Xgrnd,

Keep them moist, not wet. No extra care other than dont keep them to cold, they should not be let dry out (moist paper towel), and they could last up to a year.

Many thanks Jose,

I have them in the veggie crisper in the fridge (I hope that is not too cold)??

Cecil

Use your "eyes" when storing your cuttings in the frig. Let them tell you what is needed. Start out by placing your cuttings in a FREEZER (better than a Storage Bag) baggie along with a slightly damp paper towel. Do not wrap each individual cutting....just have it in the bag. LOOK for signs of excess moisture ON THE SURFACE of your cuttings.....if you see the surface really wet....remove the damp paper towel and replace it with a dry towel. You want to only see a little moisture condensation on the surface of the bag's wall.......and not heavy moisture on the surface of your cuttings. Later on if you no longer see any traces of moisture on the BAG's INNEER WALL SURFACE, remove the dry paper towel and replace it with a slightly damp one. You want to keep just a little bit of moisture in your bag without it wetting your cuttings.

Also, do not confuse STAINS on your paper towel with mold.....they are not the same. Cuttings will often stain a paper towel.....this is harmless. When rooting your cuttings in a baggie (use a STORAGE not a freezer bag) look for mold on the Surface of your cuttings & on the buds, tips and cut areas.....do not get overly concerned with towel staining or a bit of mold growth that you may see on your towels. If you cleaned your cuttings properly then you will have removed most of their food off of your cuttings so mold is unlikely to grow on the cuttings themselves. If your see definite mold on your towel....change it. If you see mold on your cutting surfaces...clean it.

Remember even under refrigeration storage conditions mold needs ALL THREE of the following for it to exist....

1. The presence of micro-organisms (mold spores,fungi, yeast, or bacteria 2) a food source for any of these micro-organisms and 3) uncontrolled moisture.

If you remove ANY ONE of those three items, you will not see any mold develop.

.........understand this concept and use strategies that affect those three things during the rooting process and you too should be able to prevent mold like I routinely do.

Dan

Thanks Dan,

I have did what you recommend! It has stopped my mold problem completely.

Again thanks to all for your help.
Cecil

I 100% agree with Dan.

Thanks guys I learn a lot today as I have had mold issues too.

I'm trying a different rooting method this year to avoid mold and will post some picks if it works out. At this point I'm getting some leaves but can't see roots yet.

If you're into experimenting, I would still recommend to give a shot with Leon's suggestion of using saran wrap vs. paper towel. With the saran wrap, as long as you don't open your bag, you should not see any moisture loss, so there should be no need for adding moisture (by way of paper towel) ... unless your bag is sealed incorrectly or has breathing holes/other holes in it from the factory.

Using Leon's suggestion is the only way I found to stay 100% free of mold and mildew with the least amount of effort, and I had no worries of whether the bag was too wet or too dry. I used a couple of variations of the paper towel method with the saran wrap method on my later locally taken cuttings, which will be taken out next week after 5-6 weeks in the refrigerator. So far, I have zero mold on the saran wrap cuttings, along with no shrivelling or dessication. Maybe 10%-20% instance of mold outbreak on paper towel cuttings (and there is no confusion on my part about the normal brown/tan staining you will see from healthy cuttings versus pink and white/green you see with mold).

Maybe this is a small margin enough not to worry about it, I don't know. Personally, I want to see 99%+ absence of mold outbreak on all of my cuttings and the least effort possible.

Thanks Jason,
If mold shows up I will try the method you are talking about (saran wrap)

Cecil

To be clear, the saran wrap is used for storing the cutting in the refrigeator. not for rooting? Thanks

Thanks ejp3

Cecil

I have zero mold issues when rooting my fig cuttings. Repeat....ZERO MOLD ISSUES. That does not happen by chance..... it happens by design. You too can have that if you follow the very simple suggestions that I've made in the Improved Baggie Method.

I spent a whole year conducting many experiments dealing with mold. I even developed a special method to produce moldy cuttings so that I could have cuttings for control samples and ones to use for evaluating my chemical formulations. Those mold treating chemicals that I developed are not needed if you follow the Improved Baggie Method.

Another very simple and practical improvement to the baggie method suggested many times by me is to PUT YOUR BAGGIES IN A LARGE CLOSED PLASTIC CONTAINER when you do decide to root them. Sounds rather silly to some and is often ignored by rooters as they see no purpose to this. Trust me on this.....there is good scientific reasons for doing this. You will see less mold if you do that simple suggestion as per the Improved Baggie Method. That method CONSISTENTLY produces a very high success rate of producing plantable trees......not just producing a couple of roots on a stick. Roots on a stick and plantable trees are two entirely different things. It is easy to get roots to appear on a stick. It is harder to turn that stick into a tree form that is ready for planting into its final location.

Since I get most of my sticks to turn into trees, I must be doing something right. I know my suggestions are valid. In one DOCUMENTED experiment on fig4fun, I produced well over 100% (likely 233%) new plantable trees using the supposedly hard to root Marseilles VS strain.

As with any method or procedure the devil is in the details and how closely you follow it. Change or modify any parts of the procedure or method and that could result in a different outcome.

Dan
I love turning sticks into trees..........

Ed -- Yes, saran wrap only for storage in the fridge. I use Dan's method for rooting (sans putting the baggies in a box), but Leon's method of storing in the fridge until ready to root. I know Dan says there is no mold with his method in the fridge, but this was not my experience. To get no mold, it takes work, constant monitoring for me, but I dunno. Leon's saran wrap method requires no effort and no keeping an eye out. Just need to make sure you don't have ice accumulation, but this is the case with any method.

Just a bit of trivia. I used to root everything in water. My Mom still roots everything in water, usually a 1 gallon plastic jug with the cutting tented in a plastic baggy so it doesn't dehydrate while waiting for roots to form.

For the last 25 years I have had trouble. It got so bad that even for simple stuff like avocado seeds I was taking them to my mom who used the same toothpick-coffee cup method I was trying to use. She had nearly a 100% success rate and I don't think I was getting 10%.

Started getting into the figs in just the last year or two. Just about everything I tried had a low success rate including most of the variations on a baggy. My Mom continued on with her water rooting despite my asking her to try other techniques. She didn't want to switch from something that worked.

I finally got it: Using 'exactly' the same technique but something had to be different. I had moved to the country 25 years ago! I first thought it was water quality since I am on a well and she uses city water. I ended up buying distilled water and purified water and still had a relatively poor success rate. I could add an anti fungal agent and get slightly better results but still no where as high as my Mom. I am now convinced on some level that the major difference between her success and my failures is because she is using city water which is chlorinated.

It seems to be the obvious conclusion for now since concensus is mold and steps to prevent are the most important steps to getting successful rooting. It may add an extra detail to the general advice on cutting storage and rooting techniques.

I'll hit it a little harder this spring. I haven't always used the soap wash followed by dilute bleach rinse. I will try rooting cleaned samples in distilled water again. There could be some odd gotcha like soap and bleach knocks out 99% of the bugs and the chlorinated tap water keeps the other 1% from being a problem.

Rick

Dan,

I was planning on starting my cuttings in the middle of Feb. but another member has told me that one of the cultivars he sent me was rather hard to root, so I am going to start those today with your "improved baggy method".....fingers crossed :-)

Thanks for the great info.
Cecil

Cecil good luck with your cutting. I've used Dan's method with great success but as he just quoted "the devil is in the details. I have a couple of rare one's to start myself and I have no qualms about using Dan's method with great confidence.

I've around 50 or so cuttings in the fridge that I will be starting soon, maybe this week end. Some have been in the fridge for better than 3 months and I haven't seen any mold on any of them. I checked them last night again just to be sure. From my very limited experience I've learn that the important things are cleanliness, humidity, air and warmth. Cleanliness I get by washing in Dawn AB and then bleach. Humidity I get by wrapping cuttings in lightly damp paper towel in a baggie. Heat is provided by room temp of around 70 plus degrees and moderated by have the baggies in a large plastic container. Baggies are opened daily to air out and check for mold. I had no mold on any cuttings at this stage. I've had a couple mold after putting in cups which I treated with peroxide. Wish all the best.

From the bayou,
"gene"

Thanks Gene,

I have already performed step #1 & 2 (Dawn AB +10% Clorox

I have the big container with lid ready, the Wife is picking me up some storage bags in a little bit, I think I'm good to go, If I missed anything please holler at me.
Cecil

I thought Dan said freezer bags...not storage.

