Over the years I tried different rooting methods.
Some with good and some with very bad outcome.
The worst was the "rooting in a bag" method (not trying to offend anyone)
Any time I used it I had to fight some fungus as well.

Today I have setteled over this method:
I use 2 cups of DRY perlit (600ml) and 60ml of water.
Mix it thogether. Drop the cuttings inside and turn over the plastic container from time to time. 
Cuttings root in 2-3 weeks.
This method never failed me.
Just one thing to remember. ALWAYS, ALWAYS  use brand new perlit and plastic container to root each set of cuttings. This is very important.

[URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/f0a27b301671816][IMG]http://thumbnails104.imagebam.com/30168/f0a27b301671816.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/fe98c8301671830][IMG]http://thumbnails110.imagebam.com/30168/fe98c8301671830.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/b62f71301671837][IMG]http://thumbnails101.imagebam.com/30168/b62f71301671837.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Thanks for the post. I like your method because it's definitive and can be repeated exactly by anyone.

Do you have any other parameters, like temperature?

Seems to me it would work as well in a one gallon zip lock bag. What do you think of that idea?

Thank you Pen, this a very simple and clean method, I think I'll take your advise and use your method for my mail rooting season, 180 cuttings all together, 48 varieties, sitting in the fridge paraffin dipped both ends and in zip-lock bags. This is a very important year for me and my major project of growing my figs.

This very similar to the method I have had success with: 
1) put the cuttings into a quart clear deli container with holes cut in the bottom 
2) with 100% perlite that's well saturated with water
3) and then into a closed clear humidity chamber
4) with a heat mat set at 80F 
5) under fluorescent lights turned on for 14 hours

with this method you can go "Dutch Bucket" hydroponic or transfer them to soil.

baggie method invites mold. but it's easy to take care of. just wipe it off and check on it everyday. it's not a best method for busy people. 

penandpike
Have you done a controlled experiment with water only and water with perlite to see if there is any difference and if there is then 'why'. What does perlite adds to water to expedite rooting. Rooting can take place in 'only water' too. You will find many threads talking about rooting in water only.

I do not have any favourite method but always come back to the baggie method for ease of it with changing paramters mostly related to ease of use. The only thing I make sure is that I open the bag every other day to air and check for mold. I easily find out which cuttings seem to be mold prone. Usually I find out that if I got two cuttings of the same type/vintage and one shows mold I son find the other one with similar tendency. What I am getting at is that the history/vitality of cuttings itself also determines if cutting will be prone to mold in the baggie method. 
To add to this, I miserably failed to roots cuttings from the south far-east using baggie method due to mold even though I saw it coming when airing. On the other hand I had the best success with baggies method with cuttings from the north-east of the continent (100% from my own plants). Baggie method with some precautions may not be the best but one of the easy and consistent.

Hi Ottawan,
If you have mold in one bag, you should wash hands with soap before opening the next bad - or you'll be taking the mold from one bag to the next one ...
In laboratories, they wash hands in between each lot to avoid propagation of diseases.

I noticed that roots like to grow through perlite in a soil mix making it hard to separate from the roots and will always involve some roots breakage. Do your cuttings in the pure perlite suffer from the same problem?

This method seems very easy.
Thanks Pen!

yes, mold spore can spread easily and quickly. but i don't notice too many cross contamination from bag to bag. some cuttings just attract mold more than the others. i used to wash my hand and did all the aseptic techniques, but the cuttings that will get mold will still get the mold. others won't get it for whatever reason. so i never really bother with aseptic techniques any more. just wash hand before handling the cuttings. i don't even switch out paper towel or the bag. just check them everyday or two and make sure to wipe away excess moisture and any sign of molds. no problem at baggie stage since.  

Greenfig, the less you manipulate the roots the better.  Whatever perlite sticks to the roots should go with them into the next container.

This method is similar to Jon's new bag method.  Jon has said that if he inflates the ziplock bag of the old bag method with air he has much less mold.

