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

I as well have read from the postings of people more experienced than myself that the best results in rooting fig cuttings was to keep them at a slightly elevated temperature. I won’t bore y’all with the details of how I managed the heating and how I was monitoring the temperature, but up until recently that was the method that I utilized.

I determined that since I am now experimenting with using an OptiSorb-type of DE product to test for improved rooting results I would also see what I would get from trying some cuttings at the normal temperature that the basement holds. I’ve had several test batches running for a little while now and am hoping to get similar results to the pictures that I started this thread with.