Bagged up my cuttings in November and they have progressed pretty well I think.  Once rooted they went in 30 ounce cups and they are at the stage now that I have to up pot them from the 30 ounce containers they are in.  I would like to plant them in ground around April 1.  Do the experts think it would be better to up pot them now to the 1 gallon pots or just leave them as is and go straight from the cups to the ground?  The in ground spots are heavily mulched and each has it's own spray head.  The earliest I would be comfortable trusting the outside weather would be March 1.  

As an update of sorts I experimented with wicking the well rooted cuttings and using very diluted water soluble fertilizer.  They have responded to it wonderfully.  I have lost zero of the 100+ I have wicked and the wicked are all doing better than the control I left unwicked and watered sparingly on a as needed basis. Just love wicked plants....takes away so many of the pitfalls and human error risks not to mention just so much easier.   


Picture was taken 10 days ago.

   The advantage of going to the 1gal. pots is that it will give more 'leg' room for those roots to spread out and grow.  You still have 2 months until April 1st. for them to get more established in the bigger pots before planting them in the ground.

That cupped one in the pic I would put in the ground now.   But since you need to wait at least two months, I agree with FF.    I would pot them now.  It's time to give those roots some more room. 

It looks like it might become overly root bound by April and a 1 gallon pot might be a bit small, maybe a 2 gallon pot might be more suitable, though scale of your pot is difficult to judge.  If your soil isn't warm by 4/1, it might be better to leave them in pots for a couple of weeks longer since the roots would probably be growing faster while in the pot than in cool soil.  Maybe your area warms up earlier in the year than here (we don't plant corn around here until the second half of April and into May).

If it helps you judge..we normally put our tomatoes in the ground March 1. 

Wills,

I plant my trees at the end of January / beginning of February.  If you ground does not freeze during the winter (and it probably shouldn't) you should be okay.  Once planted, it will take a little bit of time for the roots to establish themselves and for vigorous top growth.  Generally, this keeps you safe from late freezes which in my area (and probably yours) are mild and rare.  If you do have some top growth, you can cover it with one of the gallon size buckets you were going to plant the tree in.  In three years, I have not lost a cutting to freeze doing it this way, and it gives them a good head start on growth.

addition to my reply (#6):

For those of you in the south with intense summers, EARLIER IS BETTER!!!  You want the roots to be well established (either in the ground or in your container) by the onset of summer heat.  Last year, I tried planting cuttings through mid March.  Late February was already iffy as to the trees ability to withstand the summer heat.  Anything planted in March didn't survive to June.

In my area, a good rule of thumb is not to plant until after Easter.  We always get one last cold snap around the week of Easter.

James,

Even with a heavy mulch application?  In our climate I have found it works wonders to temper that fierce heat.  If it is the sun itself make some window screen shades for them.  That is how I get the fall tomatoes established when planted start of August.

If it were me I would like to pot up or plant as the roots look like they are starting circle the cup already so in two more months you could cause problems down the road with the roots circling and choking each other later on.  I think in two months you could probably get a good root ball.

WillsC, could you describe how you wicked your fig cuttings in cups?  It sounds like a good idea.  Thanks.

Steve

Rewton,

Sure.  You use man made yarn and once the fig cutting shows good root development in the cup you carefully slide the yarn up inside the cup through one of the bottom drainage holes.  I simply use a bamboo skewer.  At that point you place the cup on a wire shelf or some people use light  diffuser panels over the reservoir and let the wick dangle down in to the water.  The plant/soil draws up what water it needs by capillary action.  The soil stay evenly moist.  With this batch I used a 50/50 mix perlite and peat but next time I will use 60/40.  Due to the higher volume of perlite I doubled up the yarn and ran it all the way to the top of the cup.  It also helps to raise the humidity around the plants.  

Sticking the yarn up into the cup with a bamboo skewer sounds awkward but probably is no big deal once you get the hang of it.  Is there any reason you can put the yarn in from the beginning i.e. when you pot up the cutting in the cup?

I suppose you could do it when you cup it but until the cutting starts pushing quite a few roots I would prefer to have it drier.  While I realize pushing the skewer in to the cup brings up images of roots being ripped off in reality it causes no real damage.  If you hit a lot of resistance just choose a different path.

Potted up 21 in to 1 gallon pots yesterday and they spent there first night outside in the cruel cold world.  It really was cold as it got down to 36 here..yes I know that is not cold compared to what some of you are dealing with.