Just started round one of 2011 cuttings for the year.  I will try to update this weekly for everyone out there to see; hopefully some people may benefit from my experimentation with Jon's "new style baggie method"

I had a tough time squeezing out the time to clean and bag everything with a 4month old in the house + a long list of chores I have going on - I didn't even have time to seed veggies this year, figs took top priority this year.

I am relieved to have these taken care of.... and I must say, that the most time consuming part is bagging - the followup is non-existent (sit and wait, crack the lid for a couple hours a day)

(NOTE:  I didn't root all of the below, one or two of at least half of the below went to a couple of fig friends for good measure)

Wow beautiful collection I hope all suceed for you.You sure have your hands full.

as crazy as it may sound, i think this is actually 50% less than what i rooted in 2010.

Wow lol man I give you credit I have trouble rooting a couple twigs.

Awesome-I love it!

I went a little nuts this year with about 30 varieties.

So far so good.

___________

Dominick
Zone 6A- MA

This is around 30 varieties. Last year I wound up doing about 50 varieties, and about 40 made it.

OK, so some of you guys have a lot of cuttings going . . . What do you do with all those varieties?
I mean . . that's a lot of fig trees. I'm considering doing multiple graftings onto some root stocks so
I will have multi-variety trees. Do any of you have any thoughts on this?

My original intent behind acquiring this number of trees was to graft out an orchard tree.

But at this point, two years and several dozen successfully grown trees later, I feel like I'd basically be cutting the arms off my babies to build a millipede, you know?  Seems a little barbaric ;)

I'm going pot culture.  If I have more than 2 of any given variety after 1st year, or for trees that are less appealing, I give them away to friends and family.  I've also began to "go rogue" and plant fig trees around my neighborhood - in the community garden, in people's yards, etc.  There's already a good 20 trees in the neighborhood....

Yeah Satellitehead:
Jason
I could see by that moonshine crazed stare . . .you'd be the rogue.
That's hilarious. . .planting around the neighborhood. I have visions of the same thing at times. I once sprouted a bunch of Giant Redwoods from seed . . and I dreamt of planting a stand of them in a more remote area of the town. If it weren't for a watering situation to establish them, it would have been a great plan. Giant Redwoods in Southern California

Rest assured, some of the current stock I'm growing will end up around the neighborhood.

10-20 years from now, people are going to drive through this place scratching their head wonder, "where the hell'd all these damn fig trees come from?"  By then, I'll be long gone.  What better gift to leave my mark with?  ;)

Consider this the start of my experiment - this is day 4 - everyting has been bagged up, put in 3-5gal pots and lightly watered/drained twice as of 3/13. 

------

Some background info, in case anyone is interested..... I'm sure the sharing gets annoying, so bear with me.

All of my cuttings were scrubbed with a toothbrush and soap to debride, then left in a 10% bleach solution for 1-2 minutes.  They were left to air dry for a couple of hours on clean, dry paper towels before continuing.

I followed the rooting in a bag, new style method from Jon V, using roughly a 85/15 mix of perlite/potting mix, pre-mixed in a big bucket.  It was a trick to get the corners cut right for me - the first couple were a miserable failure and all the mix slid right out.  I had to cut my corners just slightly wider than a pencil when laid flat.

After packing, the packed baggies went in nursery pots, then into clear bins with the lid on (I don't have a greenhouse).  

I put the baggies in nursery pots so I can water them all simultaneously in a container that drains - water goes in the baggie, out the bottom of the baggie, then out of the bottom of the pot - no stagnant water is my goal.

Every few days, I take the pots out, hit them with a small shower of water, let them sit outside for a couple hours to drain in the later hours of the evening.  In my mind, this is serving multiple purposes:  Airing them out to prevent mold, letting excess water drain off (keeping water from pooling in the bin) and giving them time to evaporate off excess water from the baggie walls.

None of the fundamental ideas above are necessarily original, they all came from other folks' shared experiences (thanks for that), and I tweaked them to work for me with what I have.

I really like this setup a lot!  I vent the boxes for a couple of hours at the heat of the day in the afternoon, and I haven't had to water but once the whole time, and the perlite/potting mix is staying perfectly wet and compact.

I'm seeing a lot of top growth - about 10% of plants have started top growth in the last week.  I haven't looked at the bottom growth yet - don't want to disturb them.

They get lots and lots of indirect light.

