Hello everyone, my trees have been in the garge for about 3-4 weeks now. Can I take cuttings now? Do I take cuttings and put them in the frig? I would like to trade some cuttings but don't know if I can do it now. Thanks

Hello Fespo,

I looked at your member profile and it says you are from the state of Illinois.
It is safe to say yes, you can take cuttings now. Just wrap some moist/damp paper towel or news paper or sphagnum moss and place in a plastic bag and stick in the fridge.

Don't forget to label them.

Good luck

Rafed is totally RIGHT!

If possible use a pen marker and write on the cutting itself (while it is dried)... even labeling the bundle, in my shuffle here, I take a cutting set it down, taken another...next, I have no clue which one is the one.   if you have more than one variety - YES, label  them.  For me works the color code.  So, if I am working with Green Fig, I tie a little green dental floss to it, if white, I tie white, loose enough, so I know what it is...

If my experience can help you see how important that is...I keep playing with my cuttings, move them around, shift from in front of heater to the cabinets, and so on...so, I expose them to get messed up- and have done plenty of unmarking!  I learned the hard way - 2 of them, I will have to wait for their figs to know what they are...as I mixed the two labels... now if you are using them to trade, you could put same kind in a larger zip lock bag and just mark the bag - for your own use, mark them individually - Even if just their initial to help you distinguish.  Since these are mine, it does not matter, but I would hate to trade with someone and later learn that I sent a different kind - it would be like trading your babies in the hospital - you raise another baby as yours and learn that it is not yours... so, avoid headaches - mark them, label them.

As for me, another thing I do, I cut the tip on slant to tell me what is the top of the cutting and the bottom flushed across. From my readings, I learned that a cutting should have  at least 2-3 nodes, and you cut in between them, being that in your cutting near the tree trunk, you want to cut near the base of the first notch of the cutting, allowing a little branch for the tree to heal, sometimes there is drying out of the branch, so, allowing yourself that little safety is a good idea!  Good luck there!

And remember, fruits come in year old branches, so, do not cut too much, or you will have no brebas...

Look at Herman's fig- he wrote the name of it on the tree!

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1336249

Hey Frank im no expert but there is not any time in the season that I havent gotten cuttings ive cut trees (for just cuttings) all year round snow covered trees to 100 degree days growing or dormant it never made any difference in my experience unless im just lucky they always rooted and never damaged the mother tree. 

I would say that if you are not going to root the cuttings now, leave them on the tree.
They will keep better, be fresher, on the tree than in the fridge.
If you want to trade them, wait until you have a trade set up and then take the cuttings.