I have using "Take root" by Schultz that I bought at Walmart. I have been having some bad luck with rooting. Some survived, most died or friggin rotted. The smell is "yuck". Anyway, here in Idaho we have butt loads of Weeping Willow trees, and I heard some awesome raves about this concoction. Does it work? I have always wanted to try it, but for some reason I always played it on the safe side and just buy rooting powder and obviously I'm not happy with it. The spagnum moss turns my root initials from white to brown, don't know if is a good thing. Umm... Could ya share some brands you guys are using for liquid hormone? I read a post somewhere that had an experiment abt this...

Jenn..

You-Tube has a video about rooting figs cuttings that were soaked in willow water.  Try searching the subject on You-Tube.

Frank

PS   http://www.bonsai4me.com  has information about willow water.

Just did a very fast search....2 aspirin in one gallon of water.  Soak cuttings....then plant.  The information is out there.

Hope this helps.

I recommend to Search forum for willow.  Lots of posts should return.  Semi-annual topic.

I've used Willow water for years, but not on figs for some reason, - but I highly recommend.

It sounds as if the problems with your cuttings going bad is too much moisture/humidity, not a lack of rooting hormone. From what I've read about rooting figs, rooting stimulant is not needed. (Also, if you do use rooting hormones for starting anything, go for the liquids, not powders which tend to cake when applied to stems and cause problems.)

You say the sphagmum moss is turning your intials from white to brown - so they are forming then rotting. Using willow water likely would not change that since the idea behind using it is to get root initials to form in the first place - but you already have that. Perhaps you are leaving the cuttings with intials in the moss too long.

Instead of starting your fig cutting experience on the expensive ones, have you considered practicing on cuttings that are either cheaper or easier to come by, practicing, and finding what works for you in your environment? For myself, my success from the beginning to the end of the first season increased as I collected more cuttings and learned as I went. And I can hardly wait for next year.

There are many threads here about various techniques for successfully rooting figs. As Jason suggests, let 'search' be your friend. Search for both 'rooting' and 'cuttings' separately (or anything else you are interested in learning more about), but in thread titles only, otherwise there are too many results. In my reading, when people had problems, it seemed to be too much moisture.

Good luck. :)

Looking Good Frank.

Well, Jennifer, I'm sorry your treasured cuttings died!  That is the worst!  I wish I could tell you that I never use hormones, which is true, but you wouldn't like that answer. 

You are a bit like me, trying to grow figs where figs don't naturally happen.  I am the ONLY idiot in the Coachella Valley, So California growing WINE grapes.  I finally figured out why this is the capital of table grapes.  The wine grapes grow crazy here (like up the palm trees, into the neighbor's yard), BUT, how do you store the wine?  It's too hot!  You can't do it!  So I have all these wine grapes, and we make early drinking wine through the deletage method during fermentation (we take seeds out daily to eliminate tannins, but leave the skins in for color),  because we just can't store it.  Too HOT!  The commercial table vineyards here sell to all the grocery chains, Costco, etc.  They don't bother with wine grapes.  My solution.  MOVE!  We are moving to a better climate for both figs and wine grapes.  No extremes in weather at all.  Moving is not an option for everyone.  Just saying, you do what you must to get what you must!

We easily grow figs, olives, and all things Mediterranean.  They love heat, and all I do is put dormant cuttings in the ground in shade or sun in our 50 degree winter, and when the weather warms the desert sand, they grow!  No hormones!  But I see you have intent, like me with my vineyard.

I truly hope that someone here who uses liquid hormones will tell you the brand they use, and I hope it works for you.  Why don't you put the names of the figs you grow in your extreme weather, so some of us can offer you cuttings of things that just might survive in your climate.  What was the name of the fig the grouchy old grinch gave you?

Posting your highs and lows might help us to help you.  I would NEVER tell you to use a search engine.  That is what I do first before I ask, too!

