Are pine fines or diatomaceous earth a useful stressor for rooting purposes?

[krismoriah]

@Audi_o_phile

One of the ways that I am trying to diversify my income stream over time is to start producing fruit trees for sale in order to make some portion of my money from something other than my day job, and fig cuttings are what I am starting with.

Best of luck to you… I am doing the same in a way.

Here is another interesting thread… mulberries are kind of like figs… so i think its relevant in a way.

Enormous success with rooting and *keeping healthy* Mulberry cuttings

I tried to stick about 16-20 cuttings of wild Morus Alba hybrid into a huge pot outside, in August last year. Some started to grow. Almost all survived Winter (in a 16-Gal pot, outside!!!). This Spring I decided that I don’t need it, and checked one by one… only about 3 or 4 had very small roots. But all survived. Yes I know my sandy place is extremely fertile I can just insert any cutting into it and it will start grow, but I can’t do it with few King James cuttings I have! I was keeping it… fo…

I root mine in a pretty dark, cool area… as i want roots not foliage or the things that like to grow with UV and sunlight. For some reason folks think that the most nutritious soil along with UV lights and heat are the special recipe for rooting things… maybe it is… but i think that roots like darkness and coolness and dampness myself. So i create an environment that is Fall-like where supposedly 75 percent of root growth happens… whereas the mindset of most folks is to create a spring or summer like environment which is good for foliage…not so much for roots.

I just rooted dormant hardwood cuttings of blackberries which is very tough to do. I have failed using every method that you can think of… so i tried something totally different… I think there is at least 20 youtube videos of people sticking cuttings but never any results… likely they all failed.