Thank you this is very helpful!

Looks like a really nice idea that works well.

Thanks for the pictures. They are very helpful.

One question--do you keep the perlite in a cup or do you hollow out a space and put it in the middle of the potting mix?

As you can see I use a small tube which holds the perlite in the middle, then suround it with peat and after that I pull the tube out of the cup.

Thanks I may be trying that soon with my green ischia cuttings.

Do not wet the perlite before taking the tube out because the perlite sticks to the tube and it's hard to take it out.

Today, I did exactly what you explained. Hope it does well. I have (beefore) put them in a huge plastic tub, but this time, I just put them all outside on a ledge attached to our Bar-B-Que center near the sink. Hope they do well. They will get sun most of the day. Not sure how long it will take but I will take pictures as they are able to be replanted in a pot. Someone sent me a few each of Sal's (EL), Bifara, and a Nataliana. Hope they do well. I fear my cuttings I tried before are doomed. The were fairly dry when I got them. My doomed cuttings this year, are Paradisio, Rubado, Scotts Black, along with a few others. Not sure when I should just call it quits on the fist bacth. The cuttings look dry and no green at all. This second group will be different I hope. I also just shoved a cutting in the dirt in a old pot with some potting mix to see how it will do. Wish me luck. I am getting more fig trees then I can handle in the yard now, so the few that don't make it (although they will be missed) will make room for the others. Just started last year, and already am up to 13 fig trees/plants of different types. I wait for my last 2 this year from Maggie (she is so nice) and it will be great to get those 2. So far my cuttings have had no luck. Hope this method works good. Got a Napalatano, Negretta, Verdetta, San Geomu, Tramonti, Mission, Violette De Bordeaux, Italian Honey, Osbourn Prolific, Conadria, Marsellies all growing so far. that with the 3 cuttings and 2 being sent should keep me busy for the year. Everyone here is so great. Hope I can contribute soon.

The good thing about this metod in my opinion is that I can water the plant as much as I want, and even over water it without problems. Before, I used to plant the cutings in peat, sand and perlite mix, but every time I had to water the cups I used ether too much or too little water. When the mix gets too dry in order to wet it you have to over water it and exactly then I lost many plants that had good roots and leaf mass.
I don't like the idea of using only perlite for root developing because of the stress when transplanting later.
By the way the cutings in the pictures are from a male fig. I'm going the find cutings or plants from the Bursa black fig, which needs the wasp for polination. In this male fig I found two diferent male and female wasp species, one Non-pollinating female wasp and one pollinating.
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I found this pic in the net, but mine were similar.
I'm new to fig growing, but figs have always been my favorite fruit. Every year I go and still figs from the trees in my neubourhood. Last year I bought a beautifull peace of land and now I'm going to have my own fig trees. So far I got Brogiotto nero, Panachee, Verdino.

You can also pul the tube out little by little while filling the cup with the peat. (Put some peat then pull the tube up a little, then put some more peat and pull the tube little more untill it's out) Much easier this way.

I like that idea. As the fig grows it sort of makes the growing medium transfer for you when it grows out of the perlite into a soil mixture and saves you a step. The way I do it, its difficult not to break roots when transfering to soil mix.

�xactly! And even if you don't break the roots, but your soil mix holds too much water your plant can still rot.

At the end of the perelite bag I had, there were some really small, fine particles. I used that perelit anyway and lost few cuttings again. ( Turned out if the perelit has too small particles, it tend to hold too much moisture again)So now I've changed the media in the middle to small stone, rock pieces (in my case mosaic). So far it's going great.

Penandpike,
Good to see that you're expanding your fig collection! Since you're in Europe a good place for you to connect with fig cuttings is fruitiers.net. Its in french but the google translator works wonders. I think you will like it!..... unless you know about it already.
Good Luck,
Little John

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruitiers.net

John,
Thank you for posting.
The french site you've mention will be of great help for me
Thank you again.
My fig collection is slowly growing and beside the Brogiotto nero, Panachee, Verdino and Celeste I have added Bursa black, Ronde de bordeaux, Black Ischia and a local Bulgarian variety called "BG gold" here are some pic.

Looks tasty! By the way, Bursa needs the fig wasp if I understand correctly.

"I'm using 100% perlite around and under the cutting and then surrounding that with good potting mix or peat. The idea here is to provide this well drained structure to prevent rot, but also providing food for the plant."

I have some thoughts on what you offered, both general and specific, but I don't want you to think I'm offering them in a personal way.

