There has been a lot of discussion on different type of rooting medium on the board. All of my recent cutting were started in Miracle Gro potting mix. I finally got my hands on some UPM, boy what a difference. It is a totally different product. MG is mostly shredded wood and I must say it's in big chunks. The UPM is very light and airy and it feels good to put your hands into. Here are pictures of the two products. I can't do a comparison of their rooting characteristics as I haven't tried the UPM yet. I do have 50 cutting in baggies that will go into UPM as soon as they make roots. 

Side by side.



Miracle Gro



UPM

Gene:
This must have something to do with where the Miracle Grow is made.  The MG that I buy looks more like your pictures of UPM than it does the MG picture.

I have read here before that the product varies in different locations over the country.
Ox

I agree with Ox the MG here looks nothing like that. I make my own mix but when I pot up for friends and family I use bagged mixes so I don't have to haul 5-6 different bags. Is that MG potting mix or soil Mix? I think I've seen both but not absolutely sure

I also agree with the above posters, Miracle grow is more like sawdust .
I used it for many years with great results until i tried it indoors and found that its quite buggy with knats when i used a new bag last winter. It does compact rather easily.
I have used upm last season and it seems a little richer and heavier potting soil it did its job like miracle grow but did not compact at end of season .
Im also used scotts premium potting soil and liked it as well as much as upm.
Now im useing scotts seeding soil its for grass seeding and i like this also so far good results as i have a few plants in it and no compacting at end of season either and much cheaper.

That last picture looks just like my miracle grow i used to use like saw dust and gets hard for water to penetrate as i had to use a root feeder . 

I've noticed that there is quite a difference in the MG products from time to time. Sometimes they're fine and sometimes chunky. Is that the MG garden soil or potting mix. I use the garden soil to grow coleus in pots. They love it and get huge. I find the MG potting mix alone holds too much water for most potted plants. I haven't tried it with figs. I too, like the 50%UPM/Coarse perlite for my figs until I plant them in ground.

The Miracle Grow potting mix that I always used to get in our area used to be based on peat moss with perlite mixed  and whatever else, but no wood chunks like shown in the picture here. The MG consistency was not very much different than the mixture of peatmoss/perlite just like shown here in the last picture right side above.
I switched to PRO-MIX a year ago because I had this perception that MG was causing fungus gnat which could have been cause by something else (but what else could it have been)?

I guess the reason some people stand behind MG is that in some areas it might be a very fine mix. I know what I had was chopped wood and little else. I wonder if as I believe someone said that UPM is mixed differently in different areas also. Ain't life fun.

You guys are killing me.   Just this week I set off on my find-UPM quest again.  I used the "Find a dealer" function on the Fertilome website and it gave me about 10 "dealers" in a 100 mile radius, mostly in NY, a few in NJ, and one in CT.  I called each one of them and when I said that the Fertilome website identified them as a Fertilome dealer, the answer in each case was "huh?'  Finally, an Agway manager explained that it is probably one of their suppliers who handles Fertilome.

As you might guess, NONE of the "dealers" carries UPM...or any other Fertilome product.  The Agway guy is going to get back to me about his ability to special order UPM.   None of the others would even talk to me about it.

If he comes through, I'll will post something here for those in the NY/NJ/CT area whom I know are also looking for the stuff.

C.J.

Sounds kind of like the issue I had.  I called all of the local outlets, and they swore they didn't carry Fertilome potting mixes or soil mixes.  They know the name, and carry some of their fertilizer products, but none of the mixes.

I ended up buying Fafard 3B, which contains all the same ingredients, it's soilless, noe added fertilizer, a wetting agent, etc.  It's been working great.

Gene,

I use LC1, Much finer and I also use 52 mix better drainage.
When I get home I will send you more info on both products.

C.J.
If you can't find the Fertilome UPM, look for Pro-Mix (Premier).
I have used Pro-Mix in the past and it is similar to, if not the same as UPM.
Leon

After contending with the gnats in MG potting mix last year I refused to buy it again although the figs seemed to like it. This year I got some Fafard potting soil Professional Quality. Components are: Peat humas, sand, Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss and Perlite, and a wetting agent. My brother got it for me at a local Nursery and I didn't check the components. Using this to pot heavely rooted cuttings either in clear cups or regular pots has been a disaster for me. It is too wet. I placed some in a shallow bin in the warm house in an attempt to dry it out. After 3 days it is still wet. After a week the moss starts to dry slightly and you you can actually pick it out. The cups were filled with roots only to rot in the wet moss. I tried getting the figs out of the cups to save it  but the wet weight pulled of the still live roots tangled in the moss along with a handfull of dead roots. This cost me quite a few well leafed and rooted plants. I'll have to start over now with something else. You can be sure I'll check the components in the future.

