Recently recieved madeira sticks from Jon (thanks Jon) and used rooting gel on 1 in pot the other in pot nothing, if they root thats a plus. Also the 3rd stick is in sphagnum (hard for me to spell that darn word )

here is the sphagnum, one stick is italian unknown from my mother tree thats from Bologna Italy , the other stick is Madeira. Just notice when i was looking at bag to spell the word that it says its from Chile well thats a long way!

Recently i bought a flat of 72 with peat pellets, these peat pellets you soak in water and they swell to about 2 to 3 inches and have a mesh around them when expanded kinda neat i bought to use for some petunias i grow by mailbox and said what the heck put a stick in it to see what it does, well i did and covered it with a cup march 27th and just today gently pulled it out, small tiny roots now, so i put it back. Here is picture a little blurry sorry.
Just having some fun!

Ciao Martin,  good luck.  Hope you have good results.  i know the Perry morse little capsules you are talking about in 72 count.  I bought a few of those containers and they are the Best thing for seeds.  I have all my Roma Tomatoes and all the hot and sweet peppers germinated from those little pods.  My Tomatoes sprouted in 2 days and the peppers in about 5 or so. I am over loaded now with peperone and Tomatoes that want outside now.  May be quite useful with the fig cuttings.  Thanks for the info  I would recommend those to anyone who wants to germinate seeds, there must be something else inside them that stimulates growth because I never seen seeds go so quickly from seed to seedling.  Ciao 

Pasqua Felice 

Ciao Maggie
i bought 2  of the 72 count trays filled with these pellets at home depot for 6.99.
I was passing garden center on way home other day and saw the same ones there for 11.99 i dont get it how can they mark up so high, unless the one at HD  was priced wrong.
Maggie for many years when we first moved here i would buy the flats of little roma plum tomatoes and plant in garden to can them. After our area was built with many homes over the years prices started going up there at nursery and the flats got smaller for some reason , one day i confronted the manager and let off some steam on what i thought of his prices of vegtables on a busy saturday morning. Yes people were buying them but not me. I had some old empty flats i save and use potting soil bought seed that year and have been doing the same since its much cheaper for me now. I just never thought about sticking a fig stick in 1 so i tried.

Martin,
I am sure you will have success with the Sp.moss. I first heard of its benefits
from our good fig Dr. Al (tapla). I was happy with my first trial results. My recommandtion,
"chop & fluff " it some more around them fig twigs.

Here is same italian plant i pulled out gently from peat pot the roots grew more so i transplanted it into upm soil.

Gorgi, 1 of the plants was lost to spider mites im sad to say.

I took one of the madeira's out of the pot (no roots) and just for fun i swelled 2 peat pellets i cut the netting off both bottoms and put together to make 1 .
Then put the unrooted stick in it and put back in the original pot to see what happens in 30 days.
Cant wait weather breaks around here and slowly my smaller plants used to outdoors.

Ciao martin,  I have so many of the peat pods things that you have in the 72 count left, I bought a few extra packs incase i decide to plant some seeds later on,  I get alot of seeds from relatives in italy demanding I plant them and that they are the best of whatever the plant is and it must be tried!!!  I think you may be on to something here.  If it will be good for rooting fig cuttings with such good results as you have had,  Like i say, you may have found something very interesting.  Look how your roots grew so well from them.  Ciao Mag

Maggie,
lots of stories you post remind me of similar things in our family.
We used to go by grandmas who was my moms mother, one day she came from yard with greens she grew and what i remember dandelionsasi used to help dig them and she took out some homemade sausage and made a salad and dad pushed it away. Then they argued from what i could tell as it was very loud and mom was embarassed everyones face red. Soon then dad said lets go now.
I asked Anthony who was my older brother what happened when me and him were alone as he could understand what was said as i never learned the langauge just the dirty words. Dad refused to eat weeds (dandelions) and grandma took it to heart then it kept going about dads shady friends and everything and he talked about grandmas dad how he was no better and thats what killed him back in italy and then she more or less told dad to leave after that was mentioned. My brother Anthony used to tell me things that i did not understand.
Then one Sunday a while after that happened dad brought some homemade Barese sausage that 1 of his friends made its different taste the reg italian sausage as it has lamb in it and is much skinnier that reg sausage but oh so darn good. Well grandma made a face when she tasted it as it does not taste what one might think it would taste like cause its different inside and one of the rare times dad laughed.
Grandma lived to be 93 or 94 was a short short mean looking woman but loved us dearly just very stern, dad lived to be 74 after 6 heartattacks and was hardheaded to beat the band and mom well she died of cancer at 61 and was an angel just as innocent as they could be ,Anthony died of heartattack at 43 and what i think hurt him was he kept everything inside and did not let nothing out hence the ulcers and heartattack i believe. Yup there long gone but many good funny old fashion italian memories that most ethnic familes have , this is just one minor one like a tiny grain of sand on a beach. For if it wasn't for grandma showing me my very first fig tree and picking figs off her 1 big tree in chicago and dad bringing home figs from the italian club he belong to i might not be posting on fig forums.
Eat well for you and the baby.
Best Health
Martin

You guys take me back some. It was my grandmother who also really introduced me to enjoying figs. I also remember when I was a kid ... Dad grew zucchini in the yard. One day, when Grandma was staying with us, she went into the yard and picked the flowers from his plants. She proceeded into the kitchen and fried them with onions and made an omelette. Concerned, I ran and got my mother and told her I think something is wrong with Grandma! My mother asked why I thought this, I responded by telling her that Grandma was eating flowers! It wasn't until I was older when I realized this was somewhat of an "old country" traditional "delicacy". I still laugh when I tell that story. Your story brought that back to me. Thanks.

