Seeing the story about purchases on Etsy from Albania, I feel compelled to repeat my earlier point – “rife with hype and fraud.” Think about it – where else can you sell sticks harvested from a local weed for real money? And the fraud will not be detected for years
FWIW, the Ourfigs forum used to maintain a list of reputable sellers. I’m not sure that it still exists.
You should only buy within the U.S. That’s for ecological reasons. Plant matter imported from other countries is the main source of new insect pests and diseases. But you’re not safe just because you buy within the U.S. For example, there used to be a pretty big fraud operation run by ethnic Russians in NYC. If I had my own Mafia cell, I’d be selling cuttings by the ton.
I strongly recommend that you buy fig cuttings ONLY from a source whose reliability can be independently verified.
To build on what jrd51 has said, even a lot of otherwise honest and reliable sellers are often shockingly bad when it comes to figs.
Generally speaking, if you buy a Green Giant arborvitae or a Leyland cypress at a big box store, that’s what you’ll get. Apples and pears are more hit or miss, same with brambles. But figs? I’ve bought three figs at big box stores, all three were mislabeled, and all three just sat in the ground and didn’t do anything for an entire year, one of them still has barely grown after two and half years.
I normally trust online nurseries to be similarly decent, especially more specialty nurseries or for plants that are really common like Prime Ark Freedom. But for figs? No way. Only from places who are known for their figs and known for having a good reputation. And even then, you’ll sometimes get the wrong plant.
And yeah, bringing figs, of all things, in from the Mediterranean is super illegal and has the potential to cause serious harm to California’s fig industry and private growers alike.
I would expect some mold for sitting there 3 months with a damp paper towel. I get mold with this method after a week lol. Just surprising to hear. Those look great and rooted already.
I bought some figs from them too. This will be my first time messing with fig cuttings, so I’m kinda nervous about it. But theres alot of resources out there, so hopefully I can get it done. The only thing they didn’t have that I wanted was the LSU figs, but most of our nurseries have those, and they might have some at the plant sale next weekend.
I think just LSU Purple and Red. They are supposed to do better than the others with RKN. And Purple is supposed to be late, and we can probably ripen figs into December some years.
I don’t have red, but I have plenty of purple I can send you later, maybe in December.
I’d say it’s early, but it’ll keep ripening batches until frost. It tends to ripen figs all at once, but my plant isn’t very old so maybe once it’s five or six years old it will just produce a steady stream of figs instead of in waves.
But once they’re good and dark and have wrinkled a bit, they turn a bit auburn on the inside and the purple pigment in the skin starts bleeding into the fig. They’re quite good at this stage, and I don’t know that I have any other figs that taste like them. Lots of “custard” texture too, which I like. It’s not my favorite fig, but it’s a good one that I’ll always grow I think.
50/50 perlite n peat moss works very good. I fertigate with 1/4 expert or mg before I even stick the wood in the mix. Last year ended up being 18 for 20 indoors with my techniques.
Outdoors I just take any old potting soil cover with a plastic bag and just water. Stellar results.
Overwatering is the most cause of any failure for myself in the past.
I tested pure and and pearlite vs sand, pearlite, and potting soil last year and had marginally better results with the later, so that’s what I use. I think humidity and moisture control and stability are probably more important though.
Only way i can keep my own little grubby hands from poking their roots every day…
100% perlite works best for me and that’s what a nursery has showed and told me what they do. With bottom heat, they root the quickest this way for me HOWEVER… Very weak and crispy roots
Cococoir works as well but same use with repotting afterwards. Lots of roots broke on me and they then seem to be stunted.
Regular potting soil keeps me from poking too much. If you poke daily too and can’t set and forget… potting soil lol
Last year for dormant cuttings I used clear plastic containers and left them mostly sealed for about a month until roots appeared, adding only a little bit of water and keeping them mostly in the dark. That worked pretty well.
The set up in using right now is for non dormant or semi dormant cuttings. It’s a heat pad, a regular cell tray filled with water, and then individual cells with the cuttings and media under a partially open humidity dome and light. The humidity has stayed in the 80-95% range most of the time and the temperature right around 80 F.
works best, and cocoa coir has been the soil to work the best for me.
I also find that soaking the cuttings in a hydrogen peroxide solution, also makes for faster and better rooting. It also prevents some types of rotting.
Also there needs to be enough heat, for the rooting to go well.
I dip my cuttings in a bleach/water mixture, rinse them, then let them sit in rooting hormone water while i prep things. Then stick them again with rooting hormone. Sometimes i lightly slice the bottom a little with a box cutter to help the roots pull through. Sometimes when i don’t cut too deep, it seems to help cause the roots form there first
I used equal parts perlite and peat moss with a little bit of soil. Then I put them in a water tray, put those in another tray to get them off the floor, and then covered them with a big plastic box and a towel. I’ll check on temp and humidity tomorrow, but just in my house the temp is 77 with 60-70% humidity. First time with fig cuttings and first time rooting something inside instead of outside. I was tempted to take one of the skinny cuttings they sent extra a root it in my aquaponics like I do with most things, but our weather starts getting swingy this time of year.
Hi everyone, not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I thought I’d give it a try. I woke up this morning after a frost and noticed my fig plant had dropped most of its leaves. The ones still remaining have brown spots and are shriveled up. Is this normal damage from the cold, or is it a disease?
The weather will warm up later this week with lows in the 40s and 50s. I read that there can be issues with mold if I wrap the fig when it is still too warm. I was planning to winterize the fig around Thanksgiving by surrounding it with leaves and cardboard. Should I wrap it up now or is it too late/too early? When and how do you protect your figs for the winter?
Sorry for all the questions, this is my first year growing figs
Thanks in advance!
keeps me from poking too much. If you poke daily too and can’t set and forget… potting soil lol
