Malcolm, if cuttings are wrapped with Parafilm, I don't believe keeping humidity high is necessary or even beneficial.  My biggest worry during the initial stages are the mix being too moist and that is more likely in a humidity chamber.

Did you use rooting hormone?  I found when I did use it in 2013 I had fast root development but poor bud growth and I believe Pete posted a link showing how IBA inhibits bud break.

Harvey,

Thanks for the response.  I'm going to pull my cuttings out of the box, wrap the top in parafilm and expose them to heat and light and see if they take off.

To answer your question, no, I did use rooting hormone with these cuttings, but have others using a separate growth technique (see "My Rooting Method" on Bountiful Figs forum) and saw rapid bud growth.

Has anyone done experiments with rooting hormone (I'm using CloneX) in which cuttings from an identical tree were rooted with and without hormone?  It's my understanding that the benefits of rooting hormone are up for debate at this time.  I wonder if exogenous rooting hormone's activity is dependant upon the fig type...

 

Malcolm, if you've wrapped the tips of your cuttings in parafilm/buddy tape, then no, keeping up humidity isn't necessary. Mine sit in my basement that runs 35-40% humidity in the winter (really dry). Mine are also slow to bud due to lack of bottom heat but I really don't mind the slower process and all show good progress and growth by the time I can transition them to outdoors (mid-May to be safe here). I could keep them in the 4x4x9 pots for 5-6 months. You're likely fine to check on root growth after a few (4-5) good months of growing as the roots will be well established enough not to harm the plant.

Thanks for the info on ProMix Harvey. I've noticed that the BX does stay rather soggy so I've been mixing additional perlite in with later batches. I don't remember it getting quite as soggy last year but perhaps I was a bit more careful in wetting it. Hopefully the first batch of cuttings in the soggier mix will be okay. I think for future batches I may go with HP (if I can find it locally, may go with a greenhouse supply place near here). I'd rather just be able to drench the mix and have the excess water drain out before sticking the cuttings.

Edit: I see I am late to the game in replying (should have refreshed my browser). Glad to see my sentiments echo Harvey's.

ascpete did a controlled experiment with and without rooting hormone and it was detrimental when he used Dip 'n Grow (at full strength, I think, or at a high rate).  I think maybe I tried 4,500 ppm and had problems.  Lower levels such as in Clonex might not have the same problems but I've founded it not needed for figs while I do use it for pomegranates.

Harvey,

Another quick question...

Many of my cuttings I choose to root come from the terminal end of a branch and therefore buds are emerging from the tip.  For this reason, I'm unable to wrap the end with parafilm.  I'm wondering if I note bud formation on the terminal end of a cutting, is it safe to assume that dehydration would not occur and therefore wrapping is unnecessary?  Since this are very young cuttings, would it be better to just cut off the bud from the terminal end, wrap it and then wait for buds to occur along the shaft of the cutting?  I read that many prefer not to root terminal end cuttings as the risk of mold issues increases.

Also, what is your watering technique using these tall pots?  Do you water from the top, or do a quick bottom soak (10 minutes) and then put it back in your growth environment?  How often do you water and at what point to you begin to feed your cuttings?

Thanks for all the quick responses, I appreciate it.

I like this method. Its simple and it works great. Thank you for sharing Harvey
Last year I failed miserably with lots of cuttings. Spent a lot of money buying cuttings and getting set up just to lose everything to mold. A couple months ago I decided to give this a try and the success rate is much much higher. Now I only lose cuttings to overwatering.
I'm ordering a case of those tree pots from Stuewe in the next week or so and then production should really ramp up. :). I'll definitely stay busy this winter.

Jeff, I'm with ya on those Stuewe pots. I only wish ordering from Stuewe didn't cost so much shipping-wise. I think shipping for me was half the cost of the pots, and that's with ordering 4 cases! Hopefully I have enough now to last a number of seasons.

I also messed around quite a lot with different methods and needed something that required less babysitting. Like you said, the only drawback of this method is overwatering during the early stages, but that's a challenge with nearly any other method as well (unless you're rooting in water I suppose).

I also broke down and ordered a few bales of promix HP today to hopefully cut down or eliminate losses due to too soggy of a potting mix. They also had Promix HP-CC, which has coir chips in it. Anyone have experience with it?

Malcolm, I can attempt to answer some of your questions though I'd like to hear Harvey's take on it as well.

As for terminal bud cuttings I'll either loosely wrap the bud with parafilm or cut it off. Haven't done any experiments or have enough experience to know what roots better. I will say that terminal cuttings haven't stood out as doing a whole lot better than any others.

In terms of watering, I intially don't add any water until the mix feels a little dry a couple inches down. Since my rooting area stays around 68 degree, my figs don't seem to start to push out for 3-4 weeks and the soil remains damp enough during that time that I don't add water. When first adding any water, I'll simply spray a little water with a water bottle to keep the top of the mix damp, then later will water very lightly (again with the goal of just keeping the mix damp). Once vigorous growth has started or I see decent roots coming out the base of the pot I think it's fairly difficult to water too much. By the time the figs are ready to be moved outside (I grow indoors as opposed to a greenhouse), I seem to need to water them almost daily (or every other day). There's a bit of an art to keeping the soil damp but not soggy, perhaps Harvey has some tips that I don't.

