Hi Everyone,

In preparation of the upcoming hardwood rooting season, I would like to know what size bags everyone uses if they happen to root via a baggie method?

  I THINK I used 3x8 poly bags (flat, open on top, clear bags) this past season, but my husband "helped" reorganize my supplies, and now I cannot find them.

Thanks in advance. 

Hi Sara, I used 3x8, measured one to confirm.

I like to use gallon size "storage" (not freezer) type baggies. And I use Viva band cloth type paper towels.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

used gallon size ziplock heavy duty. and viva paper towel. didn't do the trick for me. i took all the cuttings out and put them in dan's peat pot method. they are all rooting. not sure if they will make it, but at leat they have root now.

pete

We fill some 4-inch pots with moist Fafard 3B soilless mix, dip the cuttings in rooting hormone, stick them in the mix, then place a gallon ziploc over the plant and around the top of the pot -- works like a charm.

I use the Uline 3x8 baggies as you mention.

If you need some, give me a shout.  I have about 800 left after sending a 100-count pack to a fig friend this year.

You might be a fignut if you have 800 baggies!!

Dan
Semper Fi-csu

If I am using the old method, wrapping in paper, I use Gallon.

If I am using the new method, I use 3 x 8.

I am going 100% peat pots when rooting my next batch of dormant cuttings. Have lots of those 3 inch on hand. I orderd and already received my 5 inch peat pots, their holders with drainage holes, and their solid trays for water management.  Costs me a lot more than $8.00......

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Jason...sending you a PM.  Thanks everyone for the answers.....glad to know that my recall of 3x8 was on track.

I use the 3x10s and roll the tops down to be even with the top of the cutting.  Saved my bacon with a few very long cuttings  :)

Jon, what do you mean by paper?  Is it more effective than the u-line bags you told us about

Here is the "oldschool" bag method: http://figs4fun.com/Rooting_Bag.html

I got 3"x10" too for this season. I just leave them long, it holds more moisture in and makes picking up individual baggies easier. 1 mil plastic seems to me plenty thick as well. LDPE does not burst like .5 mil HDPE grocery bags do, it stretches.

Rob and Brent,
What size container do you pot them in once they rooted? That is when you use the 10" bags. With some of the 8" bags I have problems if the roots started at the top of the cutting. It would be nice if there was a 10" pot.

luke

8" sounds as a good choice for the plastic bag height for most 'average' fig cuttings.

Gorgi, I agree.  That's why I roll down the top.  And I find that the top starts to rot if it's too wet.  I leave 1/4 to 1/8" out of the moss but roll the bag down even with the top - just enough moisture (humidity, really), not too much.  As for container, I use whatever I have to.  99% of the time I use standard gallon pots that I get from the recycling bin at local nurseries with their blessing.  I had one root at the top and produce a shoot half way down.  That was trouble  :)  I got a taller, wider container and and filled it with soil on the diagonal - the pot was resting on its side on a slanted surface so the soil level was horizontal with respect to gravity but diagonal with respect to the pot.  I put the cutting in resting on the soil with the roots at the top facing and inside the soil, put in soil in the rest of the bottom up to the shoot, then put perlite over the bottom of the shoot, leaving all the protoleaves out.  I watered carefully, put a CFL 5000K 100W at the top of the pot so the shoot would grow toward it instead of vertical toward the side of the pot.  As the shoot grew I filled in with soil and perlite.  Eventually I could stand the pot up and all was normal.

I put big cuttings into 44 oz. slurpee cups that are 9". When they go into 1-2 gal. containers about a month later any roots emerging high up on the cutting are fairly hardened and can just be covered with extra mulch and left holding their potting mix (which will erode with watering). I also plant them diagonally sometimes or loosen and spread the roots at the bottom a little

I treat all my cuttings as individuals, and since the baggies are in a tub they only need water every 3 weeks or so. I pick them up once a week though and spin them around to check for roots and water.

I am starting in lunch bags then when roots are visible into 4 inch pots . So far so good :). I do not have much space in the starting area because of 300 tomato plants 6oo pepper plants 20 cuttings of figs 72 swiss chard 72 collards and kale and 100 chinese cabbages LOL. I think my older fig trees died of neglect when I was sick with lyme. I pruned some of the obviously frozen wood back and did not find any green :( I am hoping the roots made it .

I use baby bottle liners. They are six inches tall sterile and come with a ridged top. I start straight away in them using a Fafard mix with added perlite.