Figs are the easiest to grow from cuttings. You do not need anything fancy, simply lightly scarify the outer bark down to expose the green cambium, and plant outdoors in a sunny location as soon as you get them if the ground is not frozen, protect from foot traffic and critters digging! Leave only one or two buds above ground. Best soil is amended with river sand and compost about 50/50. In spring they only need watering each week as buds break out. Allow a full growing season then transplant to final location. Do not use and sealants or parafilm and do not exposed cambium around the top two buds that you keep above soil surface.
Dennis
Kent, Wa
Ok if the ground is frozen, store them in your fridge until very early spring when you can plant them, of course you could grow them in a sunny window with a grow light, but why bother! The least effort the better with figs, it’s better to plant outdoors so you do not need to disturb the emerging roots as they grow the full season.
Dennis
Fig cuttings are pretty easy if you know what the non-negotiables are.
Your most important factors are:
Proper temperature (70-80f is ideal)
Proper soil moisture (moistened to just before you can wring water out)
Consistent soil moisture and temperature (stability makes the whole process go faster)
Immobility (no jostling or tugging to see if there are roots)
The easiest way for a beginner to acheive all of these is with the fig pop method (see link below). Fig pops are easy to keep the moisture level just right (no drying out or overwatering), are easy to put in a good temperature, and removes the temptation to wiggle or tug on the cuttings.
I highly recommend rooting hormone, preferably 1 or 3 parts per thousand IBU. It’s not strictly necessary, but it makes the roots happen faster. Rooting cuttings is a race to get as much root growth as possible before the top grows more than what a cutting without roots can support.
As you all can see, I should have been better prepared and had all this done BEFORE I bought them.
I’m in learning.
Some friends bought me some very mainstream stuff because they knew I wanted to try figs. They got me: Brown Turkey, Chicago Hardy, Olympian, & Celeste…I have no idea if any of those will be early enough for me, we’ll see.
I just rooted fig cuttings for the first time last year, so bear that in mind. I followed the instructions (without rooting hormone) in the video below and had a high success rate. I kept the cuttings wrapped in plastic or ziplock bags in the refrigerator from about December until rooting them around March 1. I did check on them occasionally while they were in the fridge to make sure there was no mold or any other problem. It seems there are many methods that could be used successfully. This is what worked in my case. Good luck.
Dormant cuttings will keep in the fridge. The longer you store the success rate decreases, but not very much in the first few months. I like to start indoors 2-3 months before last frost. Much earlier and you need a good amount of space and light to keep them happy before you can move them outside.
I like to keep it simple. This method gets me good success without much futzing with them.
Airy potting mix - 50 percent perlite + coco/peat. I feel like I’ve read 1 part water to 5 parts mix (by volume) but as said before, you want the mix damp enough to form a ball and hold together, but not so wet that you can squeeze water out of them. It’s easier to add water than remove it.
Treepots (4x4x9) work best for me- they are big deep enough that you can keep the cutting out of the saturated portion at the bottom and have enough space to get a well established plant before having to uppot.
I think sealing a cut top is helpful (a quick wrap of parafilm or wood glue). Some parafilm the entire exposed portion but I haven’t found that necessary.
Soak the cuttings in warm water for a few hours or overnight before sticking them to rehydrate as much as possible.
Keep them in a warm area for best results. I leave them exposed to ambient air the whole time otherwise you’ll have to deal with acclimating the leaves to lower humidity.
Don’t add water until the pots feel light (unless it’s really dry or in a drafty area this will be 2-3 weeks). This is subjective but you’ll get the feel after a bit. If you have a kitchen scale, weigh one pot and use that as the benchmark. The worst thing you can do is over water.
They’ll hit a point where water becomes the limiting growth factor, at which point they get moved over to a different Tupperware and are bottom watered.
Hi everyone! I have a general question that I thought of while researching winter sowing. Some people apply Osmocote or other slow-release fertilizers to their native seeds when they winter sow, and it is apparently safe and doesn’t burn their roots. This had me thinking about fig cutting nutrition. I’m thinking of trying it with Pro Mix HP but also don’t want to doom all of my cuttings. Has anyone ever tried putting in Osmocote or other slow-release fertilizers into their medium?
I used pro mix last year for all my fig cuttings, and it has a small amount of starter fertilizer which I think is enough for their initial growth. So adding some osmocote or something probably wouldn’t hurt?
Once mine were up and growing, well rooted, I stirred a small handful of pelleted chicken manure and a little compost into the top of the pots (I used tree pots). If I needed to keep them in that size of pot for like all summer I would probably repeat that fertilizer, and maybe use something like fish emulsion if they needed it
