Hello Luke,

First you will put cuttings (with their green leaf stems still attached) in that gallon sized zip lock plastic bag that you will put inside of an empty quart wide mouth plastic container.......see picture.  You give those cutting air by changing the water very often......shaking too is good.  Don't put too many cuttings in one single plastic bag because they will be using up oxygen while they are in that bag. And you do not want for them to "smother" and get rotten. Remember to keep that bag OPEN at the top. So change that water often and put as much air in it as possible. Use a fish aquarium air pump if you have one. After the stems fall off, then you put them individually in small mouth empty plastic soda bottles. Those cuttings  won't fit in those small mouth bottles until the stems fall off.

Once you have your cuttings in the small mouth soda bottles, you can add air to these by putting your finger on the mouth opening and shaking as directed. As long as you keep oxygen from the air in the bag and oxygen from the air in the soda bottle......you WILL NOT have any problems with any rot or mold. If you do not add air....you WILL have problems. It is very very very simple to insure that you always have oxygen from the air in that water at all times.

Yes, those leaves that open up from a closed bud WILL start photosynthesis right away. That is because those cuttings are already "alive" and the internal pipeline is fully functional. Those leaves will absorb carbon dioxide "from the air" and produce oxygen and more food (energy reserves) for the cutting to use.

Now don't get confused with this.......inside of the bottle where the roots are growing, you can have photosynthesis coming from any algae that is growing on the wall inside of the soda bottle. A cutting needs more oxygen (in this example it will take oxygen "from the water") to combine with its internal energy reserves to make those new root cells that you will see growing. In that biochemical process of creating those "brand new roots" that cutting will make Carbon Dioxide gas "in the root area". In this case, the carbon dioxide that is made BY THE ROOTS will just dissolve "in the water". 

Now algae loves to eat carbon dioxide that is dissolved in water. Carbon dioxide is food for algae. So sometimes you will see algae grow in your rooting bottles. That is not a problem and actually can be quite GOOD. That algae will use the carbon dioxide that those new roots are giving off and dissolving in the water bottles.....to use for itself. That process that the algae is using is called photosynthesis too.

But through photosynthesis, the algae is making food for ITSELF TO USE and to grow even more algae. What the algae does for "the cutting" itself is give it more oxygen. Which is GOOD for the cuttings too. So the algae will remove the carbon dioxide that the cutting makes when new roots are forming and in return the algae will produce more oxygen in the water that the cuttings need to produce even more "new" roots. This is a win win situation for both the algae and for the cutting whenever this does occur.

Don't worry at all about this algae thing. If you see it...fine. And if you don't see it....that is fine too. Just make sure to add air to your water and all will be just fine. Like I've said, this is very very very easy to do. However, there is some real science going on inside of those bags and inside of those bottles.....and I mention that for those who want to know WHY things happen or WHY they sometimes don't happen.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I have no intentions of ever making any money with my fig hobby.....only the personal satisfaction that comes when my studies are finally done.  I do know what works well for me. And I certainly don't care a bit what those "horticulturist" have to say. And I sure as heck do not seek their advice nor their approval for anything. This forum can judge for themselves if any of the information that I choose to share is useful to them. It is what it is.....even though there is one guy up in New Jersey who wants me to shut up and get lost. In fact, he has recently accused me of damaging this fig forum. Give me a figging break!! That is not going to happen.....
l---------------------------

Navid,

OK. I see that it is just a language interpretation thing. No big deal......
-------------------------
Here is a picture of what we are trying to achieve.  The leaves on this cutting/tree are already used to seeing strong direct sunlight. So they are aleady harden off and have been making food for this now almost tree....while they were sitting on the east facing window sill.  Those roots that developed in this type "rooting environment" are pretty tough too. They adapted "into" that environment which is what makes them tough and multi functional.

Ken, If you and I ever met, we would be talking figs for hours!! lol

This method works well enough for starting dormant cuttings too. To date, I have not rooted dormant cuttings in "direct sunlight" as I have done with many summer cuttings.

I do not see any reason why the shipment of summer cuttings would not be possible. My initial thoughts were to use a water/peroxide gelling agent around the bottom node of some live cuttings.  Have not actually done that yet.  Anyone want to give that a try and report back to us??

For all I know at this point, the shipment of "summer" cuttings using only moist sphagnum or paper towel would work just fine. I just wonder about getting an air plug or seal in the internal pipeline.  And I would try using an ultra sonic bath to try to break that plug or seal if it did occur.  Now why in the world do I have an ultra sonic bath.....well it cleans the crapola out of cuttings and helps with their re hydration. Ask me how I know?? However, that is an expensive piece of equipment that is not needed. Unless you need to clean many fig cuttings., the cost is simply not justified.

All of these ideas take time for study and time to determine a cost vs benefit analyst. Next year I will be in a much better position to answer more questions. Like I've stated, I have many more tricks up my sleeves that I have not yet found time to try. I did not want to wait a year or two to release/discuss my findings of this particular rooting method. 

Hopefully, others will share how this method worked or did not work for them.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus