PJC3, I am with you on the Davis cuttings. This is my second year of trying the Davis cutting and I have had very poor success at getting them to root. Out of nine varities from Davis I got one each of Osborn Prolific, Black fig, and Nazarti to root and leaf out. The verdict is still out on a golden Celeste and a Trojano. My own opinion is that they are weakened by the FMV. You are luckey you were not out any postage. Mine cost over fifty dollars to ship!! I may try cutting from Davis one more time next year, but that will be the last time.

Vern

I have not tried UCDavis cuttings yet but I am on the fence as to wheather I should do it or not. I have accepeted the fact that it is going to be about impossible to expand my fig collection and avoid FMV entirely.... but some on the forum seem to think that the version of FMV that is throughout the UCDavis colletion is particularly bad. Do any of you have an opinion on that? Is all FMV the same??
Its not much trouble to fill out the request form and the cuttings are free... just pay shipping. I'm willing to take a shot at it each year to incease my collection and trading stock.
Wait a minute!! $50. to ship?? How is that?

I had fairly good results from my UCD cuttings this year.
I received:

3 Black Fig 1
1 Black Madiera
1 Ischia black
2 Alma

One of the 3 Black fig 1's has several leaves, one still has 2 green tips and roots but no leaves, one didn't make it (my fault-dried out).
The Black Madiera has 2 small leaves, very slow growth. No growth in a month but I have hope it will survive.
The Black Ischia has 3 small leaves, very slow growth too.
The 2 Almas have done the best. There is about 8" growth on each, several branches and many leaves.

I do not see any hint of FMV on the existing leaves of any of my cuttings. All leaves look healthy. I'll post pictures when I get a moment.

Sue

Can someone post the UC Davis site ? No luck with google.

cazimere,

Is this what you want?

Cecil

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis

I'm a newbie to figs and propogating cuttings.

I received 3 Osborne Prolific. Two of which I bagged and the third I cut in half to experiment around with other methods.

What seemed like a long time, 4 or 6 weeks, only 1 in the bag started rooting, but after a few days the roots rotted. I thought I'd wait until the weekend to place in perlite. It was too late after a few days.

The cutting I cut in half I put the top half in a cup of perlite and the bottom half in a cup of water.

The Perlite cutting was doing well, but I think I got too anxious when I transferred to a larger container and set outside to harden. That cutting died.

The last (half-) cutting is still alive on a window sill.

Success rate: 0.5 out of 3.

I attributed the failures due to my inexperience, excitement (I was probably checking too often and fiddling with the cuttings too much) and the colder than normal weather when I started the cuttings, even though my house stayed about 67 to 70... it just seemed too cold.

Are Osborne Prolifics slow growers?

Thank you Cecil :)

There is no question that many of the UCD offerings are infected by FMV but the large majority of the plants that I have grown from UCD stock have never exhibited symptoms of FMV.

Here are the results I have had with this years UCD cuttings.
Armenian 2 of 3 (mild FMV Symptoms)
Beall 3 of 3
Col de Dame 3 of 3
Early Violett 2 of 3
Giant Amber 4 of 3 (I cut a long cutting in half)
Ischia Black 1 of 1 (FMV Symptoms)
Yellow Nechea 3 of 3
Native De Argentile 2 of 3
Tena 2 of 3 (Mild FMV Symtoms)
UCR 278-128 2 of 3

I use Jon's bag method until I see root initials. I then put my cuttings into a half miracle grow and half turface soil mixture. When the plants are ready I put the plant directly into Dr. Tapla's soil mixer. I don't mess with removing the miracle grow turface mixer because I believe the plant is too tender. I wait until the plant has actively grown for a full season and the plant is dormant before I mess with the roots.

I hope this helped.
Vinnie

I used Jon's plastic bag method to root. Once they root, I placed them into transaprent 32 oz cup of 100% perlite. Cups the cuttings sits in will have holes to drain away extra moisture. Now I also put the cup that has the cutting over another cup to catch any water that drains out to maintain humidity. The cuttings sits in the boiler room until I am happy with leafing. Then I acclimatise it to outside setting on window sill for 2 weeks at least. After the leafing have turned green, I dig a hole & buried 3/4 the leafed cutting in the cup outside. Shade is provided & the cutting gets about 2-3 hours of morning sun.
Note -- when I buried the cup 3/4 way up, I make sure the drain holes are enlarged. Once I see good amount of roots coming from 32oz cups, I pot them into either 1 or 3 gallon pots depending on availability. Sometimes I even put about 2 cm of top soil on top of the perlite when I have them sitting in the cup outside. It had worked great for me.

I had nearly 100% success again this year with UC Davis cuttings. To recap: I put the cuttings in sand in large clear plastic cups with 3 nail holes in the bottom for drainage. It is impossible to overwater them, in my experience, so I water every day when it is hot, every second day in cooler weather. I keep them in the shade outdoors until they have vigorous roots, then pot them in potting soil and let them recover. Once growth starts again I gradually move them into the sun. I got all 6 varieties to grow this year.

This method doesn't require a California climate. You can put the sand-potted cuttings in an orchidarium or other mini-greenhouse and give them lots of light and warmth. Once they start sprouting, though, I move them outdoors, as I have lost some to rot in the past.

Try it. This method is easy and it works.

Brian

My UC Davis cuttings

Col De Dame 6
Enderub 1
Mary Lane 5
Black Madeira 4 (one cutting received)
Yellow Neches 1
Alma 3
Barnisotte 0 (one cutting received)

There is still one barnisotte with a little green, but no roots. I really had a problem with over watering--that's what happened to a lot of good looking cuttings. I used super phosphate and magnesium sulfate on the black madeira once they had begun to grow and it seemed to help.