Best part:  11 days have passed since bagging and packing these, and ZERO SIGNS OF MOLD.  I hope I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.

Also nice is this:  Due to very controlled water situation, the newly sprouting leaves can touch the sides of the baggies with no harm at this time.  Because the baggie sides are dry and the humidity is around 70%, they do not collect moisture and do not seem to mold.

If roots are a good success this year, I think this will become my yearly choice for rooting.

Picture update 3/26 (13 days after bagging).

Nothing much to report 'cept a lot of budbreak.  I had a lot of tip cuttings this year.

Awesome pictures and best of luck! 

Thanks!  I'll try to keep updated and realistic pictures every couple of weeks.  I am literally putting next to no effort into rooting this year, I'm hoping this will be a good "lazy" method to use. 

I may break these out into smaller pots soon, they're so packed right now that I'm sure i'm disturbing the roots of each one I pull out.

Hi Jason, great saplings, wish you great success. Your Morley is growing by leaps and bounds by the way, thanks again, Sergio.

Hi Sergio,

It seems to be a good grower - if you look in the 2nd photo of my last post, the two cuttings in the back with huge leaves are Morley.  It doesn't waste time in putting out growth, apparently. 

I have high hopes that Morley will be a good one!!

update 4/3 (21 days after bagging from "fresh" cuttings/no roots)

i'll provide full picture update tomorrow. 

i haven't had to water in almost 3 weeks now.  about 60% bud break so far.  roots have gone nutso on Meridian (unknown) and Italian Honey (saxonfig), and a few others are showing good roots as well - this is the first week i've noticed roots

Most notable - Ischia Black - popped out a figlet (I already ripped it off), and is sprouting roots, small (for now), but showing roots.

All I can say is, Wow!  That's a lot of cuttings!

Jason, it all looks good, thanks for the pictures. I tried some like that earlier this year not much luck, I guess I didn't get the process right. I must say my rooting in a Styrofoam cooler with lid on has worked fine. No mold at all, I'm real satisfied. You're right, the "Morley" is a fast rooter and grower.
"gene"

Jason,
Being brand new to the forum I have to say I have found this post very interesting. It is nice to see the technique you use in photo, and your passion for figs is quite obvious.
Keep up the great work!  I don't even have a plant in my possession yet (I think everything will arrive en masse and I will be quite busy very quickly getting my plants and cuttings settled in their new OLD KENTUCKY HOME.)  One day I hope to be able to have cuttings and/or plants to gift to others.  I never knew that figs could even be grown in my area, and quite well at that. A family member who lived most of her life in CA but has since moved to KY also, told me I was crazy, it could not be done...so I gave her the link to the forum. She is now researching fig varieties for her home.  See, I already have increased the fig population in the state!!!

Ok, here are pictures taken 4/4 (22 days after bagging).

Note the first picture - this is the same Ischia Black, one day later.  Number of roots and the root growth has doubled (at least) in just 24 hours.

I still have not watered, which makes me think I should have stuck with only a single watering on the first day, since perlite can hold up to 400% of its weight in water.  Yes, even I, the guy who beats the hell out of everyone about not overwatering ... may have overwatered.  We shall see.

I saw my first leaf drop today - only on one cutting (out of 60- to 75-ish?) with fringe on the two out of four leaves that looked a little like rot - and this is on a cutting that was previously doing well.  I still have not lost a cutting (knock on wood).  I'm not sure if this is a bad sign (yet).  Will report back later.  I've seen minimal leaf drop so far, but ... I know it happens, even when nothing is actually wrong.

I also noticed a touch of mold on two cuttings - greysih white, very fluffy on the leaf scars and a bud or two.  Last week, I noticed some mold on the tops of three cuttings that I kept in the fridge for an extended period, but I cut off the top three nodes off them.  I am now keeping the bins cracked at least 12 hours out of the day to decrease humidity (I am doing this because I still have not had to water and because I'm seeing mold)

I noticed (see 4th pic below) that there is a little green growth - lichen or something - on top of the perlite in the bin that is closest to actual sunlight (although both bins are in indirect light).  It's hard to see in the picture, but it's there, look towards the middle baggies.

I'm seeing good roots (1, 2 or 3) on about 15% of the cuttings - I'll take pictures next week when they have a chance to really develop.  I have confidence with this that I have secured at least a dozen cuttings that will survive to tree size.

