Beautiful, & what healthy roots! How long after you make the cutting do you plant it in the ground?

What about those no leave green buds? What happened there?
I also have a few ~1" diameter twigs still in the moist
paltic bag.
George (NJ)

George, I think the no leaf thig is due to being wrapped up enough, to had insufficient light. Much like a shoot pushing up from under the soil line.

Thistle, They go to bags, and then to clear cups, and then to 1 gallon, and when they outgrow a 5 gallon, they go in ground. These are to big for cups, so they went to liter water bottles. I do not know how fast they will grow (hence the experiment). I am hoping they will able to get somewhere near two seasons growth (in size) in one season (recognizing that the first season of a regular size rooting cutting often doesn't have that much growth).

Diego: I've always had good luck with large cuttings--probably because of the vigor contained within. I've stuck hunks of wood 2"-3" in diameter in a gallon pot, (with mix), and although it took a while, they all budded and leafed.

Taling about large cuttings: You've probably seen me post this on the forum in the past, but 5 years ago, or so, a lady in Mississippi posted here that her son tried to dig an old Fig tree from her yard, I believe because she had to move.

She said the trunk was as big as a man's bicep, so I'm assuming 4"-6", or so. She said he dug for nearly a week, after work each day, trying to get the whole thing, and he ended up getting frustrated because the roots were so deep--he had a giant excavation around the tree, and still hadn't got to the bottom of the root.

Finally he cut it with an ax, and cut three sections of the thick trunk, about 3 feet each (according to her). She said he took two and left her one, which she "planted" in the ground at her new place.

Cracked me up--I could just see a 6" hunk of a Fig tree sticking out of the ground, with people standing around waiting for some green to show.

She said it started budding, though, and grew into a nice Fig tree at her new house. Biggest "cutting" I ever heard of being rooted.

I read somewhere, years ago, that in France they take 2-3" dia branches about 4 feet long, and bury them 2-3' deep in the ground where they want the tree to grow, and that was how they planted a new orchard.

04/04/2007 update

The best success with rooting fig cuttings was with thick cuttings such as the ones you have there.
With very little effort they would root for me. I normally stick a 2' tall, 1"-2" diameter cutting in a 1 gallon container, filled with 80% perlite, 20% potting mix. I keep them in the greenhouse. and they would normally root fine.
The problem is, finding cuttings of this size. Luckily I saved very few from pruning my tree last fall.

Bass

Hi,
Exactly what do you use for the rooting mix? Thanks.

After rooting in a bag, 60% perlite, 40% compost

Jon, Couldn't tell from the pics, do you have drain holes in the bottom?

Elder, ALWAYS. All fig cntainers must have drain holes.

What's the largest cutting aonyone ever tried bagging? :)

Mine were 18-24" long and up to about 1-1/4 dia.

Awesome and very inspiring.I am going to try some cutting's with this method as well.

pitangadiego, it seems that your fig cuttings seem to root much faster than mines. So I think you have a great way of doing it. Getting motivation from your results, I will eventually switch to perlite and compost too, since my cuttings take months to root in the ground.