Good luck Jennifer!
Suzi

I didn't mean to offend you by telling you to use 'search'. There is so much valuable information here and it's what I prefer to use for myself when I want information 'now'... and generally find lots to read at once.

Again, I don't think the problem lies with using or not using a rooting simulant for figs (it's been my impression that most successfull 'fig rooters' don't use anything) since you said you are getting root initials to form - just that they then turn brown and die.

Good luck with your cuttings - I know it hurts when they die. We've all experienced that.

Thanks Dave! I watched the video! 

Jennifer - I heartily agree that if you're getting sulfurous odors from the soil, there is anaerobic composting of your rooting media going on, which is decidedly a bad thing. In worrying about which rooting aid, I think you're sort of getting the cart before the horse. It's best to get the basic conditions so they're conducive to rooting before you get overly concerned about fine tuning the process.

There are lots of discussions about the best way to root cuttings, but I can assure you that lots of aeration in the root zone and a medium that won't get soggy - that ensures the bottom of the cutting is never in water (below the ht of the perched water table) are going to make things a LOT easier for you.

BTW - not all rooting aids are created equal. In some cases, using the WRONG rooting aid or using one when one isn't required can be counterproductive. For F carica, IBA is helpful, used at 1,000-2,000 ppm. It just so happens that IBA is the compound contained at highest concentration in the apices (growing branch tips) of any of the trees in the Salix genus and should help as a rooting aid for carica. Just don't keep it around too long because it goes bad fairly quickly, even when refrigerated.

Al

Thank everyone.. I will saddle up the horse "giddie-yup!". Dumped out everything, currently using 10% peat moss 90%  perlite. And willow tea

Hey Jennifer - I think you may have taken my original post the wrong way.  Maybe I typed in haste and it didn't read well?

I simply meant to inform that willow tea/willow water/willow powder has been discussed to a fair length at this forum and F4F with regard to rooting.  The search term here that will probably give you the most pertinent results is willow rooting

My memory works in really strange ways and brain seems to catalog info in a fashion that isn't normal (pictures, places, text indexing that's almost photographic).  While the subjects of the threads returned won't directly say "willow", there is abundant morsels of info that I recall reading here on the subject.  There were a few topics at GW as well, but I seem to remember better info here.

Now that I have a few more minutes to type, I just want to add that (personal opinion) rooting hormone is generally a bad idea to use on anything that roots readily without any hormones or nutrients required.  I've seen folks on here have awesome, explosive rooting experiences just using tap water in a bubbler chamber (100% root strike in crazy abundance).  Environment and conditions are worth ten times nutrients and hormones - this is true with plants, animals and humans alike.

Nice! Okay I'm gonna do the tap water thingy. Wish me luck. I saw the thread on willow "word search" before I opened this thread. That's why I am copying it. still upset that I nearly killed my col de dame cuttings. Craaap. Do you see how much they are going for? Almost $200 bucks each! that's almost half my rent, can't afford lose anymore investments. Cuttings... If you can get one from a member isn't a walk in the park either

Jason, I'm curious about the tap water/bubble chamber idea for cuttings.  However, I searched the two fig forums and didn't find anything.  I did find some information about a "cloning machine" on another forum:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/propa/msg0115553510381.html

Is this what you are referring to?  Thanks.

Steve

All you need is a tub of water, a cheap aquarium air pump with air stone, and a few pieces of foam to float on the surface. Take your cuttings, stick them through the holes you poke in the foam. Turn the pump on so the stone aerates the water, and you're good to go. Add 2-3 drops of soluble fertilizer per gallon of water

The only problem with this method is the type of root formed is markedly different than roots formed in a well aerated medium, and they often don't transition to a solid medium well, but I expect that the high level of genetic vigor inherent in figs will probably save the day.

Al

Steve, that's pretty much it, but here's a better writeup from right here at home ;)

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Clone-Bubbler-Question-3649806

"Clone Bubbler" is what you want to look for, there may be other threads around here.