Today DH got out his knife, and separated the twins. Actually, I was surprised that they kept their roots straight down and were not co-mingled. He then cut another root cube in half, jammed it up against each seedling, and back in the rooting chamber they went. They will survive just fine. Not so sure about the new twins. They are about 1/32" from each other. If one is big, it will get culled because it's growing next to a true dwarf root stock. And the dwarf stock is the whole reason for seedlings.

My cuttings are in a mini "greenhouse" under two fluorescent lights, I have all of them under a table in a room. I always root cuttings of any plant in a similar manner. Fluo light is of constant intensity, the "day length" is up to you, and never burns the plants. Inside the home the temp is constant (65º-70º F), and in cuttings zone maybe a little bit higher due to lights. Optimal for rooting figs. http://www.infojardin.com/fotos/albums/userpics/Esquejes.jpg I use two fluorescent tubes of 18 W (18 inches long approx.), both are standard tubes for home use (cool-white), I have no problems with it and the cuttings and seedlings grow well with this kind of light, however, some experts recommend to combine cool-white with warm-white (1+1). Due to the small scale of my "nursery" I use the smallest tube, all the sizes of standard tubes have similar light power but, of course, the bigger tube size the more power consumption (more watts). Long time ago I used window lights but in winter the sun light is too weak and the day length is very short, insufficient for a decent growing of seedlings and cuttings. With this method I can grow anytime in the year, in any case, it is only for rooting process, after ended that it is preferably that the plant adapts to and grows in sun light. A good light-dark cycle is 15 hours light + 9 hours dark per day and, very important to take advantage of light, the fluo tubes must be very near the top of seedlings or cuttings (2 inches), though it is more critical for seedlings that for cuttings (no problem with distances up to 5 inches). For turn on / off the lights I use a cheap time programmer (here I found it for $5), with this, there is no problem if you aren't at home. With this method my figs start to show roots in 3 weeks (it depends on the fig variety). The best media for me is straight perlite, inside the box there is no evaporation, the air is moist saturated, perlite don't waterlog even in this environment.

GG, thanks for the pictures and for the rooting illustrations! I am intrigued by communal rooting. I've only done it in individual little plastic cups, so that roots can be seen growing. How do you (and you, Denise) know when it's time to repot to individual pots? I am assuming it's hard to tell which cutting(s) have rooted reliably enough for that? Is your sign resistance to light tugging? What if some cuttings are ready and others are not? This shared hormones thing is interesting. By the way, I've read recently about the rooting hormones that are sold as gel or powder. I thought they are chemicals that encourage plants to form roots in that area - and that is true. But what I did not know is that they are the same chemicals (only synthetically produced) that plants develop themselves. Do you use rooting hormones? I wonder if sharing the hormones is important if every stem is dipped into the hormone of its own. I've placed my little cups into a container for humidity, but a vessel like this will take less space and also create humidity. There's no drainage, I assume, right? Which is fine because it's hydroton and some water needs to be at the bottom anyway, and because it's a relatively short term home for the plants. Sunny, I agree your cuttings look fine. The thinner leaf varieties tend to lose moisture when cut faster than those with thicker leaves, but then most do regain it slowly once they are in the mix and kept moist and humid. One of the cuttings I am rooting now (GG, your heuschkeliana) did arrive a bit dehydrated, but for a month now very slowly it's been regaining moisture. It's pretty cool to watch. I've never seen an established plant, but all leaves except for the lowest one look very much turgid now and have lost all of their wrinkles. I foolishly thought when I got the plant the wrinkles were part of the deal of how this plant looks - I thought that was charming and unusual. hehe One thing I personally would change, Sunny, is I suggest taking larger cuttings. It does depend on the plant's growth habit, leaf size, distance between nodes etc., but a 2-3 node cutting is likely to root better and be stronger than a one-node one. It's no biggie though - they all should root, especially no problem at this time of year. How is humidity now in San Antonio? I covered them up in the winter, and even these days 30% humidity here is normal, but too low for optimal rooting. Big Box stores may not have hydroton indeed, but your local hydroponics store is almost guaranteed to have at least one type of hydro medium. It does not have to be hydroton - it could be called LECA, PrimeAgra, Growstone, Grow Rock, Hydrocorn and many others. They all look slightly or even significantly different, but they work essentially the same. Having open options means you may get the medium sooner and won't have to pay shipping, which is expensive for these bulky bags.

Hiya goddess - I'm right where you are, having just received my first set of cuttings from Joni also. After way too much fussing (I hope they forgive me), I've rooted four of them directly in clear solo cups in Fafard cactus/succulent mix with rooting hormone in a bright window out of direct sun. They get misted and are in ziplocs. The other two (sipitangensis and publicalyx "Black Dragon") are in a mini-greenhouse outside on a covered porch (where an existing hoya has been extremely happy). Those two are rooting horizontally with the Fafard mix and I mist the soil once a day. I did poke a hole in the bottom of the solo cups for drainage, and I watered the soil in those and let it drain before I put the cuttings in. I'm assuming I wouldn't want to actually water again unless the soil was really dry, especially as long as I'm misting (can the community confirm this?). The reason I'm horizontally rooting two of them is that those came with little roots already sticking out all along the cuttings, and with several sets of leaves. I'm going partly on instinct and partly on advice from this community (thank you!). I'll be curious to see how our new babies turn out!