I've been repotting plants longer than I can remember (since childhood). I sat down and repotted half a dozen little trees today and decided I'd take notes this time to share with others. I had several cuttings in cups which were showing roots around a vast majority of the cup, high and low, which is what I like to see, it helps to hold the soil into shape when removing, which results in (for me) less damage to the roots, if you are careful and considerate about your removal method.

First thing I like to do on repotting day is is get all of my new pots, labels, cuttings and soil ready. This means:

• Watering the cutting normally (maybe a smidge more than normal). I do this several minutes in advance from trying to remove it, or prior to the following steps so the water has plenty of time to spread out to every last little bit. This will help the soil adhere to itself, which will help it keep a nice cup-shaped form when removing it.
• As if this isn't obvious, I clean out the new pots that will hold my cuttings. You never know what may lurk in an old pot, or what was previously in it, especially if you're like me and you recycle your pots.
• I open my bag of soil and spray it with water, then mix it in so it has a nice moist texture, similar to a soft, airy, fluffy moist cake. This usually takes three or four shots of water, and working it waaaay down deep into the bag between sprays. This prevents me from needing to water for at least 2-3 days after transplant, so I *know* I'm not going to suffocate my roots by overwatering.
• For each pot I'm using, I will pre-fit my cutting by setting the cup in the pot and trying to figure out how much soil I should "pad" the bottom of the new pot with to get the right height. I will then put that much soil in, then work additional soils up the wall to create a hole in the center large enough to accept the cup. This is only possible if your soil is moderately moist as described in the last step.

Once I've performed the steps above, I'm pretty much ready for transferring cuttings. I have a few tricks and tips I can share on this one. These all work really well, even with the most well-rooted of cuttings in the most bizarre containers.

First thing I do is work the soil and roots away from the sides of the cup. I do this using a technique I picked up in massage school when I was younger, during reflexology classes. I grip the cup and "thumb walk" around the plastic. Before I say anymore, I will explain "thumb walking", it's an old technique which you can quickly pick up by watching this Youtube video:

I use this thumb-walk technique in circles around the perimeter of the cup, pushing a bit forward as I go so that a it almost keeps a "wave" or "rippple" in front of my thumb. This will separate any stubbrn roots from the side of the cup (assuming you watered beforehand). I work around the full perimeter of the base, then move up a quarter inch and do another full circle around the cup, then move up another quarter inch until I've walked circles from the base to the top rim. Once I get to the top rim, I like to push up on the bottom of the cup with both thumbs to coax the soil block up.

After this, I can usually flip the cup over, brace the top of the soil, and give a light tap with 1-2 fingers on the bottom of the cup, and the cutting, soil and rootball will normally pop out in one fell swoop. There is a certain danger involved. On 1 out of every 30-40 plants I do this with, depending on how the roots have set, sometimes the soil inside the cup will be stubborn and the top and bottom halves will separate, dumping the entire top half of the soil out. This happens most often when I don't thumb-walk the bottom of the cup firmly enough, or don't push up from the bottom with my thumbs, or when the bottom bit of soil is drier than the top (i.e. didn't water properly, or O didn't let it set long enough to distribute the water, or I failed to brace the cutting and top of the soil well enough, or maybe I smacked the bottom too hard).

In cases like that, or cases where the cutting just won't budge with , I break out a flat razor or Xacto knife and cut the rim on two sides opposite each other, then cut downward about halfway down the cup. This will give me some leverage to work something firm but flimsy (like a transparency sheet for an overhead projector) around the edges of the cup to really break the soil free.

If all else fails and my cutting won't come out, I cut the cup the rest of the way down and manually separate it from the soil block.

After the cutting and rootball is out, I direct-transfer it into the new pot, set it on top of the existing soil, and add new soil around it. I tamp down firmly like I would any other plant I'd pot, in the ground or a container. I add additional soil as required.

I spray the leaves lightly/rapidly afterwards to get any excess soil off, but not enough to actually water the plant - no need to water, since the soil used was already moist. And this could be complete BS, but I believe wetting the leaves helps hydrate them after the transplant, in case the roots are shocked or broken and won't allow as much uptake.

