If I can do it, anyone can do it. I've got room for about 60 pots on a shelf in the closet. Show us your setup. Something's got to get us through the next month or so until we can get outside.

My winter setup is down in my basement. I've got a mix of t5 and t8 lights on a bar converted into a gardening bench and on some shelves. This setup is supposed to be for starting my seeds, but figs seem to take over a large portion of my space.


 

Arron: I hear its pretty cold up there now. Cant say I envy you guys! My set up is very small...its in my dinning room on the floor. The cat visits it every day, although she no longer tries to paw at them. The dogs sniff it daily...maybe because of the odor fig trees emanate? Will post pics later.

But, I just bought a "better than my last one" greenhouse that my husband will put together tomorrow :-)! I am looking forward to getting a bigger space for my plants! Got it on Amazon...dont know aboutqualitybut it seems decent for the price.

Smyfigs just make sure to "over-secure" it down to the ground. The last thing you need is the wind taking it away. I'd think about staking a wooden frame to the ground and then attaching the greenhouse to that. Also, that greenhouse is not intended for any kind of snow load. Hopefully you will not have to worry about that. Good luck!

Funny you mention wind, Aaron because it has happened to me. I had my seedlings growing on the side of the house in a tiny but useful greenhouse when the Santa Anas started up. My husband found my greenhouse and all turned over. Lost many plants and those that survived he had to guess as to which marker went where. Not good! I learned my lesson and now put sand bags down.

Where's the disco ball? I thought about using those lights. I didn't think my eyes would take it.

It's hard to get a sense from a picture, but the light is colored, but not bright--most of the color shows up as a glow from the bins.  The flourescents are much brighter and irritate my eyes a lot more.  The figs seem to like the lights ok.

Nice setup, Adipose. And, yeah it does need a disco ball.

My setup as i mentioned earlier, is in my dining room. I did just put up my new greenhouse too, thanks to my husbands great help! I cannot attach it for whatever reason :-/

This past fall I promised myself no more fig cuttings. From then on it would be plants only. Well so much for that promise.

Here is what I working with now.

Jerry, what a noble thing to attempt--giving up fig cuttings! So you have a lot of cuttings rooting. Your setup looks great! Your bagged cuttings look moist. How often do you water them & how do you do it? Just curious.

Meg, the bags were finished the day before yesterday. The promix I used was on the dry side. I mixed water with it but there was still some dry fibers in the mix when bagged. The condensation should dissipate as the dry fibers absorbe the moisture. If the condensation is still there in a few days, I will cut the bottom corners off the bags to allow the mix to breath a bit.

You've got a couple raspberries in there. It's not all figs.

[QUOTE=ADelmanto]You've got a couple raspberries in there. It's not all figs. [/QUOTE]Oops, I'm busted. :) I think there are 8 pkts of TC blackberry cuttings I got from Blue.

I appropriate the top shelf of my pantry to start my cuttings in 1/2 gal. square Juice containers.  Because its behind the gas fireplace it stays between 75 and 85 degrees during the winter months. The juice containers serve as individual hydration chambers as the pantry is dry.  As soon as leaves start to develop, the cuttings get moved out onto a repurposed computer rack that sits in front of a west facing window. Computer racks are like book shelves except that the shelves are much deeper and have a wire rail about 4" above and which surrounds each shelf.  I replaced the solid shelf part with wire laundry room shelving. I used 2 clip on lights per shelf which delivers about 2000 lumens of light per shelf (30 watts of electricity per shelf)  Each shelf will hold 12 one Gal. pots (3d x 4w) or 30 juice containers. Shelf height is adjustable.

I am just starting my cuttings now and will post pictures when there is more to be seen than the 5 figs which are wintering over on the top shelf.  After surviving a cat attack they all seem to be doing nicely and putting a out a new leaf about every other or third day.  They get watered from the bottom twice a week and misted every couple of days.  This is the first time I have overwintered figlets. These cuttings were started at the end of august and have multiple stems and are about 14" tall. It will be another 2+ months before they can go outside. Don't know if this is ideal growing conditions, but the leaves are glossy, leaf color is good, growth is regular and they are not getting leggy. They are growing at a pace that will allow them to go outside before they have outgrown the space available to them.  Its not an elaborate set up but I have space to grow to between 90 and 120 cuttings per year and to over winter a few youngsters. For the moment I am quite content to start 4 or 5 dozen cuttings a year.

