I have some expensive cuttings (Raspberry Latte from fatnsassytexan) arriving next week. I have read the threads on rooting in Sphagnum Moss. I did not see a definitive answer to a few questions so I'm looking for some consensus.

Do you still wash your cuttings in a ten percent bleach solution prior to either dipping in Clonex or rooting in Sphagnum Moss. Do you re-cut your cuttings before dipping in Clonex?

I wash my cuttings in nothing.  Why would you do that?  I put them into barely damp sphagnum, wrap in plastic and wait.
I never get mold, but sometimes I wait a long time for roots.  Too cold in here, but just my life.. really busy now with other stuff.....

Suzi

I wash some of my cuttings if I don't know the people I am getting them from. I have not washed the ones I got from other forum members.
I like the moss in plastic shoe boxes but I like root riot as well. It's a personal choice and what you feel comfortable with.
I also use dip n grow on them first.

Very good luck with your new cuttings.

Sorry, missed the last question. No I don't recut them if the first cut is clean.

There's no one right way but if you use chlorox you'll need to rinse it off and let it dry before putting on the clonex.

THISISME,

This is the procedure that I am personally using for rooting in sphagnum moss. The cuttings pictured were cut from the tree in November 2012 and stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until rooting in early April 2013. also attached is a post that links to the Topic I started regarding using alcohol on fig cuttings, which includes more pictures.

My Revised Rooting Procedure
a. Brushed cuttings with 50% alcohol (with small paintbrush), let air dry on clean paper towel, seal the top ends with melted wax, cut off bottom of cutting, scored then treated with 20x dilution of Dip n Grow Hormone on the bottom end and on the scores only.

b. Placed all the cutting (40) in a 30 gallon clear plastic recycling bag with very damp long fiber sphagnum moss (to soak the cuttings for hydration) at approx. 75 deg F.

c. After 1 week, removed cuttings and squeezed out all the excess moisture from the sphagnum moss, put moss and cuttings back in bag then into plastic basin with the tops oriented together at a higher elevation than the bottom ends. place back in dark at approx. 75 deg F. This is the result at 2-1/2 weeks.


The post which further explains the experiment and my conclusions.

Rooting is only a small portion of getting the cuttings to a 1 gallon plant. Using Jon Verdick's rooting in a bag procedure to grow the rooted cuttings has increased the survival rate dramatically.
Good Luck..

Rooting cuttings in moss has become my favorite method of choice.  I have not needed to wash the fig cuttings before starting the rooting process, but should that become necessary, Pete S. in the above comment has a good procedure.  I have tried Root Riot, wrapping in damp paper towels and placing in Zip-Lock bags, planting directly in potting compound, Perlite and sand etc. with limited success.  With all of the methods except the moss, I had a difficult time maintaining the moisture level to my satisfaction or more importantly, the cutting's satisfaction.  I have had a very high success rate with the moss.  I also have no issues with mold or gnats because I'm not using soil.
All you are trying to do with the moss is to fool the cutting into thinking they are in a high humidity area.  With the moss holding the water, the cuttings stay damp not soaking wet.

Here is my method:
   First, I soak some long fibered sphagnum moss in a bucket of warm water to hydrate it.  Let it soak for at least 30-45 minutes before trying to use it.  It soaks up water pretty fast but it takes a while to get it soft, fluffy and fully hydrated.  I then take a handful of it and squeeze out most all of the liquid to the point it is just damp.  Using a plastic Wal-Mart shoe box (with snap on lid) as my container, I begin to pull the moss back apart and sprinkle it into the bottom of the box being careful not to pack it in too tight.  You want it to be sort of loose and aerated.  I lay this in until I get around 2 inches or so on the bottom.
Next, I identify the base of the cutting and dip it in some rooting hormone to cover the lower two nodes.  Usually about an inch but no more than two inches of the cutting.  I prefer the Clonex gel because it covers very well and it will soak into the cutting in a short amount of time.  I then place the cutting on the moss making sure it is in good contact with the moss and repeat until I have 8 to 10 cuttings in the box.  You can put in more or less cuttings as you want, it is just that this works well for me.  I will usually mist the cuttings with warm water to give them a head start.  I then cover them with some more moss using the same method I used to cover the bottom.  You know, squeezing out the water and sprinkling it in to cover the fig twigs.  I like 2-3 inches of moss over the cuttings.  Another spritz of water and snap the lid on tight. 
Now this is what I think makes my success rate go up.  I place the shoe box on a heat mat made for seed germination and leave it on this mat for the entire time it is rooting.  It never gets too warm for the cuttings and it really gets the box to sweating.  The temperature gage in the box reads between 70 and 75 degrees.  After about a week, I open it to check the moisture content and to air it out.  If I think it is drying out too fast, I spritz it again, otherwise I just replace the cover.  I also peak at the cuttings to check their progress. When checking on the rooting progress, be careful incase it is growing roots so you don't break them off.
I have seen the nodes start to swell and form those white bumps you are looking for that will become roots later after only a week to ten days on the mats.  After about three weeks on some of the cuttings, there will be roots growing in the area where you applied the hormone, with the remaining cuttings rooting over the next few weeks.
Be sure to properly label the twigs and date them too!

Thank you everyone. Especially Pete and Bill. Its hot in Arizona already. We keep our air conditioner set at 85 degrees. Its always over 70 degrees in the house. I have a propagation heat mat if needed but I'm not so sure I should be using it. I did not purchase a thermostat for it so it automatically heats up to roughly 20 degrees higher than the ambient temp. In this case it would be 105 degrees roughly 18 hours of each day.

I agree, the heating mat for you probably wouldn't be the best thing unless you have a craving for slow cooked fig scion lol.
I'm in SE Texas and I did take the boxes out once in awhile and let them sit in the sun for 20 minutes or so then back in their closet. The problem I had with moss are the cuttings that root out all the way up. In fact I took one out of moss yesterday and had to bury the whole thing on it's side. It rooted profusely at the TOP of the cutting and had leaves starting at the BOTTOM. It was one of your Carini's Frank LOL

Thanks Tami. No heat mat for me. At this point I can't wait till the cuttings get here.


Bill that picture of the bag with the roots did not work for me before. Now that I can see it with all of those roots all I can say is that I'm impressed.

This is a great thread as there's lot's of good constructive advise and great info.
I use root riot cubes as well as S moss. I do recut the ends before dipping into rooting hormone (Clonex).
I think the folks who contributed above have the subject covered pretty well.
Good luck and happy figging.

JJ,
I was frustrated with Cuttings rooting all along the cutting last year and this year I decided to keep the cutting vertical while in the moss and it has worked well. Very little if any rooting on the upper portion. I think probably gravity or whatever influences a plant to send branches up and roots down is the main reason, but I provided a minimal bottom heat that might factor as well. I know folks are successful planting cuttings horizontal, but I found the horizontal cutting awkward  to handle in potting up in my setup and I think errored in dividing the cutting too small out of the Moss. I use a large storage bin with individual gal baggies with the tops open and cuttings vertical within the closed bin. The open top of the gal bags allows for easy airing of the cuttings. It's a lot quicker opening one bin then 20 smaller containers, for checking and airing.

I used the s moss also and am very happy with it.  I did not clean the cuttings or use rooting hormones, and have had nearly 100% success.

My failures have come from not tending to the cuttings properly after being cupped.  I had about 2 doz at various stages and I lost track of things when I got the new puppy.I still have some in the bins - haven't checked them in a couple of weeks :-{

For now, I will continue to use the s moss because it is convenient, I can put several cutting in a plastic box and then stack the boxes on a shelf to save room.

I have done them cleaned and uncleaned. Most were cleaned and dried. I then trimmed a bit off of each cut and waxed them, train of thought was to remove any mold which may have had a chance to set in before I got the cuttings..most of them had some very small amounts of whispy mold here and there upon opening the package. Success was good, >80%. No hormones. No heat.

It seems that all of the cuttings received January or later rooted VERY easily. I had a couple of cuttings I took off of my trees February and decided to try the minimalist approach. I did nothing but toss them into a leftover bag of damp sphag I had just laying around and forgot about them. 3 weeks later I checked and both rooted profusely with not a spot of mold.

What kind of wax?

Here is one reason to be very careful in moss. I went to dump my empty moss containers into a big box lid today to dry in the sun. Turned over the second one and looked like snakes on the inside.....nope, it was 4 baby figs I didn't know were there. They were the bigger cuttings so took longer to root and I thought I had potted them up weeks ago. I had to put them into 3 gallon pots because the roots were all touching the sides in the 1 gallon.

After potting them I realized I got so worked up I forgot to take pictures to share. I'm sorry.

I have tried the moss technique, but wasn't as successful as 60/40 perlite/potting soil in a 32 oz deli container in a Rubber Maid type container to control humidity.  I am now trying Root Riot cubes and seem to be getting results equal to 60/40 perlite/potting soil.  Although my results with the Root Riot cubes are still early, I just started transplanting the rooted cubes to 1 gallon nursey pots.  I may have a different story to tell if I start losing cuttings when planting the rooted RootRiot cubes.

I agree with JavaJunkie, try different methods and see what works best for you.  If I had only tried the moss method I would have probably given up on starting fig trees from cuttings.

I will have to try this method. I'm still looking for the "ultimate potting mix" by Fertilome. I can't seem to find it anywhere, so the moss will have to work.