Good job Cecil, I've got some in bags now. Some say it's hard to root, others say they didn't have any trouble. I hope my luck is as good as yours. Tim

Thanks Tim,

I was really surprised to see the root on it because it seemed to come out of nowhere, yesterday it was a small little initial and today it is a 1/4" root, I will leave it in the baggie for a little longer, I would like to see a few more roots on it.
Cecil

If you're at all like me, you'll check them every 5 minutes to see how much longer it'll get in 5 mins(lol) I keep willing them to grow fast so they can be potted up and added to my collection. I currently have 13 cultivars in various stages of the rooting process. I'm thinking this addiction is similar to drugs, cigarettes and booze, minus the tragic side effects.(sorry for the dark humor)

HAHAHA......Ryne I know what you are talking about!

But I have learned that the less I mess with the cuttings after they show roots the better off I am.

Cecil

agreed!!!

Hey Ceil,
My cuttings are getting ready to pop roots also, heavy calloused areas with white initials on most of them. I am also trying sphagnum moss in a container. A few have rooted that way also. Boy don't you just really get charged up when you see that?

Hi Jazzbass1

After seeing them little roots, I have visions of buckets full of ripe figs.......Let the Spring begin.

Cecil

Cecil
Same here. I just hope that I get as much sunshine and heat as I am getting snow right now. Thank goodness for this. I would have nothing really (except shovel snow) to do today. I am just trying to figure out where am I going to put them. I already have more than 50 fig trees (pots). I have started at least 20 cuttings or more. This year I really have to decide what is staying and what is leaving. I know, it just gives me an excuse to replace the ones that I get rid of. But that's part of the fun with this hobby.

Cecil, I share your visions about bucketful of figs. Also, on the humorous side, I guess we can put Mr. Roto Rooter out of business for a little while after consuming all the yummie figs.

HAHA........Paully, I know that's right!

Cecil, are you supplementing light at this point? I'm about to install my first cuttings that are showing root initials, and a couple have actual roots. Do they need light at this point, or will ambient sunlight from unshaded windows be enough?

Hi Token28001,

are you supplementing light at this point?

No I don't start that until the cuttings "leaf out"
then only short times in sunlight.(slowly increasing sunlight)Hardening off.

Hope that answers your ?
Cecil

Perfect. I just potted mine into containers. I've got a nice mix of perlite and bark fines. I've got them in a container where they receive a little light from the plant rack next to them, but nothing to encourage leaf growth. The baggie method gave me lots of initials this time with no mold. I'm hoping this works. Even Marseilles cuttings had lots of initials.

These were sent to me from a member here at this forum. Thanks again!

token28001,

Looking good,good,good!
Thanx for the great pictures.

Cecil

I don't think many, if any, of those white flecks are initials.

Looks similar to the white "mystery fluff" that has been posted about a few times in the past. In 3-4 days it will start to brown (some already have) and that's that.

I wouldn't personally pot until you see a root that is at least 2mm-3mm long, and if you can wait till you get a quarter-inch, all the better. I have a feeling if you pot what you've got there, you may end up with "duds" that don't form roots for a couple of months.

Most notable experiment I have seen which covers the "white powdery flecks" I see above is this one

It was by F4F member SteveNJ. It covers a lot of different cuttings trying to root, different situations for rooting, etc. He speaks of the white flecks above. Not a lot of answers about them, but the observation of what happens with them, etc.

Hope it helps. I leave a link here for reference also"

Here is a link that might be useful: Rooting experiment

It took 30 days to root these two JH Adriatic cuttings

I know there are others with some of the cuttings that I was lucky enough to get.Good luck Guy's

Thanks for looking

Cecil

Last night I checked my potted cuttings. I saw what satellitehead posted about the white "initials". My black missions have started growing actual roots, about 1/8" long on two of the three cuttings. They are growing from the white spots. The Marseilles cuttings have not grown any roots and the white spots have indeed turned brown. Should I clean them and rebag them to initiate true roots?

Okay, Dan, here is some more feedback.

I bagged these Salem White cuttings from Bass on January 30, using Dan_ab's method.

This is what they looked like on February 9.

Jenia, thats pretty fast. Did you use any supplemental heat?

ejp3 - you may recognize this VdB cutting. i never removed from the bag it was shipped in, it remained in the wet newspaper it arrived. i don't know when the cutting was shipped, but i know it arrived 8 days ago with no signs of any activity ... and this is a week later....

notice ~5 rootlets, one about 5mm long.

i'm not doing anything special, i just think the person cutting it knew what the hell he was doing, and gave me some great wood to work with. similar to the the Sudliche, 143-36 and Bisirri #1 i got in January.

i think there is a LOT to be said about someone who knows how to take a good cutting (whether they know they're doing it or not).

