Okay, I'm trying things simple this year.  I got a few thousand of these pots (3" square by 9" tall, left over from winegrape plants in the area) and am rooting cuttings in Promix, under a grow light, on propagation mats set at 85F, recently lowered to 80F,  Room stays 75F or above.  This cutting was started 24 days ago.

 

 

Looks good after 24 days.
Maintaining rooms above 70F while max outside temp  is -27F is becoming cost prohibitive here for the next couple of months (except when grandchildren visit).

Nice Harvey, thanks for sharing. Happy New Year!
By the way, did you have a chance to taste the Sequoia Fig? What is your opinion of it?

Nice!
I tried the same but keeping the cuttings outside in our nice LA sun. Out of 10, none died! Since it is colder than in your room, my leaves are smaller or just starting to brake out but the cuttings look quite happy. I water from the bottom and covered the top with a fine orchid bark.

Great Job Harvey!! Looks like you have the right combination!! : )

Harvey, which type of ProMix do you use?  I have a large bag of pro-mix bx that I use for potting up rooted cuttings but I typically add pine fines and perlite to it.

Havey, that stuff works very good! I use it but it is very expensive. I got lucky last year (sounds funny saying that!) and found 8 bales at Big Lots for 70% off! Each bale only cost me $7 bucks! I mix it with Pete's Potting mix. The kind I got is ProMix BX.

I have these pots except they are 4x4x9" http://www.stuewe.com/products/treepots.php
I do not have a grow room (yes I'm jealous!)
I plan on starting this year in root riot and transitioning to those pots w/ 50% pro mix 50% pine bark fines.
Good luck and Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year, harvey. those look like they are on their way to being good trees.

I should have mentioned that I wrapped the tops of cuttings with BuddyTape (a type of Parafilm) to help prevent dessication.

I used ProMix XP.  I got the large bale at a place that mixes up thousands of cubic yards of potting soil, etc. but sells some outside products as well.  I think it cost me something like $32 and would guess that I could get about 200 of these pots filled up with it, so I don't consider the cost to be significant for this purpose.

Leon, I did have quite a few Sequoia figs this year (I have a thread on large figs and showed it there) but left most of them for the birds as they were pretty bland, IMO.  I'm not a dark fig snob like Martin but would be if this was the only alternative I had to dark figs.

There are natural gas wells on my property.  I do not receive royalties because the original family that owned the farm retained the mineral rights when we purchased it.  However, I do receive free natural gas for heating residential structures (not a greenhouse, etc.).  Our days have been very pleasant lately but we had about 27 nights with frost last month and had frost again to start off 2014.  If my new solar system proves to be as productive as what my contractor says, I may heat a greenhouse with electricity down the road (might have 3,000 KwH excess or more each year).

 

Harvey is that Pro Mix HP ?
I haven't seen the XP offered around here.

I have been using just the HP (High Porosity) for cuttings with good results.

XP should have been HP.  I was thinking in my head "Xtra Porosity", LOL  I used up the bag two days ago and the trash man came yesterday. ;)

Harvey ,
I am glad it is the HP otherwise you would have had me trying to hunt down XP so I could try that too.
The HP seems to drain very well , better than I imagined. I've been using it in 3" pots that are only 4" tall , those Steuwe pots you have would be better , but the little ones do work pretty well for smaller cuttings.
Will be making some mini -SIP's for cuttings to see how well the HP wicks , should do fine.
Now your posting this has got me thinking about getting out my old heat mats at least for a trial.
Thanks for posting about Pro Mix HP , it has made my fig rooting easier by using it right out of the bag.

Harvey - So those cuttings were placed straight into the soil without pre-rooting? If so, I would like to try this method.

Yes, that is correct.

My first three figs planted about 10 years ago were just stuck in the garden soil in spring and 2 liter soda bottles placed over them so that they wouldn't dry out, as suggested by the friend that gave them to me.  All 3 out of 3 grew fine.

Harvey, did you use the Pro Mix Hp straight out of the bag or did you add extra ingredients, perlite etc?

Mike, nothing was added besides water.  I don't know that this is the best method or anything like that, but it seems to work well and is simple.

Harvey, I was asking because I didn't have any luck that way. However, my growing conditions were not the same other than
the soil. No heat mat and the room temp not that high. I may consider another try using these conditions or as close as possible.
Would like to make it work to bypass the other steps in rooting and transplanting the young cuttings.

Hi Harvey,

Thanks for the most interesting post and congratulations on your rooting success.  I envy your set-up! 

Your mention of “Buddy Tape” to help in limiting desiccation especially caught my eye.  I’ve lost many cuttings to this last year (my first) and wasn’t sure if it was our dry climate.  Or, did I have way too much cutting out of the soil and unnecessarily exposed?    Anyway, looks like you have the preventative answer.  

Question….. Is this the kind of tape you use?   How do you apply or wrap?   Like one layer only for all exposed cutting?  Any problem with bud poking through it?

Good report on ProMix too!  I too have had good luck using straight out of the bag.  Never tried starting a cutting directly in it though.   Seems the only draining issues I’ve encountered, are when I start trying to mix it with other products………. urgh. 

Thanks again.........

Harvey,
Thanks for starting this Topic.
Is the Pro-Mix HP with or without  BioFungicide and Mycorrhiazae? They seem to have several different formulations. Thanks.

Jack, it's similar to Parafilm such as what you linked to, but it's actually a slightly different film that streches more and is also perforated which makes it faster to use.  Some very large nurseries in California use it for their budding work on millions of trees.  Amazon shows AM Leonard has it and the one customer that reviewed it apparently bought from a bad batch and gave it a 1 star review.  I have never heard of anyone having problems with it before.  I bought mine direct from the USA distributor at http://www.buddytape.com/contact.html but I also know that some CRFG chapters have bought larger volumes and sold it at their annual scion exchanges.  Parafilm should work fine also but it has torn on me a little too easy.  The shoots never seem to have any trouble pushing through.

Pete, my bag is thrown away but I'm pretty sure it had the Mycorrhiazae but I don't remember anything about the BioFungicide, maybe I just didn't notice.  I bought a bag of a competing product at the time and I remember the customer rep talking tome about the Mycorrhiazae, etc. when we were comparing it.  I might go back soon to get another bag or just may finish using up the other product first.

Harvey, is this the Parafilm you are speaking of/    http://www.amleo.com/product.aspx?p=BT25

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FFTRTBO/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?qid=1388842603&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

That appears to be the same as Jack mentioned in post #19   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085OFNVE/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item?tag=vglnk-c930-20                   which Harvey said is not the same as he uses.

Harvey,

A couple questions.....would wax not be faster and easier than the film?  Have you started enough so far to know what your approximate success percentage is or is it too early for that?