As I have started rooting figs this year I am developing some ideas that may be wrong or right.

From my limited experience it seems that if I pull a cutting from the rooting bag or box when it just has a hint of a green bud showing it will do better than if the cutting has developed shoots with or without leaves. I haven't done enough to say whether or not root formation plays a part.

I potted some last night that had maybe a half inch of root and buds barely breaking. These will go outside under my grapefruit tree to fend for themselves. I'll supply water if they start to wilt or look dry.

Most of the cuttings that I had potted earlier that had small not fully developed leaves lost them after being potted up. It didn't seem to matter if they were inside or outside. Most have made a comeback but they are way behind the barely developed ones I potted up.

From all this I have surmised that it is best to pull them early than to let them develop a lot in the rooting stage.

So what are your indicators that it is time to pot them?

if they have leaves on while rooting, they need to be in some sort of humidity controlled environment when they are moved to pots/cups. A suitably cut used plastic soft drink bottle makes a good humidity dome to go over a newly potted cutting.

Grant
z5b

It may be stupid of me, but I don't transplant until I see at least a couple of roots that are 1/4"-1/2" long.  It takes out all the guesswork.  No point in wasting soil or a pot on something that only has top growth and may never develop roots.

I never move cuttings until roots are present. Bud break or no, no roots no moving.

Couple of roots at least an inch long when I move into cup. If you are new to transplant, best bet is to transplant straight into 100% coarse perlite. Use transparent cup, nothing larger than 32oz cup. Smaller cup is better. Large cup retains too much moisture near root zone &  can cause rot. Thereafter maintain humidity and don't water for at least a week or longer until you are sure watering is needed. To take the guess work out, use a moisture meter to check. High perched water is deadly & you can lose all newly rooted cuttings. I make holes on the sides of cups for airflow.

Good luck Darkman.

Last fall, I moved 10 cuttings to cup as soon as I saw bud breaking. All showed roots in clear cup and moved into larger pot or given away. 6 I kept died during winter due to my lack of care. None of them had any visible roots when I moved them into cups.

This time, I did total of 28 cuttings in stages. First 12 went into cup as soon as I saw bud breaking, or root initial. No roots long enough to measure. Another 9 went into cup with about 1/4 inch roots a number of days later.

Today I did rest of the cuttings into cup. 2 iSchia White had about 2-3 inch roots along with much shorter roots. 2 Calvert had 1/2 to 1 inch roots.

Very first set has names written on the cup with black ink. 2nd with green. 3rd with red.

So.far 1st set is way ahead. Black Madeira, one of them, has 2 inch surface root towards the edge of the cup.

I will update in a month or so on which set does best.

Pete

Thanks everyone,

I guess that most figs are very forgiving and sucess can be had a various levels however the testing that Bullet08 is doing may show the superior method for most figs. I have heard that some are notoriously hard to root. I wish I had kept better notes on what had what. I did take pictures so I might be able to figure some out. Next year I will be better prepared and take notes.

Bullet please do keep us informed.

all my cuttings went into bag on 3/25. today one of the first set that went into cup has root coming through the peat pot. it's a Calvert.

from two of second set, i see surface roots. they are Ischia Green. One of Black Madeira also has surface roots. however, they do not show any roots coming through the peat pot. since i don't want to disturb the roots, can't dig in to see what's going on below.

per the forecast, from 5/1 on the weather will be very nice here with night temp above 60. all the cups will go outdoor under the shade after 5/1.

pete

I've observed that the Ischia Green are very reliable rooters.

i guess it's been about a month. 1st set was black, 2nd set was green, and 3rd was red.

1st set went into cup with very little or no root. just bud breaking and "root initial".

2nd set had about 1/4" roots with most of them having leaves breaking out.

3rd set had about 1-3" roots.

out of those, 2nd set produced most roots. 3rd set came up fast. 1st set didn't have much issue either. very few out of 1st set fail to show root outside of peat pot, but at this point, they all have roots and most vigirous rooting was from Calvert that was in 1st set.

at this point, i would say it really doesn't make much difference when they go into soil mix. it seems the failure to root, at least for me, is based on each individual cutting and just my luck.

one thing i did notice is out of 4 that doesn't have root or top growth, 3 of them are cuttings with terminal bud.

pete

Thanks Pete,

I have had some setbacks which willl throw all my observations off. When I potted mine I used 70% Fertilome Ultimate Potting mix and 30% coarse Perlite. I now know that mix will remain soggy even if I do not water. It appears to have the ability to suck humidity out of the air. Consequently I have lost quite a few what I thought were nicely growing. I have repotted most of them into either 100% Perlite or a 70/30 Perlite/Fertilome mix. My sucessful 1st season is tuning into, Gee I'm glad they didn't all die!

Charles, you are ahead of me when I 1st started rooting --- none survived. Lesson learnt well and following season I had good results. My main challenge now is timing the rooting & up-potting + forgetfulness/procrastinations. Yesterday I potted up a few hard to get cuttings where their roots looks dried. I should have done it on Tuesday but put it off until I remember yesterday. Last week it was watering -- totally forgot to check on newly potted cuttings that were doing  well and then we had a stretch of heat. Both the 2 plants were designated for a friend. I had to take off all the large leaves on one plant, leaving a tiny leaf and the other lost a big leaf.

It seems soil mix is very personal thing, along with how to fertilize. I have been using 50/50 miracle gro seedlings and perlite. I thought they were scotts, but I was wrong. They worked well for me. This is second time I'm rooting cuttings. Both time I used same soil mix and method. Very little cuttings were lost.

Last fall, one cutting just refuse to response. This time 4.both time it was less than 20%.

Watering is very simple since I use peat pot method. I water when the cup is very light or when the peat pot turn light khaki color. Haven't lost due to rot yet.

My problem last fall was basically due to my neglect. I had some health issues, and I didn't pay attention to young cuttings. The older trees were fine.

In older trees, I use different soil mix and I rarely give em water over the winter, but new cuttings were in 50/50 potting soil and perlite and they dried up and all died.

Pete

There are days that I know I need to do something but there just isn't time. When you go to bed and have to get up in four hours to go to work you just miss somethings that should have been done. This work stuff is seriously interfereing with my life. If things go well (such as the economy not falling any further into the gutter) I hope to be retired next cutting season.

I have also found slugs under some of my pots and that may be something that is killing them. I am going to start a post on them.