It's important to understand that the plant's 'food' doesn't come from the soil. It comes from the sun, with the plant making its own food, sugar, via the process of photosynthesis, so we can eliminate anything you mix into your rooting substrate as a source of 'food'. Since the cutting's ability to carry on photosynthesis is severely limited by the fact there are no leaves, the plant must rely almost entirely on the current supply of stored photosynthate as the energy source used to make roots - something entirely separate from any nutrition supplied by the soil.

Since what we make the rooting substrate of is of little importance, as long as it holds the right mix of air/water and isn't pyhtotoxic (poison to plants), we need look pretty much to only the physical properties of the rooting medium. If you wanted to use it, a mix of broken tempered glass would make a fine rooting medium, if you watered frequently enough. My point is that you're going through a lot of extra effort unnecessarily, and actually limiting yourself by including the peat or potting mix. Your results would very likely be better if you simply used screened and rinsed perlite as a singular substrate - or any one of a number of other substrates comprised of large particles.

The key to best rooting success when we consider only the PHYSICAL properties of the rooting medium are very simple. Staying focused on maximizing aeration while still being able to keep the cutting sufficiently hydrated is best. It produces roots faster and stronger than any other method. Substrates free of fungal spores, that is to say sterile, and other infectious organisms also offer a considerable advantage.

Ficus carica is endowed with extreme genetic vigor, so the plant more often roots in spite of how we treat the cuttings instead of because of how we treat them. If the species was more temperamental when it comes to rooting, we would see most of the methods ascribed to for rooting carica falling by the way in favor of methods that adhere more closely to science than anecdote. Fortunately, the species is very forgiving, which allows for success by a plentiful number of methods - not all of which employ the basic principles associated with sound methodology.

Al

Al,
I think you have misunderstood the purpose of this technique.
This technique is not for rooting cuttings, but for potting up cuttings which have roots already (or soon to have some)
I, and many other people have noticed that they lose many plants after transfer them from the rooting medium (let's say perlit) to actual potting mix or soil. And the reason for this is to much moisture around the cutting. With this technique you can even go straight into 1 gallon container.
I understand that the fig cutting needs no "food" to root up, but sure it needs some for making big sweet and tasty figs.
Pen

You're right - I did misunderstand, but what I said still applies.

If you're losing rooted cuttings to fungal root infections after bumping up, it's because the soil you were using was inappropriately water-retentive. Most would lay blame at the feet of watering habits, specifically - over-watering, but the fact is, it's very difficult to over-water an appropriate soil.

If you simply pot up into a soil, the particles of which are large enough to ensure it holds little or no perched water, there is no need to go through all the extra trouble and fussing about. I regularly bump cuttings growing in only 8 oz of soil into 2-3 gallon containers with never a worry about root issues or "over-potting".

There is a direct relationship between how soggy a soil is or isn't, and particle size. Soggy soil kills roots - it's that simple. Avoid the sogginess by starting with a very large fraction (at least 75-85%) of large particulates ..... the perched water table disappears ..... and roots are happy as can be, regardless of container size or soil volume.

One example:

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Another (in the middle - the surrounding bark is the base for the soil):

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You simply can't start with peat or a peat-based soil and amend it so either drainage or aeration is improved to any significant degree by adding larger particulates (like perlite or gravel); and various strategies involving the attempt to stratify the soil to improve drainage are far more likely to be counterproductive than helpful.

To illustrate - if we use the technique you described and increased the size of the container to 3-5 gallons, you'd still have a large reservoir of perched water occupying the fine soil surrounding roots. This saturated soil impairs root function and metabolism at best, and at worst causes fungal rot infections. If you put your energy into building a soil that doesn't hold ANY perched water ..... or even very little perched water, you could fill the container, stick the rooted cutting, water/fertilize/forget.

Al

Al,
I agree with everything you're saying.
Anyway many people including me don't know how to prepare
this perfect soil mix because it all depends on the different materials (soil, compost, peat) used. Different materials - different results. Perhaps man needs few years of experience to establish that perfect mix for himself.
I can assure you that I have red and tried my best for making a good mix, but still I have lost some good cuttings.
It is especially frustrating when you have only few cuttings from particular variety.
Meanwhile with the technique above there is plenty of room for errors and it's very forgiving. Since I use it I've lost only couple of cuttings (out of hundreds) and it was due to bad perlit (with very small particles). Since I've changed the perlit with mosaic I haven't lost a single one.
I have red many comments from people who have lost cuttings for the same reason as I did before, so that's why I shared the solution I've came up to.
I still work on my mix though.
Pen

Best luck, sir. ;-)

Al

This picture I googled reminds me of you growing method. In fact it looks like 100% perlite.