One other thing: I don't expose the cuttings to any grow lights until I can see the buds start to swell. Don't know if that makes a difference but at least I don't have to run the lights for 3-4 weeks :-)

Malcolm,
I've used the Dip n Grow rooting hormone successfully. At the recommended 10x and 15x dilutions, which is approximately 3000 ppm and 2000 ppm IBA the cuttings root about 2 weeks faster and if the temperature and moisture levels in the mix are maintained, they will be that much further ahead of untreated cuttings. I seal the top ends of my cuttings with melted paraffin wax regardless of being tip cuttings, but I prefer to the remove the tips due to better growth from cuttings with cut ends. Tim's recommendation of no light and no water until after rooted is my usual practice when rooting fig cuttings.

I now typically root cuttings directly in converted 2 liter soda bottle Mini-SIPs in a heavy duty 1020 seedling trays under a 7" high humidity dome and maintain the ambient temperature between 72*F and 78*F for fastest rooting and shortest time under the "rooting dome" or "initial rooting period" of 3 - 4 weeks.

Harvey, if you dont mind me asking where did you get those pots. i have some pots but no where near that tall. i like to buy in bulk at wholesale.

Dave, sorry, just saw your message!  I got these pots for free from a winegrape vineyard planting.  They are identical to what Stuewe Bros. sells as mini treepots, 3" squre by 8" tall.

@HarveyC, this is the setup that I'm interested in getting start as well. How do you gauge when to water? When the pot is light in weight? Thank you!

A combination of things and it varies based on stage of growth since I'm more careful about over-watering when starting out.

The pots I use have a large hole on the bottom so I will pick up a pot, look to see if the surface is dry, and if it's a little light, give it a squirt of water (usually with very diluted fertilizer) with a turkey baster or watering can.  If I see the bottom is dry, I'll also soak it in a tub with 3-4 inches of water for 10-60 seconds depending on size of plant and on how light the pot felt.  Checking the bottom frequently also lets me check for root development.

One risk with this method I've found is that the thermostat for my heat mat is in an empty pot and I move it out of the way when watering.  Both last year and this year I forgot once to return the pot so the mat got my pots pretty hot one day.  Either I need to water my plants when I'm not so tired (rarely the case, lately) or figure out some way to remind myself to double-check for this.

For some reason, this method does not seem to work as well for very fat cuttings.

Thank you Harvey for sharing your methods, this will definitely help me.

Since, we're not doing it on such a large scale and mainly enthusiast level. I will start them in sphagnum moss, when rooted move them over to this setup. I know it most likely removes the simplicity of this method, but I have a good mix of thick and thinner cuttings from generous members here (including yourself). I'm hoping this would allow for better rooting on the "fatter" cuttings.

This is my setup that I have on-hand:

• T5HO 12 light fixture
• #1 Rigid Grow bags found on eBay
• Two - 48x20" bottom heat mats connect to a Ranco thermostat controller (going to see if I can re-purpose this from my aquarium setup)
• ProMix HP for soil

Harvey, I used this method last Spring when it was warm enough to root outdoors and it worked very well.  I have one question about those pots though.  They have one large hole on the bottom.  Large enough that it seemed awkward to fill with mix without some coming out.  I was using ascpete's 5-1-1-1 mix.  So for some I put a flat piece of pine-bark mulch and placed it over the hold and then filled with mix.  However, when I did that I felt that it affected the drainage and I had to be extra careful with watering.  Do you Harvey or anyone else have a better idea?  Perhaps a piece of window screen or somewhat bigger mesh would be good.

Steve, I moisten my ProMix HP before placing in the pot, fill the pot about 3-4", and them damp it down pretty good before filling the rest of the way up.  That seems to take care of the problem of the mix falling out and drainage remains good.

Hi Steve, I cut a small piece of landscape fabric and put it in the bottom of the pot. Still drains fine, and I had the fabric on hand.

Steve: another thing that seems to work for me to keep the potting mix  from coming out of the bottom of the pots is to line the bottom with a paper coffee filter.

Bump

I rooted 700 figs in promix hp this last year. Full sun, no rooting hormones, no humidity domes, just put them in 2 inch wide 7 inch long tree tubes. And put them on the hot concrete driveway. 60 days later they are leafed out and rooted. I stick the garden hose in the bottom of the tubes turn it on, boom! They go flying out, pick them up toss them in a big pot, good to go. :)

Now I'm trying all these new fancy methods, with hormones, humidity, perlite(with the finest sifted :p)

Here is my nursery,looks like this method is a winner. One month and I see roots hitting side of cup. Not using bottom heat and in cool garage under 18 hours 5000k cfl lights.

When the roots are looking through the bottom that's usually a sign to move them up

@carbonfx Robert, I wouldn't use anything less than a 3 gallon when moving up from a 4x4x10 tree pot. Personally I'd use a 5 gal. Like Brian said, roots coming out the bottom, means lots of roots and definitely time to up-pot.

As soon as I see a significant amount of roots I move them into a 5 gallon pot.  If I expect to be planting it in the ground pretty soon I won't fill up the 5 gallon pot all the way, leaving maybe 4" or so from the top empty.