i don't have any ideas either, but a similar thing is happening to me too. my cutting has 6 leaves, and one of the leaves curled up and died. and the roots which were white, are now brown. i've been watering less than once a week, so i don't know what's wrong.

I thought I learn well but still, apart from moisture killing rooted cuttings the other enemy is "cold" potting mix. We had some lousy weather & that's when these issues crops up killing 5 nicely leafed out & good root ball plants.

I had 2 very nice Latarrula Red & 3 Col De Dame Noir died on me. First sign of leaf wilting, I pulled them out. Sure enough even with excellent root ball & no watering for 2 weeks, they died. It was such a sudden syndrome. I felt the soil, it was cold. I am quite certain the combination of cold soil & moisture presence is deadly enough to wreck the joy of a nice variant & hopes to share with others.

I stay away from Vermiculite. With time Vermiculite will collapse and this tend to suffocate air exchange in soil. I have no good experience with it. I stick to perlite. Just my 2 cents thoughts.

Oh, we all lose cuttings for sure, I'm humbled to hear a someone like Paul mention his losses, I find it respectable to hear from someone I hold in high regard. We're all human, any newbies out there just getting started, you should know everyone has losses, and some kind and humble folks like Paul aren't ashamed to admit them.

I lost all my cuttings of Latarrula from one of our northeastern fig friends this month, and the couple of cuttings I had of Hardy Chicago over the past two months as well. It happens. Whether by chance, negligence due to real life issues (for us younger professional folks who work 10-12 hours a day) or mystery, losses happen.

I really don't have the slightest idea of the cause - which is unusual, I can usually tell - but I got two of my Latarrula cuttings well-rooted, very vigorous. At one point, they just ... stopped rooting. It wasn't overwatering. I don't believe it was rot. They kept green terminal buds on both. After 3 months of rooting in cups in a stable environment, the beefier one of the two had the nice green terminal bud start yellowing and shrivel up (perfect white roots, too), and beginning of this week, I had the other one do the same. Not sure why neither ever broke the terminal bud (both tip cuttings). Likewise, I lost one of my HC cuttings to rot two months ago. I lost the second while unseating it from its cup (snapped most of the roots from the cutting). Today I woke up and found the final of my HC cuttings with one droopy leaf - like, it's all gone type of droopy - and one firm leaf. I think I overwatered yesterday. Might lose this one as well.

We all lose cuttings, unless your name is Dan, then you magically sprout extra 10% of cuttings from your bum and end up with 110% propogation success - that was supposed to be a joke, Dan ;)

For me, it looks like this just wasn't the year for me to obtain Hardy Chicago and Latarrula. But I have about 20 other varieties, so ... it's not a huge, huge loss, I guess? There's always next year. Overall, I'm still rolling at a good 90%-95% success rate.

A rooted fig cutting is somewhat fragile when they first start leafing out. Dormant trees hold most of their energy in their roots and some in their trunk and a little in young wood like a cutting. Leafing out takes a lot of energy and they don't have much in reserve as the root system is still so small. Stress them out to the point where they lose their leaves even one time do to over watering or under watering or do to cold or heat or over fertilization or exposing them to full sun without hardening them off first and they my not recover.

I try to watch my rooted cutting like a hawk to catch the first signs of trouble. I re-potted some cuttings last week and some yesterday. Last week I went out and saw that the cuttings were suffering in full sun so I moved them so they would be shaded and watered them with cool water and they pulled through. Then three days later it got down to 39 deg F at night. I went out the next morning and three of my cuttings lost their leaves so I moved them to partial shade in hopes they will recover. I need to get out and check the cuttings I potted yesterday and see if they are happy.

My rooting success continues to be very high. That does not happen by chance.....it happens by DESIGN.

In the Improved Baggie Method, I've shared SOME of my ideas on how one can improved their rooting success rate. Proper cleaning of cuttings (prevents mold), use of a perlite/UPM rooting mix (for strong root formation & nutrients), and maintaining a steady/even rooting temperature (for SUPERIOR moisture control)......WORKS REAL WELL in producing nice fig trees. Not just roots on a stick, but hardened off trees.This is not bragging or BS...just the plain facts that anyone can duplicate/verify for themselves.

One vocal forum member CLAIMS to have better fig rooting methods; but, we still have not seen the complete details of those HYPOTHETICAL methods so that we can verify his puffy claim. Maybe he now realizes that his heating mat propagation methods have some serious flaws...... Maybe he now realizes that phytotoxins (Dawn dish washing liquid and Bleach) are very HELPFUL in preventing moldy cuttings and DO NOT CAUSE DAMAGE TO THEM as he once claimed...... Maybe he now realizes the rooting methods that work well OUTDOORS do not necessarily work well INDOORS.... etc., etc., etc. (Couldn't help it Jason.)

If anyone wants to improve their rooting skills, try single node fig rooting. It will humble you; but, you will learn a lot. As I've stated before.....one of my goals is to develop a reliable single node rooting method. I am making steady progress in accomplishing that goal. Some of what I am working on will simply blow the minds of some fignuts. Hint: a good understanding of p-Chem (physical chemistry) is very helpful.

GMAN....

Here is a link to a thread which contains some details of the Improved Baggie Method. I hope that you find some useful information in it. One day I will re-write it with much more detail and put it in a cookbook format for much easier use. Follow the details of the method and I guarantee that you will get good results.

Dan

Here is a link that might be useful: Details of the Improved Baggie Method