I intend to transfer the baggies into smaller 1-gallon pots where they won't be crowded in the near future (not transplanting, just stacking the bags in smaller containers where they can breathe).

I had the first traces of fungus gnats show up this week.  Only a couple of them.  Not a nuisance yet.  I'm hoping putting them outside, open, in the 20mph winds earlier blew them out.

Here are the pictures:

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1109176[/img]

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1109177[/img]

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1109178[/img]

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1109179[/img]

They look great!  What will you do with them all if you don't mind me asking?

[QUOTE=Dean_W]They look great!  What will you do with them all if you don't mind me asking?
[/QUOTE]

See post #8 above ;)

Cool, that sounds very kind of you.  I'm sure the people you plant for appreciate it to.

You say that as if they know who planted it or what it is!!! ;)

LOL!!!  Ha Ha!  I didn't realize you did it stealthily.  :)

Ok, I'm going to make a couple of posts to share pics.

Here is the Ischia Black, 4 days from the last picture (a couple of posts up).  This is 26 days after bagging.

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1111374[/img]

Here is a Pastilliere (UCD) that went berzerko, taken two days ago (24 days after bagging).

Roots coming from above ground (see left side of cutting above mix), below soil, twisting all over the place.  Not as thick as spaghetti, but ... thick enough for me.

Finally, this is the best one I've seen so far.  Atreano - 26 days after bagging (the other one I have is only slightly behind this).  This thing went nutso on roots, to the point that I made the decision to repot today. 

Thanks for the cuttings!  ;)

What thickness are your most successful to root?

All my cuttings with the most success are the thickness of my ring finger. Cuttings that look like billy clubs put on a lot of primordal growth but did nothing in soil mix. Those that were twigs or thin like a pencil, did ok in soil.

Based on what you just potted up, I may have a few with enough mass of roots to go up. I've been waiting 'til the roots wrapped around the bottom 3 times and had a little yellowing and a ton of laterals. I have already lost a few because not enough root mass was produced to support the cutting w/o humidity.

Looking good though for you. I might be able to skip the water step and put straight into the soil mix next year.

I'm new to starting figs this year and am following the same method (just started this week).  Right now the cuttings are sitting in a sealed container, 71 degrees, 98% humidity according to the device I have in there.  Is that a bit too humid?  

I have a digital caliper if you want me to take an accurate measurement of my preference.

If you just want off the cuff measurement, anything 25% thinner than a No.2 pencil typically takes forever or fails for me.  Just not enough energy, I guess?

I have a few I'm rooting that are larger than my thumb.  Personally, I don't like to work with anything that thick.  They're cumbersome.  I don't complain, I have better luck with those than the skinny ones.  I've rooted things as large as 1" in diameter.

My ideal size is the size of my pinky, which is about how thick the atreano pictured above is.  I have long, skinny fingers, I'm a pretty average/borderline slender guy.  If you need an actual reference, it's about as thick as an iPhone or a Blackberry or something if you need a reference. 

I know some of the guys around here (like Herman) have huge freaking hands, so using finger size is a precarious tactic.

Update:  4/10 (28 days after bagging)

I transfered the baggies into smaller 1-gallon pots to reduce crowding as seen below - I can fit 5 bags per 1gal pot; 6 is too tight of a fit for my taste.  I can also fit 6 of the 1gal pots in my average-sized bins.

I still have not had to water.  I'm happy with the moisture level in most of the baggies right now, so I've gone back to cracking the bins for a couple hours during the evening.

I haven't seen a lot of leaf drop the last week, although I have pulled a couple of leaves not looking very healthy.

The Atreano I repotted a couple days ago (see above) is doing fine, even outside the bin the last two days. 

One of my absolute best growers right now is a promising unknown from a figfriend in PA.  Both cuttings have slightly fewer  roots than the Atreano pictures above - but both cuttings are growing roots 4-6" out of the baggies.  I'm looking forward to see what it does this year.

I still have not lost a cutting that I can tell, although I'm skeptical that the St Jean cuttings I rec'd from UCD will atually do anything but rot (they arrived extremely moldy). 

That said, I havne't seen any level of mold that is worrisome, I think this is due to cracking the bins for so many hours during recent days.  I have been diligent to cut off any tips that shrivel before they mold also, so they don't have any dead plant material as food. 

Tally:  Started with 66 cuttings.  1 repotted, 65 still rooting.

