'good' varieties. So I haven't decided yet. If I do try it, I will try to make a balanced study out of with some cuttings started with more typical methods and the others using the willow water. I'll post my results here either way.

BTW where does one usually get the brown kelp. Health food stores?