This isn’t that commonly done. My inspiration were posts by JesseS in the fig forum.
i just had to try it since I had a bunch of cuttings in the fridge that I was in no mood to ship. Rather than piece grafting I used nice size roots with lots of feeder roots. Maybe my success will be improved as a result.
Rooting cuttings is not that easy for me, especially since I no longer have patience.
I started with varieties that I already had, sometimes multiples and then moved to others I just received earlier this season: BNR, Black Tuscan, etc. Some of these I have heard are not vigorous growing on their own roots, so this technique might give them a quick boost.
I have them all potted up now and in a dark location with bottom heat of 78F. I expect the root/scion to callus in 2 weeks. I expect growth to commence within 3-4 weeks. I also expect the growth to be far more vigorous than if I had rooted the cuttings. Look at the size of the roots I am grafting on.
I also expect fewer failures due to rot, Why? Because the part where the root connects to the scion is fully sealed with buddy tape, so it is unlikely that I will have fungal organisms go in to create problems.
The downside: The cutting will not develop its own roots that fast. Eventually I expect it will also do that.
Anyway, all the above is theory. Lets see how they do in practice. For that we will need time. I will keep this thread updated with info.
The only tricky things with root grafting are the pliability of the root makes it a little harder to get straight cuts (but then again as long as they are relatively flat they will still conform), and lining up the cambium layers because the bark is thicker on roots.
I’ve got some big chonky roots I might cleft graft onto, have not really noticed more growth with pieces but it does speed things up a little. It works well on established roots in the ground too, been thinking of busting a few trees out with a sledgehammer and grafting onto the roots. You do get better growth that way and don’t have to water to get them established.
I am going for maximum number of cambium crosses and not even bothering with lining up the cambium. I’ve found that works great for “over the ground”. The pliability of roots is an advantage as I can twist them a bit to cross the cambium a few more times.
Did you use fig roots for this? If so, did you have to dig a fig up to get them or just dig around it some and cut them? Seems like success rate would be a bit higher on this method if one had access to root material
I thought the roots I got from repotting compost socks were chonky, but the ones from 4 YO fig seedlings that got ripped out with a chisel plow are beasts. I did splices and rind grafts, hopefully they take, the scion looked a little dry and probably should have been soaked. I’m planning to callus them for a couple weeks and then direct plant them out in the field.