28-30 days out from possible potting up is pretty impressive. I have been very gun shy to pot up for fear of losing cutting.

I have definitely started seeing the correlation between leafing out due to humidity or rooting. For example:

Had a Byadi started in water. Got alot of primordial white showing. No roots. So I put it in 70/30 soil mix. Moved a little on leafs, nothing impressive. I waited still no movement so I  added 1/4 c. of water around cutting. A week later, the leaves started showing through. Another 4 days later and roots starting to break edge of cup inside. The balance of water and soil wasn't there in beginning to spur growth.

By the way your Atreano cutting size is the exact size of ring finger I meant. My most successful ones were +/- 1/8 to 1/4 inch of that.

I typically don't pot up this soon when using the cup method.  With growth this explosive in the tiny baggies I was afraid I would end up crowding out the container within a week and end up losing it.  I figured I should take the risk to see how well it works.

[QUOTE=Dean_W]All I can say is, Wow!  That's a lot of cuttings!
[/QUOTE]

Here are some more pictures of the unknown I was talking about which is rooting like gangbusters, sending roots quite a ways out of the bag. 

Out of respect for the owner, I have obscured the name - I'll leave it to them to discuss and share once it has been tested.

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1112544[/img]

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1112545[/img]

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1112546[/img]

[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1112547[/img]

No offense but I'm glad you have the same problem with leaf browning.

I had alot of new growth that turned brown and mushy. Too high on humidity. I pinch it off everytime and end up turning one into 2 or 3  new extensions.

Knock on wood, but my losses are still very low in the bins.

Your stuff is just exploding!

Just curious: Have any specific variety that refused to root no matter what you tried? Almost had that problem with Aubique Petite. Rooted in soil horizontally but still having trouble pushing newer growth. Didn't try sphahnum moss. That may be the cure for my ills.

Yes, I have had one impossible rooter.  Here's the unbelievable part - it's Hardy Chicago.  I'm literally on my third batch, this time from two different sources, and haven't had a damned bit of luck rooting.  Martin offered me a plant last year, I should have taken it!  Let's hope these two sources of my third batch will root.

On the other hand, varieties that some people said were impossible to root - like Ischia Black, Marseilles Black VS and a few others are rooted for me with relatively no issues.  Hell, with the MBVS I actually rooted several single- and double-node cuttings, no problemo.  All are healthy and doing well.

As for the burning on the fringe of the leaves ... I've seen a lot of that this go-round.  The only other time I've seen it was while experimenting with turface+sphagnum mix as a potting medium, the tips of my trees burned due to (i believe) lack of water, although it could very well be excess of water?  Tip browning like this has traditionally been an issue of lack of controlled moisture (i.e. "rollercoaster moisture" - overly wet one day, dry the next, wet the next, dry the next, etc.)

I was a bit concerned when I saw it this time.  It seems there are two varieties - one where the tips are brown and brittle, another where they're grey-black and mushy.  I don't have a lot of the mush, it's almost all brown and brittle.

If these continue producing roots this way, I'll probably re-pot these later this week as well.

I've seen some say that brown and still firm is rust due to high humidity. But I have the Brown/ Black mush- Sometimes even mold growing on it. I nip it/ pinch it or cut it off to decrease spreading. Mixed results.

I went away for two days-just 2! I had no problems with leaving the lid on and venting once a day- no signs of excess moisture, no rust, a bit of mold on half the cuttings on cut ends. roots and leaves galore. No stunting, no sign of mite damage, no FMV seen. Now 1/3 my cuttings have the terminal ends and/or leaves turned to mush. I keep nipping off every time time it rears its head. Not losing cuttings just all the growth, But I don't complain since it's creating more axis points off of one potential branch. So instead of pinching after 5th or 6th leaf, it's after 1 or 2. Creating more  branches lower down.

As for the roller coaster humidity, I felt that I had the potential to lose more if I left it ajar, like most do, after not doing it at all.  I have had great success at the 95 to 100% humidity constant in the bin.

I also have done a big 'No-No' with actually good results. Those that didn't look like they were doing a thing, I checked and pulled out. Put in water for 7-14 days again. Most are regrowing in water and some put out a root or two. Those that did are now putting out spaghetti roots almost immediately in the soil mix. Most would say to never touch them.

Indeed! 

And as Cecil said in another thread recently, "we are all a newbie at some point".

