This is my first time rooting figs. And I have two fruits already. My gut says pull these off so more energy can go into roots before I pot him up and move him outside in real spring. What say y’all?
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Looks like it was rooted upside down ???
Does that work ?
You are probably right on removing the fruit… it needs to focus on roots and then later on shoots, leaves.
That must be a good breba variety.
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Ahh! Oops. Well, it seems to be working?
Crud. I wonder if it’ll work long term. I don’t even recall how I decided which end to put down, but I remember I did consider both ends.
It will work long term. Those shoots just need to turn up and they will. It will give a neat looking plant. In the long run you won’t be able to tell.
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Most of the time, the left-over cutting stump will just disappear. It will likely be replaced by new shoots coming underground from the crown. Or fig plants sucker easily. If you plant fig trees in ground, you’ll have to constantly remove those runner shoots. You can easily re-train a new shoot to replace any damaged shoot.
@ RubyTue
By looking at the new leaves, they are curving somehow. Your cutting is under water stress. You need to examine the roots. It is not taking water nicely.
Are there any roots visible? There is a strong tendency for fig cuttings to want to grow roots at the bottom of the cutting, regardless of what orientation they are placed. I callus mine sideways in tubs, and the base flares and forms roots much more than the top cut, despite being horizontal.
The recommended way to callus cuttings in beds is to bury them upside down, so the tops are deeper and cooler to keep the buds dormant, while the bottoms are in warmer soil and form a flared callus and roots despite being upside down.
I think you might find a callus flare underneath the plastic wrap, but maybe not if it dried out.
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Not visible. But, if I lightly pull on it, it’s feels like it has roots. Maybe they just haven’t spread to the edge of the pot so I can see them?
It’s DC-2. I was just re-looking it up, and breba is mentioned a lot. So yes, I guess it is. I just got it bc it says caramel. I’m a sucker for all things caramel.
@RubyTue – love caramel too… please do report back on how it taste once you get a few good ones.
I saw a pic of one with ripe breba figs at the end of April (in Louisiana)… and the DC is for Dead Cat… evidently when this fig variety was developed they found a DC in the greenhouse…
I read up a little on fig cuttings rooted upside down… and one person (who seemed to know what he was talking about) recommended that when you plant it, you plant it laying down… Get the roots covered good with a mound of dirt, but have the cutting laying down right on top of the dirt.
Shoots that come up on that (Up, Sunny side) will grow and do well, and the rest of your fig cutting will eventually most likely root to the ground. Sort of like a mini step over fig… rooted and laying down instead of pointing up…
Not sure if that is the best thing to do but they talked like that might help. It may be fine just as it is too… Hope so.
Good Luck
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Thanks! I still have a few weeks before things go outside. Which reminds me, I need to find some new nursery pots soon.
The guy I was watching fig rooting vids (millennial gardener) on youtube… was using those 4x9 tree pots and he listed greenhousemegastore.com as his source for pots of all kinds.
I got my 4x9 tree pots from there, and some very nice 2 gal pots too. Quality looks good, and they got them to me quick too.
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My fig and mulberry cuttings are still in the dark… with bottom heat… but are pushing some green buds now. Hopefully they have roots too… but can’t tell with these black tree pots. I lifted each one this eve and checked the holes in the bottom of the pots… no roots have made it out there yet.
Good to see the green buds pushing though.
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I’ll share my other rooting success/failures. I lost 2/3 of what I tried to root. This was before I had the half clue I do now (not a full clue, hence the upside down rooting). But at least some (strawberry verte) are doing ok. The lack of clue means I’ll probably lose more when I separate them 
You should try covering at least the ends of each exposed stick to reduce the chances of them drying out next time. Also - it is hard, but resist the urge to pull on any of them to check for roots.
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It looks to me like the dead cuttings had cold damage. It really would not have made a difference if you tried something else.
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I think the problem was I had the lid on the prop box too long. Either a light issue or maybe a fungus got them. They were good, until they weren’t. And I kept them covered until they all leafed out. By then, too late. The ones that died are unnamed varieties that are rumored to do OK most winters around here (zone 7a).
Oh well, first time trying, you live, you learn. Their parents are still around, so I shall be able to try again.
Oh, and “pull” almost sounds more strong. It was more of a nudge to check for any resistance. How else does one check it they’ve rooted, assuming you don’t have clear pots? Or when they roots aren’t to the edge of clear containers?
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@BobVance was kind enough to send me some Reservoir and Black Bethlehem cuttings a few weeks ago. I did as much internet research as I could, watched videos, and dutifully potted them up in their own 1 gallon nursery pots, with nice well draining potting mix. I watered just until the mix was damp, but I could not squeeze any water out of the mix. I put cuttings in the the pots into little trays and saucers so I could water sparingly from the bottom (plastic chinese takeout containers fit perfectly!), I put light filtering grocery bags over them, and tucked the edges under the trays so that moisture wouldn’t escape. I lined them up along the back edge of my bedroom wall, away from drafty windows and direct sunlight, and where the temperature would be a steady 70ish degrees. I really thought I did everything right.
When I ran out of nursery pots, I had ONE reservoir cutting leftover that I didn’t know what to do with. At first, I stuck it in the earth outside for a few days, because the weather was above freezing, and I figured that if it grew it would be a nice bonus. But we were going to have a random freezing night, so I pulled it out of the ground and stuck into a random philodendron houseplant pot on top of a bookshelf next to a drafty old window, in direct sunlight when we open the curtains during the day. I live in a 120 year old house, with many original windows, so the temperatures can fluctuate wildly near the windows.
Guess which one has a nice healthy looking bud right now?
Hint: It’s NOT the babied ones!
About a week after potting them, I took the bags off of the babied cutting pots to check if they needed any more water. There was mold on top of the potting mix!!! I panicked and watered with a solution of hydrogen peroxide, to kill the mold (before reading in this thread that that is not recommended). The mold went away, and has not come back. I didn’t put the bags back over the nursery pots, because I didn’t want to create another mold-friendly environment. After the H2O2, I flushed them with regular water and let them drain out until there were no more drips before putting them back in their trays along my back bedroom wall. So far, no mold, but still no growth. The cuttings are still looking greenish under the skin, so hopefully some will pull through?
Bob Vance: I feel so bad that I may have wasted your generosity and killed most of the cuttings! But, at least I have the one random reservoir in the philodendron pot, so at least it was not all in vain! Fingers crossed that some of the other cuttings make it!
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I root in tall treepots, so I don’t know until the tops have really taken off (if a cutting gets—and keeps—several good-sized leaves, it’s usually rooted) and/or I see a root poking from the drain hole. 
If their owners will permit it, try taking some green cuttings from these local figs this season and rooting them outdoors. I think you’ll find it simpler than indoors dormant rooting. I don’t do a lot of indoors rooting in the winter any more because 1.) I don’t need many more figs; and 2.) it’s much easier to just clone my own figs with air layers.
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Back on Feb 21… I was working in the yard and found a nice fig cutting that I evidently dropped in the edge of the yard last December when I collected my fig cuttings.
The buds looked good had greened up some… I cut the top and bottom off and had nice green wood there.
I have a 2 gal pot over in the edge of the woods… that I planted some Persimmon seeds in last fall… and I just stuck that fig cutting in that pot… 3 nodes under 1 up…
I sealed the top cut with treekote… and put some paarafilm on most of the above ground part (except the bud).
I have the bud facing away from the sun now… but after a few more weeks will spin that pot around so that bud gets some good sunshine.
It has been in that pot 17 days now.
Will be interesting to see if it lives and does well.
Hopefully I get some Persimmon seedlings from that too.
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