As you all know I am new to figs but have a lot of experience growing fruiting plants.  From what I have read on the forum I know the best way to lose a fig start is to get the soil too soggy.  When I start my veggie plants and other plants indoors under lights I always wick water them.  I'm sure most know the technique but for those that don't....you simply insert a wick (I use synthetic yarn) in to the bottom of the cup or pot the plant is in and let the wick dangle down in to a reservoir of water.  The plant draws up the water it wants by capillary action.  You can add water soluble fertilizer to the reservoir also when the plant is ready for that.  

I'm just curious if anyone does this with their fig starts?  I do know the fig mix contains much more perlite but it should still draw no problem.  I plan on using 16 oz soda bottles with the lid loose with the bottom cut off as the dome above the cuttings to raise the humidity.  The advantage with the wick is the plant never gets too dry or too wet and because you are not watering from the top or putting the cup in water to water from the bottom the mix never compacts around the roots restricting airflow.   Since there is always a tray of water beneath the pots that the wicks are in it increases humidity levels around the plants when the domes are removed in time. 

Thoughts?  Pitfalls?  Suggestions?  

not too long ago when i first looked into figs, there were some talk about "feeding the tree from the bottom". i think this and other forum had picture of people watering the cuttings by adding water at the base.

some are using self watering container which basically does the same thing.

i'm not sure how much benefit there will be for bottom feeding, but the examples that show indicate nice growth.

for the rooting of the cuttings, i rarely water the cuttings until they are ready to go into 1 gal container. in bag and cup stage, i just leave them alone after the initial watering in "rooting chamber". once they are in 1 gal pot, i'll water them maybe once a week. too much watering can rot the roots. i tend to let the water dry out just a bit before giving them further water.

Hey Wills,
Did you end up trying this and did it work?

Tami,

I did try it and yes it did work quite well for the older cuttings that had a lot of leaves.  For the younger cuttings I felt it kept them too wet.  I upped the perlite but when you do that they don't want to wick.  I am going to try Gene's mix next as it contains no perlite and see how that does.