What’s the best way to store fig cuttings for about a week? In a bag in the fridge probably, but damp or dry? Or in a jar of water on the counter perhaps? I just got some cuttings but I’m on a trip and didn’t bring parafilm so can’t wrap them up.
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Soak them for 15 to 20 minutes, flip them and soak for another 15 to 20 minutes, then let them dry on paper towels until the bark looks dry, store in clean sealed plastic container(s), that should work, normally I’d soak in a hydrogen peroxide solution to help prevent fungus growth and it helps with rooting if you do that first, yet with water would work okay in a pinch. Oh and put the container in the fridge, I usually use zipper bags, yet if you are in a pinch anything that seals should work.
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I normally just put one or two sheet of dry paper towel and put them in sealed plastic bag or zip bag. The dry paper will absorb any chill water condensation or the water will rot the cuttings. Cuttings can last months or longer that way.
Some wash in bleach or hydrogen peroxide solutions. But I never bother doing that. As long as I do not allow any condensation water, I never had any issues with washing or not.
You can also dig a hole about 6" or deeper and bury the cuttings flat. You can also just stick them in large garden container with light soil or mulch, either upright or flat. That is super easy. No need to wash or do anything just for one or two weeks.
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Is seeing the roots at the bottom of the pot a good sign that it’s time to plant these cuttings out or pot them up, even if they aren’t showing the amount of growth I’ve seen in other ones in this thread?
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How big is that pot?
I think they can still wait a little.
I had some of those in 15G pot. I had to take them out since some of them were much larger and some were smaller. The big ones can make it no problem. But some smaller ones struggle.
Your pot is small and you can still manage it. But the longer you wait, the more tangled the roots become. So there is a balance. In general, it is good time if you see 4-5 healthy true leaves.
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The vegetation looks way too short to up pot, I have never seen roots come out of a pot with such short vegetation coming out of the rooted cuttings, like that before. I suggest using at a 7 gallon or larger grow bag or pot when rooting that many cuttings.
It’s just a 1 gal, which was all I had available at the time. I wasn’t expecting them all to make it, so figured I’d be removing some dead sticks, but looks like 100% success. In any case, I plan to plant them as a single clump in one hole, rather than separating them, so tangled roots don’t matter quite as much. I’ll wait longer!
I should add that we had a really cold late spring, even in the greenhouse, so the tops stopped growing after I took them off the heating pad to make room for vegetable starts. It looks like the roots had a growth spurt when the tops were stalled, and now a few of them are pushing new growth for the first time in over a month. I moved them outside last week even though the overnight lows were still below 50° some nights, but we’re going to have a heat wave this weekend (first 80° days and might even hit 90°), so I’ll make sure to keep them well-watered.
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If you do not plan to separate them, you can re-pot it now. I’ll re-pot it gradually since the cuttings are not in very active growth state and won’t take much water. Huge pot is not good.
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That would explain why the roots already show, whenever I have rooted more than one cutting at a time I have always used a 3 gallon or bigger size. Also the vegetation not growing much makes the rooted cuttings seem younger than they really are.
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I have good results by cutting the potting mix 50% with pumice.
Damp rot is my biggest problem with Figs and this prevents standing water.
Also
I water once a week.
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Has anyone tried rooting green cuttings? Neighbor @eboone was gracious enough to start some air layers for me and I didn’t have the heart to pitch the extra growth above the roots. So, I stuck some cuttings in a cup of water and low and behold they developed root initials since Monday. It is Thursday. I plopped them in some DE and we’ll see what happens…
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Yes, green cuttings can be rooted. They tend to be a little more likely to rot. Good luck Ryan!
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Thank you Ed! IC and Trabia are still kicking, although IC lost its big leaves. The new ones are read to pop and I’ll give it a tiny bit of fertilizer to help those roots. Trabia didn’t skip a beat.
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I used to root them, I found them easier and faster to root than the non green ones, yet it’s very rare that I’d root any these days, most cuttings I root these days are attempts to rescue a rare dying tree, or rooting cuttings that someone else gives me, and those are usually pomegranate cuttings these days. Most of the fig cuttings I get go to a charity project in NYC, and I am not the person to root those, not that many people offer green fig cuttings. Some people find green cuttings hard to root, yet I think that is because they use indoor rooting that keeps too much moisture on the cuttings. I have rooted green cuttings outdoors with no trapped sitting moisture.
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I’m sorry if it was already addressed above, but is it okay to root figs in summer (now) if they will be kept indoors or in a greenhouse over the winter, or is it better to wait until they go dormant and root them in winter/spring?
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This is the better option. Even in my climate and with a warm greenhouse starting now is a test of ones skill and endurance for the task.
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I just dislike babysitting tiny fig rooted cuttings over winter. Indoor insects are more nasty. Also I like to take winter off to travel and do other things.
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