I had a gopher take out a 3 year old, 3 inch trunk blackjack tree.  The horrendous beast tore through the gopher wire, and chewed off all the roots.  Right now I've taken the tree out of the ground and put it in a bucket of water, which I've been changing nightly to prevent rot.  So far there's still green under the bark, but no roots yet.  But it's only been 3 days.

Has anyone tried this?  Or does anyone have advice for things that might increase it's chances of survival? 

Thanks!

Hi:
I've had zero luck with water rooting, so I can't comment there.  I would definitely get some cuttings and try rooting them just as insurance.  As far as the tree, I'd be inclined to bury it deep hoping that it would send out new roots.  Treat it like a giant cutting, although in all honesty I did have some large cuttings that didn't root for me.  Wish I had something really helpful for you.  Was it in a pot or the ground?  I'm trying to get a mental picture.  The gopher got every single root?

I have no direct experience but there was a recent thread that suggested you could root at whole tree or a very large cutting.  

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/can-a-huge-cutting-be-rooted-7980819?pid=1292006805

Note - the thread has been edited quite a bit.  If memory serves me correct, the conversation 'got a little heated'.

There were two more posts that may be related to the post above.  These reference the source of the tree / large cutting and the methodology used to root.  

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/a-tree-for-sale-on-craiglist-7886909?pid=1290551241

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/bag-rooting-techniques-7848105?pid=1292013092

In aggregate all three posts may help you save your tree (or they may just confuse the hell out of you).  

Best of luck.  Please keep us posted.

Good time to start some green and hard cuttings just in case everything else fails

I agree that I'd start as many cuttings as possible.  Here's how I do it.  I scrape the bark at the bottom just barely exposing the green.  I use a razor knife and stroke parallel to the long axis of the tree or cutting.  I cover the exposed green with clonex.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/jons-bag-method-writ-large-6378923?highlight=writ&pid=1285122042

Thanks guys,  I did what you said and put a few cutting in a pot of perlite, and  big cutting in a bag.  For the potted ones, it sounds like I should water them regularly and check for roots in a month?    

Better luck if you cut the main trunk and the thicker branches into shorter pieces...

These are 4 gallon paint buckets...

Helike13:  Have you gotten cuttings/logs this big to root before?  If so, pictures, please. 

Smart way to get root stock.

Its a shame about your tree, but on the bright side it looks like you will have plenty of rooted black jack figs to trade!

Wow, that is really cool to see the logs rooting!  Keep us posted helike13 and Goosteen.