This fall, I finally researched more about my fig tree and decided to prune and winterize it. That yielded so many great cuttings, I found a fig forum where I could easily trade with people all over the world. Fast forward a month and I’ve gone from having 1 cultivar to trying to root over 20 varieties. People on the forum are so generous! Apparently the Monticello Marseilles is very desirable, so I had no problem finding people who sent me all sorts of their own excess cuttings: Violette de Bordeaux, LSU Tiger, Gold, and Purple, heirloom varieties like Smith and Lyndhurst, Jurupa, Desert King, and many, many more.
While there is no consensus about the best way to coax the formation of roots, I’m trying two of the most popular: direct plant into a rich, light medium, and water rooting. The latter is controversial, but more about that in a bit.
Here’s a picture of my own tree’s cuttings that I direct planted into a recycled 2-liter bottle planter filled with Miracle Gro Sphagnum Peat Mix. They were started on 11/4/15, watered about 1 tbsp of tap water each week, and covered loosely with an open Ziplock bag until they started leafing out in about 3 weeks. I then removed the bag and moved them to a sunny spot near a window and they’ve been flourishing ever since.
Here’s a picture of a cutting that I water-rooted for fun, around 11/7/15, by sticking it in a vase of water on my desk at work. It was nice to see it every day, and as you can see, it’s doing about as well as the direct plant cuttings. If anything, it developed faster to the same healthy leafing out.
If it’s not too geeky, I’ll be posting more about my fig experiments. It’s really lots of fun! I’m also trying to root rose cuttings–more about that later!
Charlie's Garden 