I had a hodge-podge of stuff I read too, I swear I spent at least 2-3 weeks doing nothing but reading through pages and pages of threads here.  I found solid advice from Al (Tapla), Dan A, Leon E, Bill M, and I owe many thanks to Jon for both the howto guides (his CRFG presentation), the materials he's collected for everyone and for creating the forum.  That, combined with stuff I learned in my younger years from my mom and grandparents about propagation has left me with good success, I think.

It always helps that I'm hardheaded, experimental and I take everything folks tell me with a grain of salt, I reckon.  ;)

You know, I've learned a lot through sharing with others, too.  Whether he knows it or not, JD has been a huge inspiration and partner in crime as far as I'm concerned, although I think he is even more critical/analytical and adventurous than I am most of the time.  Sharing our methods and results during our first attempts at rooting here and by email was an immense help (see this thread and this thread for examples).

Lots of good people willing to share.  If that wasn't the case, I'd have been outta here a long time ago, and I wouldn't feel the least bit inspired to create threads like this so everyone can actually see (publicly) someone's growing experience from start to finish. 

Jason,

I appreciate the encomium.

This forum demonstrates how useful and instructional and social technology can be. It has given us a chance to be who we are, do what we love, and fig out!

And yeah, partners in crime we are. I have learned a lot from you as well. In those early days on the fig learning curve, learning what not to do, was instrumental and so much fun.

JD

Ok, I saw significant leaf drop and droop today.

By "significant" I mean about 10-15% of my cuttings had leaf drop or droopy leaves today.

My Calvert cuttings are starting to mold.

I am seeing great roots popping up in the last couple of days, on the flip side.

It also looks like I will probably be losing Hardy Chicago... AGAIN ... this year.  I guess HC and I were never meant to be.  Three years, cuttings from 5 sources.... I just can't seem to root anything.  How is it that I can root all the impossible stuff, but I can't root HC?  Arrrgghhhh!

Start calling them Chicago Hardy.
Maybe your luck will change.

Indeed, sir, indeed ;) 

*sigh*

I hope I am not driving everyone crazy with the pictures and sharing my rooting experience this year.

One observation I would like to share about this new baggie method:  I believe it is incredibly important to fill the bag nearly to the brim and have the cutting just barely above the level of mix. 

I say this because I had a few shorter cuttings, and I only filled the bags halfway for them to conserve soil.  This has led to a few things:  The cutting is enclosed and bag can collapse above, causing a steam room, which allows mold to proliferate.  Also, any significant growth out of the cutting winds up hitting the side of the bag (see this picture) which leads to distortion of the bag and could lead to rot (leaves contacting bag wall) if the humidity in your rooting environment is high.

Anyway, enough of the boring stuff.  I broke down tonight, against my typical better judgment, and repotted half a dozen more trees today, then put them in a bin for the next couple days to recover from the invasive procedure. 

I decided to do this because the roots on a few were really strong, but they looked like they had some browning which was concerning to me, and I was more worried about losing the cutting from root rot than I was from potting them up.  Figured they had a better chance in a good 70/30 mix of Fafard3B/Perlite than remaining in these little baggies.

Tally: 66 cuttings to start.  7 repotted so far.  59 still rooting.

Of course, I will report back on any losses.  I still haven't lost a cutting yet (knock on wood)

Black Mission (local tree I found)
[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1114170[/img]

Ischia Black (same pictured above)
[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1114172[/img]

Italian Honey (saxonfig)
[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1114171[/img]

Papa John
[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1114173[/img]

Pastilliere (UCD)
[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1114175[/img]

Uknown Meridian
[img]http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/file?id=1114174[/img]

Nice pictures Jason! Have enjoyed the photo journal'ing of the results.  Thanks for posting!

I also have used similar bags for rooting this season and have noticed the same problem with having the cutting too far down in the bag--> rotting leaves/new growth.  I've cut some of upper part of the bags off to try and solve some of the problem which seems to work well so that the leaves are not touching. 

Thanks Eun.  I've been doing the same, but rather than cut the top of the bag off (which can be precarious) I've been putting a slit down both sides and folding the halves down over the body of the bag.  I've had to do this with at least 3-4 cuttings.

Using this method, I don't need to re-label the bag.  If you look above, you'll see I wrote my labels pretty high up on the bag.

PS - I edited a little of the text in my last post to elaborate.

Thanks for all the pictures, sattellitehead, I am greatful that you and others take the time to share your success and failures.