Branch cuttings root easily. Take cuttings 5 nodes long from 1/8 inch to pencil thickness. No rooting hormone necessary. Prune off side branches, but leave a short stub. Remove all but 1 or 2 top leaves. Stick cuttings in perlite or very coarse sand or fine gravel (little smaller than BB's) with 3 nodes covered to root. Bright light but no full sun. Tenting to increase humidity helpful. Fastest strikes between 70-75* F. soil temperatures, so a propagation mat is very helpful.

I use an aquarium with a glass lid on top of a propagation mat (the aquarium) to root tropical tree cuttings.

Al

thank you, al!

if it works, i'll come back & let ya know.

:)
susan

If it works? "Oh ye of little faith ..." ;o)
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Three examples of future bonsai compositions with cuttings started from Ficus b. The first photo shows several (7) cuttings that are fusing together (approach grafting to self) and will eventually form a single trunk. In 5 years, you will not be able to tell these were individual plants. The second is a new (first year) "forest planting" and the last is a newly made "root-over-rock planting.

Cheers - & good luck.

Al

al,

i'm not only impressed, i'm amazed; those are lovely! if mine just lives i'll be happy! but your staggering success gives me hope...will keep you posted

thanks,
susan

al,

followed your advice except the bit about the propagation mat (don't have one of those)...

i've already got new little leaves coming out! i suppose we can call this a success!

thanks a bunch,
susan

Emerging leaves & closed buds have enough energy stored at the base of the bud in the form of starch to open the leaf, so the existence of opening leaves doesn't always, mean success, but we have confidence in you & will keep our fingers crossed. Resist the urge to tug on the cuttings to ck for roots, too. Usually, when you see the second generation of leaves about to unfold, you can consider yourself home free. Good going!!

Al

Can I propagate in water?

Though roots form readily and often seemingly more quickly on many plants propagated in water, the roots produced are quite different from those produced in a soil-like or highly aerated medium (perlite - vermiculite - seed starting mix, e.g.). Physiologically, you will find these roots to be much more brittle than normal roots due to a much higher percentage of aerenchyma (a tissue with a greater percentage of intercellular air spaces than normal parenchyma). If you wish to eventually plant your rooted cuttings in soil, it is probably best not to root them in water because of the frequent difficulty in transplanting them to soil. The "water-formed" roots often break during transplant & those that don't break are very poor at water absorption and often die. The effect is equivalent to beginning the cutting process over again with a cutting in which vitality has likely been reduced.

If you do a side by side comparison of cuttings rooted in water & cuttings rooted in soil, the cuttings in soil will always (for an extremely high percentage of plants) have a leg up in development on those moved from water to a soil medium for the reasons outlined above.

... better to use 100% perlite, Espoma's Soil Perfector, Haydite, or Turface. Take semi-woody cuttings - no rooting hormone necessary, but if you use it, use 0.1% IBA - keep rooting medium moist and cuttings in good light but not direct sun. If the cutting has multiple branches, shorten all branches to 1 or 2 leaves.

Good luck.

Al