Well Hello Fig Folks,
I have been growing figs going into my third year. I have purchased a few plants to start out with. But couldn't afford all the ones that I wanted. I got the BUG. Well the next best thing was to purchase cutting. So I have done.
I have had limited success with the bag method. Rooted a few, rotted many. So I need to find some way to root quicker with less rotting.
I have been inspired by SteveNJ with his wonderful reports and graphs. Great book keeping skills. Which I do not have.
So I decided to try a different approach to rooting my cuttings. I purchased the following Item to begin my test;
1. Hydrofarm Hot House ( kit include 6" dome, heat mat, seed tray, water tray, coco pellets supplied in kit as the growing medium)
2. Bottle of Vita Grow rooting compound
3. Some fig cuttings about 8-12" ( Unknown fig, Sal's (EL), Sal's (BC), Calvert, Italian 258, Black Ischia, Negronne, Capelas)
4. Tooth brush. water, liquid hand soap, hand sanitizer
5. Freezer to set heat mat and kit upon ( the wife wont let me use the fridge)
First I clean the cuttings with the water, tooth brush and liquid hand soap. Cuttings were pretty dirty. After scrubbing the cuttings. I rinsed the off with water. I cleaned the tooth brush and use it with the hand sanitizer to again scrub the cuttings. Then I cut each cutting in half ( or close to half as much as possible, each cutting has a node near it's cutting ). I did this because the seed chamber seemed only 2-3" deep plus the plastic lid was only 6" tall above the tray. I treated each half cutting with the rooting hormone ( Vita Grow ) as directed per thickness of cutting. While the cuttings were soaking. I placed one coco pellet in growing chamber. Pellets were laid in this order two (2) a space then two (2) and so on. I rehydrated the coco pellets from the kit with warm water as recommended. The pellets grew over the tops of each chamber. I pushed down the coco to level it out. After the recommended time each cutting. I inserted the cuttings in to the center of the medium until the hit bottom of the chamber. I put in tags to remember what the figs were. I then placed the plastic lid on the tray,placed it on the heat mat which was already plugged in on top of the freezer.
A couple of hours later I got this hair brain idea. Why not have a test within a test. So I added a eye dropper full of the Vita Grow to each cutting on the right. In other words there are two (2) cuttings of each variety side by side. The one on the right got the extra dose.
I was very surprised after ten days what I found out.