Peg,

Leon,  Thanks for the tip on Pro-Mix.  Good to know that it is an acceptable substitues as it is readily available around here.  I use it for my cointainer-planted veggies  and flower on the deck.  Now all I have to do is find coarse perlite.

C.J.

Perhaps from what we've gathered here it might make sense to gather the raw materials and put together an acceptable product that will be consistent from batch to batch and not depend on others to put what they have available in the bag. 

I see no reason to even bother with the "potting mixes" for rooting cuttings.  Many of the experienced people here use totally inert substances.  My first year I used only the vermiculite I could buy at Walmart.  I had phenomenal success, losing only two or three cuttings of some forty-odd.  The second year I used perlite and vermiculite, again with good success.  All this based on what experienced people said here.

This year I am using (guided by Tapla's comments) some Floor-Dri from NAPA,  a mix of vermiculite and perlite and a few in Miracle Gro as an experiment.  I want to see whether the mineral mixes are more successful than the organic materiels.  I suspect there will be less difficulty with the mineral mixes.  I suspect they will all sprout---let us see if they grow. 

I also have a double handful of spare cuttings buried in a bucket of sand out back, based on Elder's method.  I suspect those will grow as well as any. 
Ox

Ox,

Keep us posted on your research.  You, me, JD and some others around here are carrying out simimlar experiences and seeing some interesting results.

Jason:
What I posted, Components and name of Fafard came directly off the package. Overwater? This stuff is so wet it woun't dry out before using no less than water it!

Holy cow!  It was already wet in the bag?   I'd be scared to use that.

This is the product I buy (http://www.fafard.com/?p=139), and here are photos of it below in my hands and the package for the sake of clarity.  It's airy and fluffy even when wet (if it's not still fluffy when wet, then you're grossly overwatering).  There are some chunks of pine bark here and there.  This is the content, per the manufacturer:

Canadian sphagnum peat moss
Processed pine bark
Perlite
Vermiculite
Starter nutrients
Wetting agent
Dolomitic limestone

It's been working like a champ.  I probably put less than 3/8 cup of water total per 20oz cup of soil, this product is similar to others that have a wetting agent - they require little of nothing for moisture to maintain a perfect humid, moist environment.  I have never had a problem with "swamp cup".  But I'm pretty conservative with watering, because I know overwatering is a huge mistake folks make, it gets everyone at least once or twice, and plant material at this stage is incredibly forgiving with under-watering, especially when kept in a sealed humid environment like the boxes many of us use for watering - the moisture never goes anywhere.

Of course, YMMV.  I am fully, 100% starting to believe that products vary from region to region, because I'm pretty sure there are regional facilities making the stuff to cut down on shipping.  The Fafard products I use are likely made in the southeast, and distributed only in the southeast from that facility.  If you live in the northwest USA, you may have a different facility making the stuff, and it may look like a different product.  I really don't know (I'd never heard such a thing until I started playing with figs on this forum and GW)

PS - if it wasn't clear, I also mix in an additional 40%-50% chunky perlite with my Fafard 3B (before watering!).  This makes it even more impossible to overwater.  It also adds more pockets of air, and makes the water run right through.

Rafed/Gene, I used the LC-1 by Sunshine in the past with good results. It was probably a 3 cu. ft. bag for ~$15. The local nursery where I buy my coarse perlite uses it to grow out many of their hanging basket plants and succulents. It's a good all around professional mix similar to the UPM. Mixed with the coarse perlite should work fine for starting figs. It's at least an alternative if you can't find some of the others.

Jason, I agree. That stuff looks just like the UPM I got. I'm looking forward to using it on my next batch.

They're quite large.  But believe it or not, they got larger faster using Turface and Sphagnum.  It just took longer for them to wind up.  I can post some pics if you want.