I put my plants in the shade, normally indoors (since I keep mine indoors throughout the process anyway) for monitoring. I monitor them every 30-60 minutes after transplant to look for leaf droop. Droopy leaves can mean any number of things, but on a transfer, I've found this normally means I snapped off a root or two, and the roots aren't uptaking enough moisture to support the leaves' needs.

It's important to address droopy leaves right away. Droopy leaves are usually related to root damage, too little moisture to the roots, excessive heat or insufficient humidity. Using the steps above to pre-wet my soil, droopy leaves are NEVER been a soil water issue for me. If you follow the suggestions above with regard to pre-wetting your soil, you should never, ever need to water your plant after transfer. Watering your plants after transplant can easily be a death sentence.

Likewise, by putting the plants in a shady spot indoors, excessive heat shouldn't be a problem. This leaves two other possibilities for droop (humidty or root breaking), which both have the same solution - misting the leaves lightly, or simply returning the cutting to an a clear storage bin for a couple days with the lid locked on.

I can normally confirm humidity/root break as the problem by misting the leaves lightly. If this helps to reverse droop within 30 minutes of spraying, this is a pretty solid confirmation to me, and I send the plant back to the bin. I've used this method on a number of plants that showed signs of limp leaves post-transplant, and it has worked the vast majority of the time. I do air out the bin nightly to help keep things fresh.

That's pretty much everything I do, in a nutshell. I figured I would post the details here in case it may help others. I like sharing details of my processes with other folks, and reading their processes, it helps to build a better process overall ;)

Good Info Jason. Many will benefit from it.
I gently tape the visible roots in the cup instead of thumb walk but I will give thumb-walking a try. I water the periphery of the cup to loosen the root grip on the walls.

Jason--thanks for taking time to give such a thorough description of your process. It hadn't even occurred to me that watering a fig immediately after repotting might be a potential problem; I appreciate the "heads-up."

I suppose it's not always a problem or "death wish" as I said, but it is very easy to overwater, and if you don't know what you're doing, you can do way more damage than good.  It is impossible to control water on a blind pour when you're dealing with two different moistnesses of soil or potting mix - your cupped mix, and the added mix to the pot.

Best example I can provide is this ... have you ever noticed what water does on overly dry soil or potting mix?  It's almost like potting medium is an impenetrable barrier, water will pool on it for quite some time  before soaking through.  Sometimes the first penetration of water can take a minute or more, depending on your potting medium. 

Water will always penetrate already-moist soil easier than dry soil.  So, when you have a hunk of wet soil and dry soil surrounding it, the water will typically penetrate the wet soil first, saturate it, then slowly penetrate the dry soil from there.  This takes time, though, so you're drowning the already-moist soil while you wait.

The best way to avoid it is to pre-wet the new soil and put your cutting inside OR to bottom-water by adding water to the saucer below, or placing the plant in a water source - but you really have no control over the amount of moisture using these bottom-water methods, you can totally saturate the soil this way, it can be just as damaging to roots.  Pre-wetting the soil gives you perfect control over this. 

I just find it is a hundred times more easy to take your bag of potting mix and squirt it several times, then manually work the water through evenly.  With my seedlings (tomatoes and peppers) I can literally go for 2-3 weeks in the basement without adding water using this method - I was able to totally eliminate fungus gnat outbreaks.  It was a profound discovery which applies very suitably to fig cuttings as well.

Also - one last tip - if you add Perlite for the top 1/8" or so of your pot, this will allow water to penetrate any soil almost immediately.  This makes watering a hundred times easier.  I usually top all of my pots off with Perlite, barely mix it into the potting mix, then top with a little more.  This also seems to deter fungus gnats.
Pic of my happy transplants from earlier.  3x Gino's Black, 1x Sal (Gene/EL), 1x Unknown Schuyler, 1x Unknown Voiture #217.  Probably have a few more coming next weekend.  Trying to pot up pretty quickly before heading off to Europe.

As for what I like to see for roots....I will usually transfer when I see this in the cup, and these roots start to harden off a little.  This is the Hâtive de Argentueil I rec'd from UCD last month (~5wks ago).   I gotta say ... I've never had this much fun rooting things, I love this clear cup thing.  I wish I would have thought to use clear cups like 15-20 years ago.

