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tavernafig78

Would love some fig cutting rooting guidance please.

TavernaFig78
9 years ago

Hello all I am new to the rooting methods for fig cuttings and I'm giving it a shot to see what happens. Normally with my existing trees I just build soil up around the base of the tree over the bottoms of all the branching out trunks and in fall pull back the dirt and remove them with roots already on them. So I've read almost all 10 billion post on ways people do this rooting method and combined them all (it feels like) ill describe and post pics if I can figure out how to do it as this is my first post ever but can anyone tell me if this is over kill or not enough or if I should change it up a bit would be great. Ok so here it goes....
I have a 15/20 gallon frosted side plastic tote with a sheet of thin glass going over the top of it completely covering it acting as a clear lid. On the glass is empty bucket ontop of a towel covering 1/2 the light Rays from getting into the tote with 2 250w frosted blue top grow lights (ambient light bulbs) that one stays on for about 12 hours during the day and the second kicks on for about 4 hours around noon both on timers along with a heat mat I bought that came with a seeding kit stating it heats up 10/20 degrees over the ambient room temps that is also on a dusk till dawn sensor timer so it's not making it too hot during the day and keeps it about 70 overnight. ( I live near Chicago (Plainfield) and is winter here and because my townhome is all hard wood floors the temp never really stays steady and my grow rooms floor is right above the garage) I also have a digital temp and humidity reader states constant 99% humid with lid on and anywhere from 68/79 degrees depending on lid and time of day.

SO what's in the box???

I've got two sides inside my hot box. On the side where the light is not blocked by the towel I have a vigorously growing fig cutting with established roots I took in fall from my tree that got tugged off when we were burying the trees so I figured I'd try to bring her back and sure enough has almost doubled in size. She's in a pot with 100% perlite and is doing fantastic!!

On the other side of the tote in the dark side (no direct light) I have almost a whole bag of smagnum moss dampened and fluffed (which only goes up half way of the tote wall) in my pile of damp moss are multiple fig cutting I've purchased with more on the way. So my question is am I doing this right? Most of the time I've got condensation dripping in the box but should the cuttings be in smaller containers filled too to bottom with moss and not in so much humid/temp? I see some people just put in Tupperware with moss and toss in a closet or under the bed. I heard heat will make roots faster but also promote mold which so far a month no mold but also no roots. Also when I preped my cuttings I scored the bottoms only exposing the green then dipping them in powdered rooting hormone and shaking off the loose stuff. Should that powder stay on the cuttings all the time or should it be wettened so it seeps more into the cutting? Mine still somewhat look like they've just been dipped in the powder.

Sorry for all the questions but hey if I don't ask a May never know!!
Thank you so very much.
Ciao

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