Here is a bit of what I'm doing:
I've got 3 shelves of an old unit I built many years ago. Shelf 1 and 3 uses a fantastic lighting setup that I first heard about here a few months ago that had a link to a you tube video. It uses a furnace vent piece and 2 x 100 watt 5000K daylight CFL bulbs. These bulbs use only 23 watts each and are cool and really bright. They run 14 hours a day and I'm getting wonderful results. The cost for the 2 were about $40.00 including the bulbs, furnace piece, 1/4" threaded rods, light fixtures and all. I used some mylar that I had lying around my studio but even some aluminum foil will bring a tremendous bounce of light back to the plants. The middle shelf has a 2' T5 "plant light" that I bought at Lowes for $49.99 a few years ago and they included the bulbs. It fits nicely in the unit and the plants love it. Really nice, with terrific results, but you get more bang for the buck with 4' units
 

 

This is my old tried and true setup for the last 5 years or so. 3 x 4' , 2 bulb florescent lights with daylight 5000K T12 bulbs. Excellent results from this and the plants really like that it is low heat, bright and a good color spectrum. The fixtures are about $11.00 each and the bulbs are another $4.00. Easy to use and can't go wrong.

 

Here are a few of the Godfather plants I've been trialing. They are fantastic rooters and growers and are less than 2 months old and doing really well. This is a real winner. I wanted to trial him before I set him free.
Stay tuned on this one.

 

Here are the cloners. I am trialing my homemade version before I use the Turbo Clone later this month. Also using the same lighting setup as before and this seems to be doing well so far.

 
 However, I am still a huge fan of Coco Coir and Long Sphagnum Moss, just slightly damp in tupperware containers. Ive been doing this for the last 5 years or so and is still a great way to root. Here they are in my furnace room sweating away.

 
Its still a bit early here in NJ zone 7a , so there is still a lot of room for more plants. Most of my cuttings will be going into action at the end of this month. I found that rooting too many too soon is more of a hassle than its worth.
Many more to come.
Hope you all enjoyed this.

Great Job Coop! Really like your setup! : )

Coop, nice set up. Like the use of your furnace for heat. Boogie would be impressed! Grant looking good, that's a lot of cutting you have going there. How's your success rate?

I am using wire shelving covered with plastic sheeting. Fluorescent lights (T12s and T5s) on a timer. A seed starting mat with a plastic tray of water on it to keep humidity up, and a cheap wireless humidity/temp sensor to keep an eye on it.
       

The cuttings are rooted in plastic bins with moss, covered with a towel and sitting on a windowsill seed starting mat to keep them warm.

 

Cuttings are stored in my horticultural fridge.

 

Oh, I also swore off cuttings this year. Unless on of the ones I had been looking for came along...
Fortunately CoGardener is on the road this winter and asked me to root cuttings for him. To think I almost ended up with only a couple cuttings. Whew!

Let us get a peek in that fridge andy. There must be a couple cold ones in there.

[QUOTE=DaveL]Coop, nice set up. Like the use of your furnace for heat. Boogie would be impressed! Grant looking good, that's a lot of cutting you have going there. How's your success rate?[/QUOTE]Thanks Dave,
My success rate is 95%with this simple method,i have 160 total rooting,I have found that almost anything works with the right amount of water and a clean environment.

Coop, Grant...looks great!  You're right, Grant, a clean environment is key!

Updated wish list......

  Land....

  greenhouse....

    Understanding wife... OK two of three would be perfect lol

Nope Dale, just seeds, scion, and cuttings. The freezer side is meat, we buy a whole or half from local farmers instead of grocery store meat. Libations are in a different fridge :)

Andy, what a luxury to have one half of your fridge for seeds & cuttings! Way to go!!

Mike, I just realized...WE HAVE THE SAME WISHLIST!! (land, greenhouse, land, greenhouse...)

I got a little lightheaded when I looked inside. I'm changing my wishlist. I want that fridge. You can keep the meat.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I50gK4Q5VPs[/video]

Here's my setup. Everything is on the south side windows.

This is what I've got. They've been awake since January. There are some figs forming already on MBVS and Black Bethlehem. As far as cuttings, I root them in cheap dollar store containers and orchid moss. Once they are in cups, they go in the aquarium. Gives enough light and keeps enough humidity until I transition them out to some shelves with shop lights.

SF, what are those pot socks used for?

Fungus gnat control

[img]http://i.imgur.com/xljtKuG.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FUyfYwV.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/t7bvpc5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/gmcVbqi.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/V7t70dB.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/MvKr8o9.jpg[/img]

KK: your cuttings look very nice.  And, your lemon as well.  Great job!

[QUOTE=KK][img]http://i.imgur.com/xljtKuG.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FUyfYwV.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/t7bvpc5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/gmcVbqi.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/V7t70dB.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/MvKr8o9.jpg[/img]

[/QUOTE]

Nice setup KK, I was wondering how you did all those amazing Black Maderia's. 

Thanks

Binbin9 I also have a cherimoya in the house for winter, I see dragon fruit there too, I have 4 big ones in my living room now.

Wow, looking good everyone!

Im still working on my setups to be more efficient but this is what ive got so far.  The wooden thing is a "Seedling greenhouse" I picked up the other day on craigslist for $40.  It has (4) 4ft dual shop lights with new alternated 6500k and 3000k bulbs.  It has 2 fans built into the top of it and a small electric heater with thermostat.  The lights are able to be adjusted from 4" to 30" and all of the sites are double hinged so all open upward like ferrari doors.  This thing is so over engineered, it had to have been some retired engineer that built it.  I cant wait to see how well it works.  For $40 I couldnt pass it up!

