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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > When do I water my fig cuttings?
 
 


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dezigner

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
Hi, I was told my fig cuttings might have to much water. I since stopped watering and the soil looks pretty dry.

How do I know when to water them and how much. Should I be adding some sort of plant food?

Thanks

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northeastnewbie

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
I would be watering only when needed this time of year. take a wooden dowel and push it down into the media. you can pull it out and see if it is damp sort of like checking a cake.. Also in a few weeks you can start feeding the tree 1/2 strength miracle grow once a week. You can lift the pot and eventually you will be able to tell by the weight of the pot when it needs water.

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Al Richer
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Posted Reply with quote  #3 

I use a moisture meter from Lowes or HD.  cheers,
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Dennis
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satellitehead

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 

Overwatering kills plants, and 9 times out of ten when the top of your soil "looks dry", the actual soil underneath where the roots are is wet, perfectly wet.  When you water your plants when the top of the soil is dry and the soil an inch or lower is perfectly wet, you drown your plant.

Let me provide a picture of what I do:

Can you imagine what it feels like to stick your finger inside a piece of cake?  It's not "wet", it's pretty airy inside and just slightly damp/moist.  If you stick your finger in the soil and you feel about the same thing, it's perfect.

I do not water my plants until I can stick my finger in up to the middle knuckle (about 2") and I barely feel any moisture.  When I say "moisture", think about what a cake feels like, or what your bath towel feels like after it's been hanging out for 6-7 hours (it's not "wet", it's not "dry", but you can tell it came into contact with water at some point...)

Best advice I can give: Stop relying on "looks" and go by feeling. 

Also, simply lifting up your pots and feeling the weight of them is a good way to judge how much moisture is in the soil.  Water weighs something, wet soil weighs a LOT, damp/moist soil weights a bit, and dry soil weighs almost nothing.
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Jason
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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
I think the real issue is the volume of the container and potting mix is too large. Those young plants can't use as much water as that amount of potting soil holds, the pots will only dry with evaporation from the top and drainage holes... leading to a moist center and stale conditions around the cutting.

What you can do about your situation now is to make sure those pots stay warm and well lighted so they dry well, maybe a heatmat if you want to get serious. Take the advice in the above posts, a skewer or dowel is a good way to learn when to water, but notice the weight when ideally dry and then stop skewering around ;)

When it is time to water you should water well, fast flowing drainage from the bottom of the pot sucks fresh air into the root zone and evenly wets the mix. Peat and compost based mixes tend to become a little hydrophobic once very dry, after the wetting agents wash out, so you may need to water the pot several times to fully wet the mix.
 NO FERTILIZER. That miracle grow mix already has it for sure and they do not need it right now anyway. Wait until they adjusted outdoors after warm weather.

Go with smaller containers next time and you will not lose so many, 16-32 oz is good for rooted cuttings that size, then 1/2-1 gal. when they have filled the cups with roots. Good Luck, those 2 could still make it.
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Posted Reply with quote  #6 

FWIW, i let all of my pots get practically root-bound before i move to a larger pot.
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Jason
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dezigner

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
Thank you guys so much, for your advice. I'm trying really hard to get these cuttings to live and grow. Your right about the pot, to big,  so I transferred them to smaller containers.
I'm sure this will to the trick.

Thanks Again!

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dezigner

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
Hi, just wanted to add, when I transferred the figs.

I noticed the roots were very thin. Not a good sign?

nypd5229

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
Were they thin to begin with?

I would be more concerned if they were brown and mushy

Just be careful of transplant shock
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Dominick
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Dominick
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dezigner

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Posted Reply with quote  #10 
Yes, you can say they were brown. Not white like there suppose to be.

Any other advice, that might help my little cuttings :(
nypd5229

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Posted Reply with quote  #11 
One I'm new to this whole rooting thing so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

I started with a high perlite ratio to soil-70/30

When I transferred to 1 gal. I went to 50/50- wet enough to clump into a ball but not too much, that when I squeezed, water came out- I fluffed it up with my hands.

That mix allowed me to pull the plant out of 16 oz cup with little to no damage. The roots were everywhere and wrapping around the bottom 4 times over and up the sides.

I use my pinky finger inserted to feel the soil. Since soil holds more water than perlite, I wait until the top 3 inches are dry before adding a little water( weighing is a great option- Go to bed bath and beyond or a Kitchen store- get a Food scale-Cuisinart-weighs up to 11 lbs). Use a turkey baster to squirt water where you want.