Oh, and more pics...2nd batch was potted up today.  Another 7 done.  I need to go buy some racks to rack these up (need to save space)....anyone have suggestions?  I need to go vertical.

BTW - I just wanted to share what I did for racking space, which I haven't yet made vertical, but ...

I've been using plastic bread loaf trays that you find at the bread store, they look like this:  http://tinyurl.com/27wc8xt

You can load up 11 one gallon pots into a single rack.  It makes it a LOT easier to move the little guys around.  Mine are a little more grown up now, so I am thinned down to 8~9 plants per tray, with all of my larger 2gals just sitting on the concrete driveway.

Jason--lots of great info here. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us!

Never thought about massage therapy for rooted cuttings. Do you have to take them to a day spa to get proper massage for them? Nice addition to the fig community.

When using the cups, with perlite/vermic mix, I could pour the mix out, and if the roots were stuck to the sides, squeeze the cup, and then let it SNAP back into shape, and that usually did the trick. Wouldn't work with the "mix" in place in the cup, but was great after the mix was poured out.

Jon, that was the general problem I was having (sticking to sides).  I hadn't thought about it being a massage for the roots, maybe that's why I had such good success rates after potting ;)

This last year was a learning session, for sure.  In the end, I found that I don't think I like using cups much although Starbucks makes the best cups I found with the least roots sticking and the cups never crack.  I also found that I like prefer a mostly-perlite mix, and I think I'll probably give your even-more-improved-baggie-method a shot this go-round, because after all of the cups used to pot my heirloom tomatoes and peppers and all the bins full of cups sitting around the living room this year.... I am so tired of seeing plastic cups ;)

Jason,

Part of the whole rooting "thing" is adapting what others are doing to your own situation. Rather than seeing a technique as a set-in-stone recipe. Different people have different climates, access or not to a greenhouse, and other supplies. So each person has to take the principles and adapt them to their own situation. That's why I like hearing what others are doing - I learn new ideas, too.

For me, the "New Bag method" and using a greenhouse eliminated about 99% of the mold issues, so that was a huge improvement. It also simplified moisture control.

Great info.  Thank you.  

Valerie
Zone 6b

Really enjoyed this trail. Thanks for the pictures, Jason.

I just did my first cup to pot. F'n disastrous. Tried the massaging technique first, the roots were like super glued to the cup. So essentially I crumbled the root ball trying to massage the roots off the cup. Ended up using a freak'n butter knife I the end,...ugh. Worst plant removal ever.

It's emotionally brutal to take a butter knife to the roots which you look at every day and have been tracking progress of since the first one hit the edge of the cup. Oh the joy I felt at that time, and now I feel like throwing-up.

I actually have better luck having the mix as dry as the plant can handle.  The more root bound, the better for me too.  I massage the cup as Jason described, and it may take a couple of minutes, but I keep doing this until I see all the roots detach from the side of the cup.  The whole plant and mix slide out with minimal effort and since the soil mix is almost dry, the whole ball is very light and there's less chance of the heavy soil giving out, taking roots with it.

I prefer it a little dryer as well. I just think that compared to my vegetable starts in which I use a seed starter mix, this high ratio of perlite just doesn't stick to itself. I will be waiting longer for the next few to get more root bound before I try again.

So far the leaves of the recent repot are still crisp and not drooping, I just wasn't planning on basically bare rooting the plant.

I use a trick from another member Desert Dance....I fill a cup with warm water and place the plant/cup in that for about 5 minutes.  I think take it out and let it completely drain.  I then have little trouble getting the cutting out.  I keep the mix in the larger pot rather dry and let it obsorb the extra moisture from around the cutting.  I then water just slightly with a little Thrive mixed in.  If the cutting does not have lots of leaves, I cover with a 24oz cup for a couple of days to keep the humidity high.  So far, it has worked well....I have only lost one to transplant and that was due transferring too early.

thanks for the info....i had problems with re potting... lost cuttings due to over watering....will try your thumb walk...