       

Nice setup, looking really good, amazing roots in that bag, good growing. Keep us posted on your seedling greenhouse. Wow!

Waynea, thanks!  The new rooting method im using, following most of a method Lolita recommended is working well for me so far.  As for the "SS Seedling" as ive named it, I have 1 small bug to work out in the electronics and it should be ready to go.  Look at this pic.. this is why I say the guy had to be some retired older engineer lol

 

That SS Seedling is some kind of crazy. Nice find. Nice job everyone. KK I'm surprised you use those small cups but I'm sure there is a method to the madness. I'd be afraid of one false move and toppling the whole setup.

Very Nice Lou, great score, hopefully you have the right spot for that fantastic looking contraption.

I'll give this a try, computers and writing are not my best qualities .
My 12x12 attached to my house greenhouse is a life saver in the wintertime. It as work bench, sink with cold and hot water and room for more then 200 cuttings. The second picture some cutting in 4x4x12 pots ,I don't use clear cups anymore this were started directly in pots with cup domes.
Picture 3 is my new way I stopped using dome cups ,I wrap cuttings with grafting tape instead, it seems to work fine, up front are 3 Italian 258 tanks to one of our generous member Figgary, started Jan. 26 , 24 days before this picture was taken .
Picture 4 some new experiment .Picture 5 summer beds for my pots, red building in background is winter home for pots. Picture 6 inside of fig winter home with some 300 pots.

Great setup Mario!

Wow , you guys all have fantastic setup !


This is for winter 2016
Mine is very simple , the old way, but it works if you keep the temp constant to 60 F
I do not have a refrigerator for plants, only for food .
Here is in my atrium 10x10 with 4 T16 neon lights and 1 fan . Since the space is very limited and the cuttings are numerous, I manage to raise my thousands of cuttings in different ways .

Group propagation

Variety : Kadota 
Stick as many cuttings as you can in a large black pot, filled 2/3 with Moisture control soil. Water well . No cover. Nothing. Once you see the soil is dry, water .


[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/7185e8dd-d01d-47fb-a1fd-6628e8f910d3_zpshiyrotlo.jpg[/IMG]


About a month later. Water once a week 
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/8abb08af-4587-4b45-bdd0-4f662db8956e_zpsxyxvorae.jpg[/IMG]


Variety : Buckingham
Same thing, but on moist sand instead of soil
Stick the cuttings into sand. Cover the whole thing with a clear plastic bag ( so you can see what happen inside). Leave them alone . Do nothing 

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/e370ea19-9a75-41ea-98db-daa9ef6db6bc_zpsmtaoxeek.jpg[/IMG]


Within 2 weeks, through the plastic, you see they are sprouting
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/on%20sand_zpsvgzqrtgg.jpg[/IMG]Through

When they have 4 leaves, take each one out, trim the roots and group them again in 1 G pot, this time with Moisture control soil . Water well .
The leaves will drop due to changing media and environment 

 
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/4a895a38-632d-4c16-8d9b-e2f3efc122ce_zpsrqcx4f0d.jpg[/IMG]
But 2 weeks later, they will leaf again 


[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/1e34573e-556a-42f9-834a-849676e1f84b_zpswnsrgjtn.jpg[/IMG]

For small scale , here is an example : Just stick the cuttings in the soil and keep the soil moist but not wet .

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/d891102e-b978-40b4-8c42-0037ebf6a2fd_zps0jz3wqay.jpg[/IMG]




Hi Aaron,
We meet here :
5 plants in one tiny pot

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/2605f957-c707-4eba-bbeb-c57230487cba_zps0hx9bncm.jpg[/IMG]


Hi Coop,
You read my mind here , but yours is well built. Mine is okay because I am no carpenter .
In one room. Under T16 light and a fan

Please do not laugh at me ! See how I tie the light to the wood ? You can move the light up or down  

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/58a90662-e595-406f-bfa2-924a7fb49f8c_zpscfu0brqz.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/c1471340-7072-4372-847c-19b3b212c7dc_zpsb2h4h9ix.jpg[/IMG]

Guess how many they are ? 30 total
At an angle next to the window
[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/559e08e9-b4bb-470e-8a72-6734fccf32e1_zpsgfd8jugs.jpg[/IMG]


Under the same light

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/86cb9582-e6b2-4180-b06a-caf35a013af3_zpsvs1kbyzy.jpg[/IMG]

Grafted scion is leafing ! The air layer next to it does nothing yet 

[IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/hongkhackimmai/eb25320e-e7d8-442d-bd20-005e11d7eb58_zpsntolz6y3.jpg[/IMG]

Lolita ! I'm impressed !!!

How many hours on / off is everyone setting their lighting for?

Isaac,
My light stays 24 hours a day but I do spray my plants with water every day and water the pots every week

Lou - PM me if you need help with the electronics.