This year I am putting a cutting directly into a plastic glass with (and some without) holes, in damp sphagnum moss and storing them in 71 quarts transparent plastic containers with lock leads. I keep them in a room at 78F. They have all rooted. Once a day I open the container for a few minutes.
It is simpler and less steps. I did not see any mold. I can see the condensation in the bin.
I will wait (patiently) till the glass is filled with roots and then transplant into one gallon. If all goes well it will be my method.

Well, by force of circumstances I am going to try this one, more or less. I have some black jack cuttings that I have been fighting mold on for 2 weeks. Already lost one of the three original. This morning I gave all my cuttings one last look see before I leave for two weeks and lo and behold, the black jack cuttings were showing mold again! ugh.

So, since I had just read this thread, I washed them in weak bleach water and put them in a clean baggie with damp perlite. I figure in two weeks I will either have roots or ruin. But I had nothing to lose by trying something new as those cuttings were definately headed to ruin the way it was going with the paper towel method. I'll let you know what happens.

Personally, I've had pretty good success with Jon's old Uline bag method.  This was the one that used screened perlite and a little promix or other peat based potting mix and prewetted before bagging. 

I tried that method and the same method but with screened perlite and fine chopped spagnum moss and then run water through the bag initially.  I found so far that the prewetted mix with perlite and peat potting mix has had far better results and to the eye, the perlite and spag seems to have too much moisture in the bag and also the top inch or so of the bag dries out quickly, while the lower part has too much moisture so rewetting becomes difficult because water flows though it so quickly, it can add to the high moisture levels in the lower part of the bag.

As far as mold and rotting, I've become more and more convinced that in most cases, the issue is the quality of the cutting more than anything else.  What I mean by that is that if the cutting is fresh and the tree has been protected from frost damage, etc. then success rate with little mold seems very high.  On the other hand, trees with some frost damage or other sources of dead wood on the cutting seem to struggle with mold, fungus and rot early and often.  IMHO

I haven't tried the riot cubes yet or mini-SIPs for rooting.  They're probably next to try.

Straight perlite worked great for me as well.  Last year I placed the bin on the hot copper tubes running from the hot water heater and everything rooted quickly.  Careful because adding heat will dry things out quickly if not monitored.

When mixing 600 ml (2glasses) dry perlit with 60 ml of water the result is a media that feels almost dry to the touch.
With my experience I think, that using more water, than 60ml will provoke mold development.
At home is constantly around 22-23* Celsius and I don't use any additional heating source.
Because the perlit is so slightly damp the perlit does not stick to the cuttings or the new roots.
Using a ziplock bag insted of plastic container is not advisible because some cuttings root faster than others and will be more difficult to be removed from the bag, but very easy from a container with wide open lid. also the container can hold more fresh air and there is no need to open it very often (once a week is enough if you got no time). Some people blow air in the zip lock bags, but only God knows what other microbs and bacteria they blow inside as well.
After rooting I use 2l pot and I place a plastic cup on top to keep the humidity around the newly rooted cutting. On top of the plastic cup I cut a hole so air circulation can take place. Thanks to a post fromMariannaMiller   lately I started to dust some Cinnamon on top of the poting mix and so far it worked great. When you are sure the plant had settled in, then you can remove that plastic cup.

[URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/502add301907463][IMG]http://thumbnails110.imagebam.com/30191/502add301907463.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Pen, that is great to have a 100% rooting success. So, what is your success after you have moved the rooted cutting into the pot with your soil mix?

Every year I use differnt soil mix, and I still search for the best one. I had gnats and Botritis atack last year and I lost around 20% of my plants. The main problem for me is that I don't have a greenhouse or appropriate room with a good ventilation and light. I will surely fix this soon as am building my new house with some 10 acres of blueberries and free land. :)

Congratulations on the new house and land!

Great post!  Easy method, clear and concise!  I will try it!