Little John,

Dan says to use Freezer bags for the Fridge!

here is what he says for rooting

"When rooting your cuttings in a baggie (use a STORAGE not a freezer bag)"

Cecil

Details, details, and more details. :)

Get them right and all will be right.

"gene"

Gene,

You listened well and I am glad to see your increasing confidence. You will see even less mold and better roots when you use UPM/coarse perlite (be sure to use the COARSE variety of perlite...it makes a big difference) for your rooting mix. When you pick up your bag of UPM, I will give you a bottle of one of my mold treating chemicals that I developed; so that, you will be able to dab it with a q-tip on any mold that might raise its ugly head. Best of luck to you and Cecil and all other rooters trying to turn your sticks into trees.

Cecil,

That plastic bin will help you, as it provides some TEMPERATURE STABILIZATION which is another important improvement to the baggie method. Temperature stabilization helps keeps uncontrolled moisture from forming on the surface of the cuttings that are in those bags and helps prevent mold/rot.....it is a very simple and practical improvement and one of those "details" that should not be overlooked.

Dan

Thanks Dan,

I hope I remembered your method, here is how I remembered your method.
#1 clean with Dawn AB
#2 clean with 10% Clorox and let air dry.
#3 put cuttings in the Fridge in Freezer bags(check once in a while for mold)
#4 use STORAGE bags for the rooting in a plastic bin with lid on in house room temps only (no extra bottom heat, etc,etc,

That is what I have did, did I pretty well cover it right or not???.

Many, many Thanks
Cecil

That's pretty close. I am checking my notes and re-writing the method. I will have all of those important details CAPITALIZED. I know what I had posted on the other fig forum was much too long, argumentative, and confusing to many.

Dan

Thanks Dan,

I just checked my Local Feed Store to see if they still have the UPM...They said yes, the only Perlite I can find around here is what Walmart/Lowes has, I hope it is coarse enough.

Cecil

Cecil,

It must state COARSE on the bag otherwise it is the regular stuff which is not a good as the COARSE variety for rooting. It is fairly easy to find in my area as most Nurseries have it. What I am able to find comes in a large sized bag.....looks like a small bale of hay....but only weighs a couple of pounds.

Dan

I might have to go to Tyler to find it!
But I WILL find it.

Thanks
Cecil

Dan, I must say you're a great teacher. Thanks for taking the time to help us novices out. It's much appreciated.

Do you have any idea when the UPM will be in. I have a bunch to start.

My wife laughs each time the postman drops me a "pack of fig sticks". Today I put some "sticks" in the mail to send out and she said "oh they go out also".

The thaw has started and the fish should be biting so why am I at work????

"gene"

Gene.

Denise told me that if the truck delivers this week (depends on the number of delivery orders in the area)....should be in Friday. If not, it will be in next week. Please email your telephone number. I lost it when my house phone quit working and lost all of the numbers that I had stored in my phone's.....phone book.

Dan

Okay, I have 2 precious cuttings of a cultivar that I reeeeeally want and have been coaxing them along in baggies/storage container. I will admit that I have found little patches of mold but have cleaned it off, changed paper towel and storage bag, and after 6 VERY long weeks, VOILA, I have both tiny leaves and tiny roots on both cuttings.

How large/long do the roots have to be before I can/should move them to cups?

C.J.

C.J.

If it was me I would cup them up right away, but be gentle, the little roots are really fragile.and put a baggie over them to maintain humidity for a while.

Good luck.
Cecil

C.J., Cecil has it right, do it now. If you wait much longer the moisture in the baggie will touch the leaves causing them to rot.
"gene"

Thanks Cecil and Gene. I'll get right to in a few minutes.

Yes, I learned the hard way just how fragile those little roots are when I cut my first air-layer last summer. When I removed the plastic bag from the root ball, I discovered that the potting mix had gotten a little too dry and it just fell away from the roots. When I put the root mass in my hand, many of the roots just broke away from the stem. Absolutely terrifying.

C.J.

Hi,

Is this thread still live?

Does this system work for other plants, or just figs?

What is UPM? I've looked it up and found about 30 different meanings, but none relate to compost.

I appreciate all the help you can give me,

Many thanks,

Astrid