Your mix looks a little too rich( soil). Perlite allows air to penetrate and water to migrate around. Unfortunately perlite has lots of dust and minute sizes, so I strain it to leave coarse size. The dust weighs down the mix and may crush fine roots.

It's kind of hard to judge now for your cutttings. Some roots are so delicate that some break very easily. Some of my roots were brown when I transferred them from cups to pots, but they were accompanied by white ones.



There were much more roots on the other sides and a quarter inch were coming out the bottom. As you can see some were brown as well.

Wait and see, maybe give a little fertilizer treatment, though I would go with a 1/8 strength. They are still tender and may react adversely to too much fertilizer. Remember you can add but you can never subtract.
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Dominick
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Posted Reply with quote  #12 
White roots are fresh roots.  As roots harden, or "lignify", they turn an opaque, but orangey- to creamy-brownish-red and remain nice and plump and round.  When roots die, they turn a brownish-clear color and flatten out or deflate, then become mushy and smell like coconut milk (the latter is my observation and may not be 100% accurate).  Dead roots often stick ("melt") to the side of a cup.

With small roots, this color/opacity observation is hard to see.  With large roots, it is easy.

See Dom's cup in the last post.  Note that one brownish-red (almost orange) root out of all of them (top left).  That's a healthy root in the process of lignification.   Note the white roots.  Those are roots that are less than 2-3 months old which are still white and soft.  I see no dying or dead roots in Dom's cup (good job, Dom!).

The hard part is learning when a root is lignifying and when it is dying.  They look similar.  The key things I look for are opacity and color.  The more orange is there, the more healthy roots seem to be, the more brown, the more unhealthy they seem to be.  The more clear, the more dead it is, the more opaque, the more life it probably has.

This is just my observation from the last couple years rooting.  YMMV.
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Jason
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nypd5229

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Posted Reply with quote  #13 
Thanks Jason!

Funny thing about that.

Water-Jan 3

Cups-( 1 1/4" root) Jan 31

1 Gallon pot (Pic of Roots)- Mar 2
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Dominick
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Dominick
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Posted Reply with quote  #14 
Great posts here...
What about cuttings in perlite!? Can this have a small quarter inch of water at bottom of container (not touching the figs)?
satellitehead

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Posted Reply with quote  #15 
I suppose it's up to you.  I don't like standing water personally, because where there is standing water, there will be algae growth (ask anyone that uses a humidifier regularly for breathing), and algae is food for mold.  In fact, anything organic is food for mold, and mold kills cuttings.
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Jason
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Posted Reply with quote  #16 

I figured I would post under this topic instead of starting another one, but as I am sure many of you know I have been strugling with keeping the water right on my potted cuttings. I think from reading other topics, part of the mistake I made is that maybe I containers I used are a little to large and it is harder to control moisture, even harder that I have all different sizes. I have to say I am going nuts over this watering. I have to be missing something. I have been pickingup the pots to check how much water they have and they for the most part feel like they have something in them. I know I have read to not be decieved by the top of the soil being dry. I will stick my figure in the soil and maybe there is where I am messing up. I think I feel some moisture, but maybe its not enough. I keep ending up with my cuttings drooping.  I water maybe every 5 or more days. I maybe and a few onces of water rarely does anything drain out the bottom. I am even misting the cuttings about every day. I know without you guys seeing my whole situtation for yourself. Am I waiting to long at 5 or 6 days? Most cuttings are in 2 liter soda bottles I cut down. They are in a potting miz/perlite more mix than perlite. I do have them on a table by a window.


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hoosierbanana

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Posted Reply with quote  #17 
I think dowel rods, or skewers, or even just split pieces of bamboo should help you know when the mix is dry enough, different sized containers can be confusing to judge water weight, especially smaller containers. Potting mix/compost also changes color when it is time to water, looking at the clear sides, not the top.
 5 days may be just right for your situation, cause there is not much light, heat, and growth happening right now.  Remember, overwatering can wilt a plant too, only they will not come back after their roots rot.  Raise the humidity to stop wilting, an more warmth and supplemental light will grow roots (but will increase wilting in dry air).
Post a pic if you can...  maybe you can get some more help.
Personally, I am really happy I bought those 3"x8" bags and followed Jon's method. My first attempts at rooting went like you guys here are describing, lot's of learning but not many figs! Experience is acquired.
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Posted Reply with quote  #18 

yeah. I have some skewers. I will try that. I just got home after I watered and everything seems to perked back up, so I don't know if a pic will help now.


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Italiangirl74

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Posted Reply with quote  #19 

all extremely good advice satellitehead! ciao
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