Phil

Hi Pen
I want to try your method and have a couple of questions;
- how many cuttings can you do with 2 cups of perlite?  I tried this and the cuttings are not completely covered.  Do they cuttings need to be completely covered in perlite or does it not matter if they are in sealed Tupperware?
- for doing larger batches I assume that you can multiply be 2 i.e. use 4 cups of perlite and  60ml of water?
- is it better to error on the side of more water or less water. 
- also the perlite I got has a lot of powder will this be a problem?
thanks 

4 cups of perlit would be 120ml of water. In my experience i found that using 10ml of water for each 100ml of dry perlit is optimal no more no less. As for cuttings that are not covered with the perlit, it is not a problem. you can simply turn the container up side down from time to time. This should be done also in case any condensation forms on top. (not that it should) The perlit I use also has some powder in it, but it is very little. I would advise you to find some coarse perlit or sieve the one you have. The plastic containers I have, can hold max 2 cups of perlit and max 15-16 cuttings.
May you have a great success with the rooting. Post back the results.
Thank you Rcantor!

Thank you!
Trying it now will report back.

Pino,

Thank you very much for posting information about this new method.  I've been trying it for a week now and I have a couple questions for you.  Should the containers be stored in the dark or does light matter much?  Also, I used Miracle Grow brand perlit and I noticed that it seems to have a negligible amount of dirt.  Is that ok?  I don't know that there's another source of perlit around these parts.  Also, I added bit of cinnamon just for kicks...

Thanks again for your helpful post.

Hello Pen, I tried this and after three days my black sicilian has grown some roots. My black madeira and dark green turkish have startes to produce leaves. I am really impressed. After a week more roots and my rei too started to root though no roots yet from black madeira and dark green turkish. And the most important thing no mold. Thank you for introducing this method. Norhayati

I keep my containers in light. About the dirt in the perlit I don't think will be a problem, but you never know!

I still have quite a lot of cuttings left. I will try this on some fresh cut dormant cuttings and on some refrigerated Summer cuttings.

Pen, I got some containers  and here is my set up.

I used 20 oz of large perlite and 2 oz of distilled water in a 76 oz Ziploc container with lid. They were placed on a

heating mat and 18 inches beneath four  T-8  tubes. The grow room is maintained at 70 degrees. I scored

3 Celeste cuttings on two sides of the bottom one inch.

On three other Celeste cuttings I did not score. In this test I did not use any rooting hormone.

[URL=http://s1099.photobucket.com/user/newnandawg/media/Snapbucket/60C4070B_zpsd017b508.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g397/newnandawg/Snapbucket/60C4070B_zpsd017b508.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

bump for Pen

Penandpike,
Thanks for posting your pictures and commentary of your method.
I'm always interested in procedures that are quantifiable and repeatable.

Your method is probably successful because it maintains the humidity and temperature that fig cuttings need to root, 85% - 90% RH and 72 - 78 deg F. with lots of aeration, but they do not need light in the rooting stage, it may only encourage early bud growth.

One note which I did not see mentioned is that the plastic container should have a tight fitting (air tight) lid.

 Newnandawg when I said I keep cuttings in light I ment that the containers just stay at home and are not covered with anything.
not under intense light anyway. Ascpete might be right that this may encourage early bud growth. 
Ofcourse container should have a tight fitting lid.
Looking at that pictire I notice that the top buds on the 2 cuttings on the left seem to be dead.
Keeping the cuttings on a heat mat will result in a lots of condensation on the top of the container and dryind at the bottom
which means you have to turn the  container upside-down very often. I have tried that and it didn't work for me. I don't have time.
I would use little more perlit and try to cover the cutting with it.

Pen, thanks for that info. I will add more perlite. The buds aren't dead, They are green underneath.

Pen I think you are right about the turning of the container. I tried a similar thing with cuttings laying in a perlite mixture in a covered container and noticed the cuttings would be dry on the top side with the bottoms being damp (since the moisture was raising to the top from the bottom.) So turning it a couple times a day I would think would really help keep the proper moisture all around the cutting. I'll try that next.

Tyler

[URL=http://www.imagebam.com/image/40078d304468983][IMG]http://thumbnails111.imagebam.com/30447/40078d304468983.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Should the container be aired out once in a while and if too dry a little water sprayed on?

Penandpike,
Thanks for posting the picture of the measured temperature and humidity.

<edit>
Pino, Every 2 to 3 days to quickly check them is OK, but they do not need any extra moisture if the container is sealed properly (air tight).

I open the containers once in a while.
With this method there should not be any water loss so no additional water if you do it right.

