Before I stored mine in the fridge crisper drawer… back in Dec… when I collected my cuttings… I soaked them In a light bleach solution for a few minutes and scrubbed them gently with a wash cloth.
I rinsed them good then let them dry b4 storing in the fridge in zip lock bag.
They still looked good in February when I started the rooting process.
I have been soaking in 10% bleach in a cup while preparing medium. I dry in a paper towel for a few minutes, wrap in parafilm and then bury. I have not rinsed or done anything else. This is my first year so can’t give any long term feedback but seem to have excellent rooting percentage without mold issues.
Gnats I need to solve. BTI hasnt been effective.
Using diatomaceous earth will probably help with the gnats.
The guy that I watched on youtube… put his medium in a large container… to moisten it… it was bone dry…
He boiled the water… and then used boiling water to moisten his medium… he said that would kill any fungus gnat eggs in the medium.
I did mine the same… and today is day 21 for me… no sign of fungus gnats yet.
Ps… I do grow some ginseng… Forest farming… and when you purchase stratified ginseng seed from a seed supplier… it is recommended that you soak that seed in a 10% clorox solution for 10 minutes… then rinse it good and dry off some before storing it or planting it. I did that for 10 years or more… and germination rates were great.
Unfortunately, DE hasn’t really helped much. Some I used straight DE. Others I used coir and perlite mix. And the last have a pine bark mulch and potting soil mix topped with the coir which is topped with DE. I have seen gnats dancing happily on all of these.
I had heard positive things on mosquito bits but have not been successful while watering with a mix. I have been top watering which hasn’t helped. I do see gnats underneath when I move the tree pots.
Maybe next year I can boil them away.
Hmmm… Have you tried moving your operation to a new location that might have less gnats? Also maybe try beer /apple cider vinegar in a bowl like for fruit flies?
Bti is most effective against the first couple of instars of fungus gnat larvae, but doesn’t do much to older, bigger maggots. If you already have a good infestation going, you’re going to have a hard time cleaning it up with Bti alone—unless, perhaps, you’re in a situation in which you can drench the media fully and frequently with a potent Bti preparation (and with cuttings, obviously, you can’t do this). If you’re dealing with a suspect medium, then yes, sterilization before using is the best route.
The most effective thing which I’ve tried against fungus gnats is spinosad (often in a mix with Bti, which I usually get by soaking Mosquito Bits in water—at a rate of 4-5 tbs. per gallon of water—for several hours). But again, you have to drench deeply—and probably at least a couple of times if you’ve already acquired an infestation.
And that’s the problem with cuttings. If you place cuttings in already-infested media—or media which is about to become infested because of proximity to other sources of infestation—, you’re going to have something of a Catch-22 situation: if you don’t get the pesticide in there, you won’t get rid of the gnat larvae and they’ll likely damage the cuttings; and if you do, you’ll overwater and ruin the cuttings that way.
Early in the winter, I started a few cuttings in some Pro-Mix I’d left sitting outside in a bucket, and didn’t bother to “clean” it first. Big mistake: it had become infested while outside, and every cutting placed in it failed, rotting from the bottom up and becoming host to a swarm of slimy maggots (which I promptly destroyed before they could become adults). The larvae likely attacked the young roots and root initials; they can also vector various pathogenic fungi, making their feeding doubly damaging. Fortunately, the sticks were nothing important—just some of my own cuttings I was playing around with. Some of the same cuttings that I started later on in clean media did fine.
EDIT: Yellow sticky traps do help some—especially in conjunction with pesticides that attack the larvae—by decreasing the population of breeding adults. But to reiterate: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I use Gnatrol, which I bought a bunch of a few years ago when I could find smaller sizes. It looks mostly like larger sizes available now. I don’t know if it is exactly the same as the BT people use, but I find it quite effective. I use it in the water I first wet out my potting soil with, then every few waterings. When I’ve brought in other plants or had other issues, I’ve actually found leaving a few of my sundews on the shelf with the lights takes care of quite a few. Other carnivorous plants, like nepenthes seem to work as well, but the sundews seem the most effective.
Hey what do people feel is the optimal temperature now? My cuttings are now at 75-80F. I have fried some in the past due to underestimating how much heat my mat was putting out… now I use an IR gun to make sure I am measuring the cutting temperature.
You need that temperature range to “wake up” cuttings out of dormancy. Then I like to drop it lower to mid 60F. Too quickly of the grow is not good with me. Lower temperature promotes root growth instead of leaf.
For people who have greenhouse, anywhere 60-70F would be just fine.
I have the tops about 10F cooler than the bottoms to minimize leaf sprouting. But maybe I should get the whole thing a bit cooler in a few days.
Re: fungus gnats and/or moldy medium, would it hurt the cuttings to water with hydrogen peroxide or a solution? And would that help with the problem?
I do not think you should water it with that solution. That may just kill any roots you may have.
One myth in rooting cutting is the sterile media. Certainly that is good for indoor use. But when I root cuttings outdoors with compost or garden soil, I did not have any mold problem. So I’m thinking compost or natural soil may have some anti-fungal agents in it. I do not recommend using them indoors due to the risk of more insects etc. I plan to root cuttings outdoors again with regular potting mix with compost, sand and some recycled potting mix (peat moss).
If we start rooting indoors right now, the outdoor rooting is just one or two months later than indoor rooting. For warmer zones (7 and 8), it is not a huge difference.
if usually gone for roomtemp. So around 64 ish F
If also cooked cuttings with a heat mat.
Keep in mind that changing the airflow over the medium when using a heat mat also changes the temperature. Since evaporation is such an effective cooling method.
Sending shockwaves throughout the fig community, just kidding. I started 2 dozen cuttings and than decided don’t need any more trees, way too many already, end up pitching them out. The reason why, because I thought my inground were toast from cold temps during February but unseasonably warm weather in January.
So far don’t show any damage, next few days when the next cold front comes in with leaves starting…….back to last spring!
My container fig tree’s already leaving out, always ready, course a hailstorm coup do major damage. It’s just plain fun growing valuable fruit trees!!
I use BTI liquid mix when watering about half the time but I also sprinkled mosquito bits on the surface on the theory that it lasts longer and washes it down over time. So far so good. Added a layer of sand for good measure.
As far as I know DE only works if it’s dry, just like sand, people put a layer of it at the top, when the adults try to enter the soil the dry DE harms them. That is why it works better indoors than outdoors. Also it’s supposed to be the powder kind for controlling gnats. There is a much courser version too. Once there is already the root gnats in the soil, the DE would do nothing.
Today is day 22 for my fig cuttings in 4x9 tree pots, on bottom heat in dark location.
As you can see even with no sunshine…some green bud swell is happening. Hopefully rooting is happening too.
After a month… going to transition them to my sunny window. In another day or two will check the holes in the bottom of those pots to see if any roots make their way out there. That would be exciting for sure.
Exciting! Yesterday was week 3 of rooting my cuttings, I fished some out who had robust root systems. I am a bit nervous, I have one treasured cutting of Bass’ Favorite Fig and there were no roots yet. I know it’s early days still but I’m wondering if anyone knows if BFF is particularly difficult or needs to be babied in any way? I didn’t find very much in the forums.