@token

Here is what I am talking about - those white powdery things have about a 1-in-10 or worse chance of actually beomcing a rootlet. Just to give you an example, I circled some of the rootlets from the last picture I posted. After cupping/uncupping more cuttings than I can explain over the last couple months, this cutting is an adequate example of how often those little white powdery flecks actually spark a root - most turn brown and callous.

I cupped this today. If I pulled it 2-3 weeks from now, the five areas you see circled will be the source of 7-8 roots. 90% of the other little white flecks would be nothing.

Jason, thanks for the complement?!? Looks like you are doing pretty well for a beginner :). Dont forget who sent you the latarulla and conadria cuttings.

You're welcome, and how could I forget? The cuttings were superb!

Oh, and speaking of forgetting, you forgot the Sal ;) I have been pretty anal about documenting how I got where I am. Almost all of those cuttings rooted, the only one that hasn't is one last stubborn Sal.

I know I'm a relative beginner -- if this was rocket science, I'd wouldn't be flapping keys, sharing experiences and tips (and some opinions). I've had some great email chains with others who're getting started who are like me, trying multiple methods, comparing notes, it's been a good thing. I've learned a hell of a lot.

Funny, when I started reading the fig forums, some folks made it sound like there was this magic process to get rooted, it's super scientific to get good success, and you were lucky to get anything rooted without having mold or rot kill it. There were certain things you HAD to have, certain mixes, certain baggies, certain this or that. It left me thinking that rooting a fig was some super complicated thing that took a lot of experience to get down pat, and I needed to buy a lot of crap to do it.

So, like any of the technical crap I deal with at work, I checked out a bunch of processes, tried each one, noticed the similarities, cut out some steps that didn't make sense, and figured out what was most important. I found that a lot of the stuff pushed off as "requirements" couldn't be farther from that. Lots of "secret ingredients", which can be substituted with more common, less expensive stuff. A lot of little logical things you can do - logic, deduction, exploring why things work.

The last two batches of cuttings that came through - yours and Ricci's, 5 varieties total - I've just left all of em in the freaking bags they shipped in, rarely opened the bags, check the cuttings once every 3-5 days without opening the bag more than once a week, and I've seen rootlets showing faster than any other cuttings. Got solid, thoughtful cuttings in most cases. Even a couple of the tiny tip cuttings are doing amazing.

I don't have near the amount of experience as others here, but I went in with guns-a-blazing, and have been Little Mr. Curious with everything, trying dozens of different setups, methods, bags, boxes, heat, contraptions, meters, mixes.... I did kill a cutting or two in the process, but I gotta say ... I've been rooting fruit for several years; figs are the most forgiving trees I've ever rooted, hands down, period, end of discussion. In retrospect, I'm surprised at the total lack of learning curve when rooting figs.

With months of practice and a few batches, I can't help but assume everyone starts to recognize all of the signs. I'm on my 5th batch of cuttings now using variants of the methods here, about 125 cuttings total in 4 months. I know some guys here are like ... "Heh, I root that much in a week!", but ... with that few, I'm well over 90% rooting rate (some cuttings are just destined to fail). Anyone can do this.

Everyone here and at F4F was really helpful in getting me there. I've found some steps blatantly unnecessary. I appreciate all of the input that's helped me get there. I appreciate everyone that's helped with cuttings, free, paid or otherwise. Some of the info/research sharing - JD, you're one of them - was priceless.

Maybe some day I'll be knocking out hundreds of cuttings at a time like Bass? ;)

Thanks SH. Like I said, my black missions are rooting. The roots are tiny, but they're real, not the white flaky stuff. The Marseilles are still at the white flaky stage. I'm still contemplating.

ejp3,

No I didn't use any supplemental heat. I used Dan_ab's method and keep the plastic bins about 5 ft. from a pellet stove where the temperature is a fairly constant 73F.

I started 8 varieties at the same time and on only the Salem Dark was anywhere close to the same development.

C.J.

I have had success (8 for 8) with the baggie method. I also have more cuttings that are 'barking' with 'root initials' (t.k.a. primorida). Of those 8, I cupped these two (from Mimi) a few days ago and the purple is pushing roots to the walls...

JD

Unknown Green

Nonnie's Purple

JD, thanks for the pics. I've never seen a rootlet shoot out of a leaf scar before, that's pretty cool!

Cool indeed!

BTW, I believe that in Jenia's post to this thread (on Sun, Feb 14, 10 at 12:05) she shows two cuttings that have rootlets coming out of leaf scars. In her first image, I think the 3rd & 4th cuttings have rootlets coming of the leaf scar and in the second image, those same two cuttings are now cuttings 2nd & 3rd.

JD