I used Pen's method with some Black Madeira cuttings started on January 18, and was happy to notice roots starting today, the 30th. 2 of the 3 have roots. I mixed the perlite and water, put a layer in the bottom of the plastic container, laid the 3 cuttings on top, and covered with another layer. I put the lid on, labeled it, and set it on top of my fridge. In the 12 days all I did was turn the container over a couple of times and opened it once to peek. I didn't add any water at all. My house stays between about 60-70 degrees this time of year. It's clean and easy, and I'll keep using this method. Thank you Pen!

Hi Pen,
I was watching your post with interest from day one and I am glad to see that others have successfully repeated your rooting process.
So far I managed too to get to this stage using either perlite or long fiber SM.
Can you please describe in more detail the steps you do afterward;
You stated:
After rooting I use 2l pot and I place a plastic cup on top to keep the humidity around the newly rooted cutting. On top of the plastic cup I cut a hole so air circulation can take place. Thanks to a post fromMariannaMiller   lately I started to dust some Cinnamon on top of the poting mix and so far it worked great. When you are sure the plant had settled in, then you can remove that plastic cup.

                 
What is your substrate mix and how moist it is?
How do you determine right moisture of the mix?

can_smokva  sorry for the late reply. The above picture was ment to show only the plastic cup keepeng the humidity around the cutting noting else.
Here in this new topic I started, you can find the ansewers for your questions.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/a-solution-to-my-lack-of-space-and-what-i-use-as-a-soiless-mix-6742404

I used this method starting a few weeks ago and had great success with it. The rooting happens much quicker. I will definitely be using this vs my other methods (baggie, cups, etc). Thanks, pen.

Your method is very similar to what do, only I add a touch of soil mix (usually Pro-Mix) to the new perlite.

I will try this method with the rest of my cuttings, I have some in moss and some in baggie and the mold is getting out of hand.

[QUOTE=Quackmaster]I will try this method with the rest of my cuttings, I have some in moss and some in baggie and the mold is getting out of hand.[/QUOTE]

Just say'n My method is better ... : )

 Some hard to root blueberries ( Bluecrop, Bluegold, Patriot, Brigitta )hardwood cuttings rooted in just 3 weeks. With the help of some Clonex and my method. The bottom leaf buds should be scratched with some dull knife.

penandpike - How did you use the Clonex with the blueberry cuttings - just the end dipped in the gel?

I have been experimenting rooting figs with your method in post #1 using no rooting hormone - so far seems to be working for most of the cuttings, but some have sprouted buds first.  When that has happened and no roots developed after a couple days, I transferred to a small pot using rooting hormone on the lower inch of the cutting.  I'm waiting to see what happens with those.

I apply the gel with my finger on the lower 2 inches of the cutting.
When cutting sprout I just cut it out. Later the cutting will develop new buds. This will give you at least another week..

Newnandog: any updates on using this method?

Just tried this method with a few cuttings. Will report later.

[QUOTE=OttawanZ5]penandpike
Have you done a controlled experiment with water only and water with perlite to see if there is any difference and if there is then 'why'. What does perlite adds to water to expedite rooting. Rooting can take place in 'only water' too. You will find many threads talking about rooting in water only.

I do not have any favourite method but always come back to the baggie method for ease of it with changing paramters mostly related to ease of use. The only thing I make sure is that I open the bag every other day to air and check for mold. I easily find out which cuttings seem to be mold prone. Usually I find out that if I got two cuttings of the same type/vintage and one shows mold I son find the other one with similar tendency. What I am getting at is that the history/vitality of cuttings itself also determines if cutting will be prone to mold in the baggie method. 
To add to this, I miserably failed to roots cuttings from the south far-east using baggie method due to mold even though I saw it coming when airing. On the other hand I had the best success with baggies method with cuttings from the north-east of the continent (100% from my own plants). Baggie method with some precautions may not be the best but one of the easy and consistent.[/QUOTE]

Hi Ottawan,
I would like  know about rooting fig cuttings  in "only water" . 
I am surprised to hear about this method, i use the baggie method adding a lite breathable soil to the cuttings, i also make a lot of holes in the bag to provide ventilation for the roots. 
but what if we just drop the cutting in a clear glass of water and come back two weeks later, will they root?