Simple experiment to test the merits of rooting hormone and scoring with fig cuttings. They will be compared to scored untreated cuttings. The fig variety is an Unknown White fig that produced an abundant breba crop last season. All cuttings were taken at the same time (the new home owner cut the tree to 2 foot stubs and cuttings were collected).

Edit: Mike, Thanks for reminding me. Its Dip N Grow Hormone. I have been using it at the same dilution (10X) for all my tests

The test groups are

Hormone: Pictures were taken Day 3, 8 and 14
    A...Scoring "scrape"
    B...Scoring "deep score"
    C...Scoring "slices"
    D...No Scoring

No Hormone: Pictures were taken Day 3, 8 and 14
    E...Scoring "scrape"
    F...Scoring "deep score"
    G...Scoring "slices"
    H...No Scoring

There were 4 cuttings in each group.

The Hormone treated callused sooner, and developed more roots. From my earlier observations with individual cuttings and hormone, the use of hormone seems to reduce my rooting time in moss by 1-2 weeks.

Most of the Hormone treated cuttings are at the stage where I would place them in cups (callused and a few visible roots) a few cuttings have passed that stage.



The No Hormone are not fully callused, but have started to send out a few roots. The scoring seems to increase the quantity of roots and callus formation. One cutting in group E is currently dying at the bottom (brown).

attached pictures of a larger diameter cutting that was scored and treated with rooting hormone Dip and Grow @ 10X concentration. The cutting had to be moistened to increase the picture contrast. The end of the cutting is callused and has many small roots.

Pete -- nice test and nice posting of your results.  What form/brand of rooting hormone did you use?

Mike

<edit>  Ah, you added that info in that second post... thank you.  (Wasn't visible at the time I asked). 

scoring and dip n grow, works like a charm. nice report and great pics pete. i have a few more tricks up my sleeve i am working on as well, ill let you know how things go.

Dave

:Pete,  I am curious as the wax dip you put their upper tips. can you elaborate on that? what kind of wax? do you melt it?

Pete, Thank you for doing all this work & posting this result!! I have a few questions about the details of what you did.

a) Did you refrigerate the cuttings for any length of time prior to starting the rooting?
b) Did you "wash" the cuttings (soap and/or 10% bleach or peroxide) prior to starting to deal with any fungus or did you depend on the anti-fungal properties of the moss?
c) Did you follow the Dip'N Grow directions and only dip the bottom inch in the 10x dilution?
d) How deep were your slices?
e) It appears that your scrapes, deep scores & slices were all about an inch long. Is that correct?
f) Do you intend to continue the rooting in cups next onto the transplant into a pot stage?

Great work! Thanks again.

You may have convinced me to start using a root hormone.  Thanks for the great pics and details.

with liquid and gel hormones.. it's very tempting. but so far i'm managing it without the hormone.. so i guess i'm good :)

Same as Pete here.

Pete aka Bullet that is! Forgot the OP shares his name.

Grasa,
unscented Tea Candles, melted in a 1 quart teflon coated pan (very low melting temperature wax, below 140 Deg F), Ends were dipped several times each, but could also be brushed. The wax cracks and falls off when the cutting swells after rooting, it is being used on stored cuttings only. I have been using Elmer's school glue on the cut ends once in cups to stop them drying out.

DWD2,
a) Cuttings were not refrigerated, but were dormant and have seen lows into the 20's. (from personal observations refrigerated dormant cuttings seem to root faster than non refrigerated)

b) Cuttings were unwashed, I depended on the Sphagnum moss. But I will be sanitizing future cuttings in 10% bleach solution. 1 cutting (without hormone) was attacked by fungus at the score point, it is still salvageable by pruning the damaged piece.

c) Yes and No. I brushed on the hormone up to the second lowest node, covering the scores.
d) Slices were completely through the bark.
e) Yes, the scores were a little over an inch long, between the two lowest nodes.
f) Yes, They will be placed in cups this weekend.

Thanks. I will be starting this seasons cuttings next week hopefully they will  be as successful. They will be sanitized with 10% bleach solution, scored "sliced" with hormone and placed in Sphagnum Moss at 75 Deg F.

bullet08,
The hormone is not necessary, but it increases root volume and decreases rooting time. This should help with the hard to root varieties.

