I'm in South Louisiana and have been practising rooting unknown Celeste? fig cuttings by using sandpaper on the nodes and then gel hormone, before potting in clear 16oz. cups with a half inch of perlite on the bottem with soiless mix on top - no bottem heat.

I've usually have roots showing in 3-4 weeks. My roots are white like Sues in the Monster Root thread below but not so numerous. Some of these cutting roots are turning light brown, they are still the same diameter as when the roots were white. These cups are not wet. I'm wondering if these brown roots are indicate lack of water?

Glad to be here, young

Young brownish roots maybe a bad sign (do not give up);
not sure how much disturbed and/or late observed.

Old brown roots are the norm.

Young
Laplace , Louisiana

Like Sal, I'm wondering if it because of the exposure to light. On my next batch I will wrap the cups with foil to check it out.

The meter I've found, is a great little gadget. Beside telling you the moisture content of the potting soil, by using it every few days by sticking it into the soil it causes air passages down into the soil. I have found that if I mixed the soil and perelite mixture to around 5 on the meter that I didn't have to add water for weeks. These were enclosed in a container (mini greenhouse). Also the reading in the top inch of soil will be less than the bottom by about 1 point. With the top reading 3, the bottom usually read 4. I've only added water to some of them when the reading dropped to 2 for a few days and then I only added about a table spoon full.

The best of luck with you cuttings,
"gene"

Gene has some good suggestions for you.

Brown roots are often caused by water condensation onto those new white roots. That condensation is caused by temperature changes within the rooting cups and/or changes in the outside atmospheric pressure.

By 1) placing your rooting cups inside of a closed plastic container & 2) opening and airing out that container once a day...this problem can be minimized. This may sound simplistic; but, trust me on this. There are sound scientific reasons for doing this.

Tim,

The Smith, Native Black, and Italian Black cultivars now in retail trade each originated in the New Orleans area and are Italian heirloom figs. The original cuttings that Jame Robin used to propagate the Robin's Sicilian Black cultivar, came from a lady who lives in the New Orleans area too.

Dan

I didn't think to start taking cuttings until most of these trees had quit producing figs, so I'm uncertain of the cuttings I did take. Locally, in mid Sept. many of the trees I saw (including my Brunswick) had dropped nearly all of the leaves. Then my fig and others in the area began to produce new leaves. Just yesterday, I pulled figlets off of my Brunwick hoping the fig would put its energy into a late season air layer of the main stalk.

Gene, my rooted cuttings are in the garage with the blinds open (subdued light) and look like your roots as you have described them. It may also be that Maxicrop Liquified Seaweed juice I use to water.

Young
Laplace, Louisiana

Tim

I've not hunted much in the New Orleans area. Most of my hunting has been along the Mississippi River, Bayou Lafourche (from Donaldsonville to the Gulf), and in the Lafayette area. They are many great heirloom figs left to be re-discovered in Louisiana (the center of the melting pot of the US). WELCOME TO THE HUNT!!

Dan

Yesterday I bought a large clear bin for my new cuttings. I planned on using bottem heat this month and December but recently read that the heat may cause the cuttings to rot?

Young

Tim

You will get much better results if you keep your cuttings (rooting cups and/or baggies)inside of a container in an area where the temperature is fairly constant.....room temperature works great. A heating mat will cause many more problems than it helps.

Dan

I had two really good initials almost 3/4" long on one of my cuttings, but waited for 3 days to get potting mix and the time to build out my box, only to find that now they have browned off and look fairly dead. To boot, the two others that had initials starting, the initials look like they've subsided, browned, and shrunken a bit. :\

I still have some various things happening - one is trying to bust off leaf buds at the bottom of the cutting, so I may just stick all of them in cups + 3B mix, even the ones not showing initials, and see what happens.

Dan

so, i broke down and potted them up. i put pics on the other forum, if you are cool with going to look. if you have comments, feel free to share, Dan!