No new information to offer, but I thought I'd share what's happening so far with my UCD cuttings in case it might be of interest to anyone:

When the shipment arrived I took one cutting of each variety, and if it seemed long enough, snipped it in half. I then set each piece up in ziploc bags or plastic bottles with growing medium, based on instructions shared by Jon and others. However, I was worried about harming the cuttings with harsh chemicals, so I didn't wash or disinfect anything (or wait for the cut ends to "callous"), but I did sprinkle a little loose sphagnum on the ends sticking out of the medium because some members had mentioned it seems to have a mold-inhibiting effect.

I wanted to keep a close eye on any progress, so after watering everything I put them in my "Arizona room" (a former carport that had been screened on opposite sides) in an old aquarium, with wads of wet newspaper and some pieces of glass on top to hold in the humidity. It's about 3 feet from the south screen-wall, but doesn't get any direct sunlight. Moisture condenses on all the interior glass in the evening, and by morning it's all quite wet. As the day warms up, the condensation evaporates except on about half of the aquarium's north side (farthest from the screen wall).

At this point every cutting is showing at least some green, although a couple only have swelling buds. A few have multiple branches with good-sized leaves, but I didn't see any roots until this morning; on both Giant Ambers and a UCR 143-38.

The only mold has been a couple of spots of thick, whitish mold on the newspaper, so I changed it out, and one cutting had some darker mold on a leaf, so I nipped it off with a sterilized X-acto blade. I also twisted off a couple of little figs that were forming on two cuttings.

A near-disaster occurred when I took all the cuttings out one day for a few minutes to clean the glass (bad idea) and the ones with the biggest leaves wilted very quickly. Fortunately, they rebounded completely once they had been back in the aquarium for a few hours. I briefly open part of the top each day for a little air circulation, and watered everything lightly once when things seemed a little dry, but other than that, no special attention.

Hi Ken, very nice. I'll bet those all take off like the wind for you. Like the aquarium idea and the snack bags too. Cheap and easy too! Good luck and thanks for posting.

Nice setup you have there.
Please keep us updated as to how they do in future.

Thanks Tim & Martin. I may have spoken too soon, though--After posting, I spotted some leaves turning dark and another cutting with mold growing on a couple of buds. Hopefully it's not the start of a trend, but I guess the challenge is part of what makes it interesting!

Fresh air is the enemy of mold.

I'll leave the top off for an hour or so tonight while it's cool, and see if I can provide more air without making the leaves wilt.

The additional fresh air seems to be helping, but the mold isn't whipped yet. Here are a couple of before and after shots of the Celeste cutting this afternoon. I tried to clean it up with a "tea" of sphagnum moss applied with a small paintbrush. The moldy parts fell right off and now it looks reasonably healthy to my untrained eye, but who knows if it's a case of "too little, too late"?

I'm also wondering if it's just too hot for them in my screened porch during the day (daytime highs in the 90s). The little bit of root on one Giant Amber seems to have died and rotted away, but the other two cuttings with are growing okay. No roots yet in any of the rest of them.

Ken,

How does one make this sphagnum tea?  What is in the sphagnum that would kill mold?

What does the sphagnum look like?  Is it different from sphagnum peat moss?

Good luck with all your babies,

Vivian

I don't know if it really has any benefit--I'm just shooting in the dark, hoping something will help. I had read on the forum that sphagnum moss in the rooting medium might have an inhibiting effect on mold growth, so I figured it might have the same effect on the green part as well. But, since I can't really pile sphagnum moss all over the leaves, I stuffed some into a little jar, added water, and stuck it in the microwave till the water got hot. After it sat for a while (and after I shook the jar a bit), the water turned dark like tea.

I have no idea whether the tea had any beneficial effect. I think it's more likely that providing additional air, as Jon suggested, is what will save the "fig kids", if they do indeed survive. The fact that all the moldy parts fell right off at the touch of the brush seems to indicate that the cutting was fighting back by discarding the infected tissue--or maybe it was the initial lack of air circulation, coupled with excessive moisture and heat, that caused some of the leaves to abscise, and consequently they molded. I'm not sure about cause-and-effect here, but the cutting is still mold-free this morning.

As far as the difference between sphagnum moss and sphagnum peat moss, I don't really know. I've seen a few comments on the forum that offer more info than I have, but I think the 'peat' type is old, dead, and more processed or something. I'm not sure I even have the "right" kind--a local nursery owner sold me some in a bucket, so I neve saw any labeling--but it looked pretty old and dead too, and I thought the good stuff was supposed to "green up" again when it got moist. Mine didn't.

I'd like to know that as well--even the transition for a one gallon Black Mission NL from Encanto Farms' fig-friendly climate in San Diego, to filtered shade in Tucson was pretty traumatic. The big, flat leaves dried out and got tattered around the edges before falling off, even as it was trying (not very successfully) to grow new ones. Finally, now it seems to have adjusted and has several new leaves--much smaller, thicker, and tougher. I don't know how I'll transition these new cuttings, if they take hold, because it will likely be in the hottest part of summer!

 I would start leaving the cover slightly off all day. Maybe just have a couple inches of the tank open to the air and then every few days slide the cover off a little more. Just keep an eye on them incase they start to wilt to bad. I think if you leave them too humid once they leaf out they won't grow as many roots because they don't need to. You want them to always be trying to search for more water in the soil. If the air is so wet that the leaves don't lose any water they have no need to grow more roots.

Thanks John (and Jon)--they are all looking much better now that I have a better grasp on what everybody has been saying all along, about not letting things get too wet, and making sure there was enough air. It's hard to get a feel for it just from reading--it doesn't really  "click" until you start going too far the wrong way. After Jon's comment about fresh air being the enemy of mold, I tried taking the top off for a while, and that was too much and I got more wilting than I wanted. However, now that I'm leaving the lid open a little bit at both ends, all traces of mold have disappeared, the few cuttings that had gotten a little moldy are growing again, and nearly all of the condensation has disappeared--but there's no sign of wilting. It doesn't seem like it's too hot any more either, probably because there's a little evaporative cooling going on with the lid open. Just a case of finding the right balance.

So, good advice--as more roots develop I'll open it farther each day, and hopefully get them acclimated well enough to survive the transition to the great outdoors, sheltered under a larger tree, without too much damage to the foliage. I'm pretty confident now that everything is on track.

Ken - just as a point of note, as Jon mentioned, fresh airflow is the enemy of mold, and stale, humid air is the best friend of mold.  Standing fresh air is much less effective, fans are your best friend.  I recommend to get one of those clip-on oscillating fans blowing into the growing area can make a huge difference, placing it on a $10 power timer to cycle it on/off can control moisture loss (you will see more evaporation with the fans going)

This is the method I've used with 100% success to prevent 'damping off' of my seedling tomatoes and peppers each year. 

Thanks Jason. I've got one of those little clip-on fans around here somewhere, so If any mold reappears I'll give it a shot!