Pete, I did a similar test and your results match mine, I had great results this fall with all of my rooting, but the best in terms of huge volume of nice symmetrical roots was using sterilized moss in a shallow tupper ware container, I sterilized the cuttings with Physan20 dilute solution and sterilized the moss using steam for 10 mins. The difference between the two test groups of with and without liquid dip and grow hormones was time. 5 weeks without, three weeks with. I see the need for dip and grow with a rare or tough to root one in my future.

Very nice. I like the way you did this testing. I have not had any problems without using root hormones, but it seems your results are proving to show quicker results. I have never done any homework on rooting hormones as using on something that was going to be eaten later. This is a concern of mine, can anyone enlighten me. I like thw wax but question wax on the tip cutting. Do not see the point in it. But this brings up another question. If you say that the wax comes off as it swells and is ready to leaf out, would this help eliminate mold issues?


luke

I have seen basically the same results with cuttings, some varieties are exceptions but it holds true for about 95% of cuttings for me.  

I don't score my cuttings though, I just dip them in dip n grow and then I put them into a pot filled with pro mix, place them on a flat that is on a heating mat.
I am usually getting around 80% success, that is an average sometimes it is lower, sometimes higher and they are usually coming within 2 weeks to show initials  3 for roots but sometimes it can take up to 6 weeks.

The only problem I have seen sometimes is that the bottom may start to get soft and the bark will slide off with a touch but I have been able to cut this piece off and still get roots about 70-80 percent of the time of that but this is a small percentage when it happens (somewhere around 5-10% of the time, but I am not too worried about it.)

This is why I joined this forum years ago!  Its data like this that can help another with their techniques and methods.  Great job Pete!  Job well done!

Last year, I started using Hormonex liquid hormone with some crazy results!  Like you, I dip my cutting in wax.  I lady on the west coast turned me on to that tip last year.  I like the scented wax.  To me it deters the gnats.  I score mine and use a water color brush to brush on the hormone.  Great testing and results.....pictures are awesome.

Jack,
I did see your post, great results. I usually pot well before roots start to get longer than 1/4 inch.

Luke,
Rooting Hormone is used commercially for most fruiting plants that are mass propagated. The bottle instructions are a little vague but I believe it is referring to not using on plants that are edible (spinach, broccoli, herbs etc). Stops mold on the cut end and protect the cutting from dessication in storage (cold storage).

Chivas,
The reason to speed up rooting is to also get callus formation as soon as possible. I have observed that once callused there is less chance of rotting. Pre-rooting in moss, moving to cups and growing to the point of potting to 1 gallon, I currently have 97% success rate.

Dennis,
Thanks. I use a cheap flux brush. The wax sealing was posted earlier on the forum. I seal the top cut ends with Elmer's School Glue once cupped, because the wax falls off when the cutting swells and starts growing.

Great info. Thanks for posting.
I, too, have found better success this year using un-scored, un-wax coated (although I intend to try wax now) cuttings dipped in Clonex. I will now steam my S moss (a tip originally from Gina) as I've had crazy bad fungus problems. I just received 2 commercial fungicides I'll try as the clorox dipping hasn't been successful.

Thanks Pete. I bought a bottle of rooting hormone because of post by others recently, but have not started my cuttings yet the winter. I started early last year and had a jungle in my house by spring. This is great material. Thanks everyone.


luke

Dennis, I am with you. I have been using Hormex and it is crazy good. Adding the scoring has improved the rooting time and root production tremendously.

Thanks for sharing Pete.

Michael,
I have not had a lot of mold problem since using the Moss, but am planning on sanitizing the purchased cuttings just to be on the safe side. The scoring seems to increase callus formation, which will increase root formation.

Luke,
Like you, I read a post about using Rooting Hormone and ordered a bottle. the post is located here
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Worlds-smallest-Fig-tree-also-how-to-get-roots-in-710-days-6004029
At the time my thought was to use it for rooting green cuttings that I had been collecting.

Yup, me too.  Got myself some DipnGrow.  Going to use it on known difficult to root varieties and those cuttings which I have a very small number or which are very hard to obtain.

Attached picture of a few of the Hormone treated cuttings at day 16 before putting in cups (will put these in 1 gallon pot).

Note the roots that have grown from the callus that formed on the scoring on the 3rd Cutting (B1), that is 2 days growth, It is the 7th cutting in the Hormone day 14 picture above..

Untreated Cuttings before placing into cups @ day 20. Cuttings not fully callused, but root growth warrants potting. Group F (deep score) and G (slice) had the greatest callus formation. Notice fig swelling on cutting H1. This is the end of this stage of the experiment.

I love this thread. This is the type of data I like to see and read :)