This is perhaps the most lazy way to start cuttings but I will try my best to make it even more lazy this year.  These plants were started by burying a few Unk Lake Spur cuttings, late fall when it was cold and it would stay cold until spring.

Many of you got cuttings from this same batch.  They were cut in early fall from a growing tree.  These particular cuttings that were leftovers were ends dipped in wax and stayed in the fridge in a ziplock bag until I think sometime in November.  

There was a small pile of composted wood chips/leaf mold at the end of the blackberry bed where all my fig plants ended up this year.  I buried the cuttings 4-6 inches deep and just forgot about them until spring.

 

Slow start since there was not much for them to feed on. Some composted rabbit and sheep manure was piled around the shoots when they were about 6 inches or so tall.

 

They responded well to the manure compost.

 

Air layers made at ground level by cutting and fitting gallon pots to several of the plants where they would fit.  A few were not able to have pots fitted.

 

The whole assembly was surrounded by a half 55 gallon plastic barrel, secured with zip ties and all filled in around the pots with the wood chips/leaf mold compost.  This was watered along with the rest of the figs this time of year, about every three days.

 

They seemed to like this and grew a couple more feet or so.  

 

 

Time to remove the air layers.  

 

The barrel ring was removed.

   

The plants were cut off below the pots and re-potted in their own larger containers.  Nice roots on all of them.  All these are spoken for. 

 

Two that had no layering pots were left in the place to over-winter.  Barrel was re-installed and quite a bit of mix filled in.  This area is very saturated in the winter and spring.  I hope they survive and plan to expand the rooting area later on with a nice looking border for a permanent raised bed. 

 

That's about it.  These cuttings out-grew every other rooted cutting I have that was started in the fall of 2014.  

Planning on doing a lot more of this type this fall.  Mostly of HC.  It's probably the best choice to focus on for my area and one of my favorite figs. 

Nice work! Very impressive growth and photo record. Joe

Oh ny gosh!! Amazing how nicely they grew!! Yes, the cuttings like that manure for sure! Very nice, Charlie. Love all your pictures & documentation.

How cool!  I'm going to bury a couple in the yard and see how they do now--that would be such a nice surprise in the spring!

When you planted the cuttings 6 inchs deep. Was it long ways or straight down ? Did it get alot of rain hitting them during the fall and winter.

what zone are you in?

Hi Charlie,
If you try with longer cuttings you'll even get more growth.
I made some T-shaped and buried the head of the T. That little tree is now 8 months old from cutting and looks like a little tree as the current trunk was already a stem on the mother tree...

You should try the same with Black madeira ... Just get a dog to watch the area ... LOL

Great job, all your experiments are really impressive! With all your success I think its time to open a fig nursery :)

Got a letter from the guy at the extension office.  They needed 20 people to do this Spring Master Gardeners coarse and did not get them.  So now I have to wait until I don't know when for the next available coarse. Oh well.

Starting this outdoor thing, not quite late Fall any more but feels like early Fall.  Weird weather.  Anyway, here we go.  Got 250 gallon size Root Pouch grow bags and putting one cutting in each, filling with composted wood chips/leaves, setting on patio and covering, filling in gaps with more compost and will top with probably a foot of leaves and uncover in Spring.

 

One wheel barrow of compost fills about 30 bags.  The compost pile is going on two years old and is broken down pretty good, full of bugs, mushroom mycelium, worm castings and undoubtedly a lot of beneficial microorganisms.  Full of bermuda grass roots too so I have to sift it through a 1/2 inch hardware cloth to sort out those and get the good stuff.  Wishing I had not given away my electric worm harvester!

 

 

 

These are all Hardy Chicago.  Will probably do 150 of them and mix the remaining 100 bags with other varieties.  There will also be other piles with horizontal buried cuttings like last year.  
 

The growth on that buried cutting is remarkable!  I have cuttings I started last fall that I thought did pretty well, but they sure don't look like that.  Nice job, Charlie!

Update on outdoor rooting. So it was a really mild Winter.  Not even a speck of snow or ice here but a few nights in the upper teens.  The cuttings stayed buried under leaves all Winter and uncovered yesterday.  Ended up with 100 Hardy Chicago, 50 Unk Jim Dandy and 36 Madeline's Green Greek.  They seem to have done very well.  All are still fresh looking and some green buds.  A few more weeks will really tell.

 

Also yesterday, many more other cuttings I received over Winter trades were set into grow bags with sifted compost on the front porch.  

 

Ten more were added this morning so there's 68 in bags and one terra cotta pot.  This used up exactly all the sifted compost I worked on for weeks as time and weather allowed and kept in five gallon pails in the garage.

 
 

Great post!  I should have set some cuttings out this past fall.