Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Rooting Fig cuttings

Rooting figs.

This is the cup method with perlite and loose soil.






So this is one of the easiest things to do. It's also the most frustrating. What has worked for me this year has been to be patient and to understand how to eliminate the enemies. Enemies to figs? Yes.

Figs root super easy it's how we keep them alive is the tricky part. Fungus Gnat flies and mold can destroy your whole crop of rooting figs. It sure did for me. The best thing to do is eliminate the conditions that the flies can dwell in.

This year I've had about 90% success with my fig cuttings. I take a bit of soil 50% mixed with perlite 50% add it to my rooting cup about 3 inches deep. Then I top off the rest of the cup with just perlite. I water the cup all the way through and then bag it up for a month. Air out as needed. The top layer of perlite will give the roots plenty of oxygen. It also gives no place that the fungus gnat to lay their eggs.  The new roots tend to grow right between the soil layer and the perlite layer.

It's tempting to think that leaves equal roots but its a bad thing to do. Just let them be. Time matters more than anything. Once you can establish that there is a good root system. It is then time to acclimate the new leaves to a dryer environment. You do this by opening the bag more and more each day until you can take the bag off completely. The process should take atleast 2 weeks to get fully acclimated.

There's a million ways to do this so see if you can come up with your own. Good luck!


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