Steve,
you had me laughing when i read your post another memory although recent.
My friend Joe who brought me a stick from Italy near Bologna one day we were talking about our vegtable garden and he said bring him some flowers from my Zuc, watermelon, cantaloupes and i said why i cant cut them the bee's pollinate them for my vegtables and he said no not all just some i make and i know i spell this wrong but it sounded like fratatta like you said Steve some sort of egg omlette. I never did get to taste it when i brought him some but he did give me a small baggie of figs his wife made , she sliced the side and put half almond or sliver of almond inside and roasted in oven not sure how long then had chocolate on stove top and dipped in it, oh gosh were they good. One day maybe i will try to make some like that.

Figs, almonds and chocolate ... that sounds good. Much better than eating flowers ;)

Ciao Martin, Steve,  We share alot of the same memories from being from the same " tribe ". I am sure Italians all over have these same memories.  Figs almonds and chocolate,  sounds very good.  We always had the flowers from the Zucchini to make in an omelete of eggs.  We collected some also and put them in like pancake batter and fried them, they were so good. I always laugh when some of my non Italian family ( The ones who married into my family) would make comments.  They always say that we in this family eats fish bait and weeds!!!!!   They wouldn't even try it.  Eating the dandelion and the flowers and then like for our Christmas eve supper of Squid and smelts, tuna, Bacala,  It made me laugh.  My sister in law who married my brother said the guys shouldn't take any of us fishing because we would eat all the bait before they caught a fish!!!  Some in the family get insulted by that but It always made me and many of the other family laugh!!  Hey, they don't eat it, there's more for us.  These foods are natural for us to eat.  My figs are outside getting a drink of water today,  it is raining hard, but going to be in the 70's.  this weekend, yeah!!  weather is becoming more for making figs!! I have a few breba's coming on the Roma Nera.  Ciao

Getting me onging for SQuid now dd used to go to the fish market when more were just fish markets and not in grocery stores and look at the squid most times the eyes were clear and he would buy and were they could when he made them. Some holidays we had Bacala one of my favorites, smelt i used to catch by the 5 gallom bucket fulls off lake michagan piers every April and we would freeze them, every friday you could tell what we had for dinner.
Now not so much of that anymore but every once in a while as the family loves squid and all the so called baitfish!
Its in us i suppose.
My figs seem slow to awaken this year as its been a cold spring , trees have only been outside for just a handful of times but today and rest of week looks nice so they should start to wake up now.

I'm itching to take my potted plants out of storage but I will wait a few days more.

A nice plate of fried calamari would be nice with a spicy marinara ... boy I'm getting hungry!

Here is italian stick thats in the sp moss its coming along, the other stick is madeira in sp moss as a companion put in 4.08.09 do not see anything on that 1 so far.

The rooted one looks great. Pot it up. Nice work.

Thanks Steve,
i was going to pot tomorrow but what the heck why not so its now in pot .
I hopeing to get a few of the ones i have potted up to grow into plants.

Looks like a big Hee-Haa for the SM...

With roots like that Martin, you should have no problems with getting that plant to grow.

Steve,
 Steve i hope so, i tend to kill things here and there!

The italian stick in peat pellet grew more roots and smaller diameter ones in 15 day.
The italian stick in Sphagnum grew fewer roots but thicker diameter ones in 19 days.

Of course im not saying 1 way is better than the other it was just 2 sticks and i was curious as aw heck now im just happy though that both ways can work for me in a least the first faze of things.


Now im curious as to how madeira sticks will do as i have 1 in Sphagnum
1 madeira in 2 peat pellets tall with soil mix surrounding  and
1 madeira simply stuck in soil mix.
The 3 madeira sticks were started April 8th so its a week so far.
The madeira sticks that Jon sent are nice looking to try and root.

After potting (or putting in cup) don't disturb it too much and don't over water it and you can't go wrong. I have been going straight into a soil mix rather than verm/perl and having great results. Just watch the watering (keep it on the dry side). And get it into the light as soon as you can so it can start making its own food. Good Luck.

Steve,
what i did was use my last little pot same 1 as the madeira sticks are in (very first pic in post) i took some upm mix from garage put it in microwave (wife was not home) with glass of water on side and warmed for 20 seconds, i used 1 tablespoon of wet perlite and mixed it up with upm mix (no water) as it was alrerady slightly moistend when i finished. I put some mix in pot then held the stick with one hand and spoon fed the pot with the rest of mix.
Yes i know im unconventional probably in doing things  ; )
Oh and also i keep dome covers off now (just me) and put on window sill with the other small plants for some little sun as its just bright and no direct sun as window faces north but room is bright.
Some time in future i post how they do good or bad .
Best Health

Sounds like you got it just right. Curious though, what was the microwave step all about?

Steve,
i keep the big bags of dirt in the garage. When i pot somethng up hold on looking around makeing sure misses cant see this  (jokeing)  the dirt at this time of year is still real cold so i put in microwave just enough to take the chill off it as im not sure but kinda afraid to put the little ones in cold dirt maybe they would get shocked this way im not sure but i always do like that when dirt is real cold. I should maybe say upm potting mix but i know you know what i mean  ; )

You are very thoughtful ;) thanks for the explanation