Good Year For Figs - Fig Tree Propagation Update

We now have results from our efforts at fig propagation. If you will remember, we tried air-layering, shoving cuttings in dirt, and wrapping cuttings in damp paper towels. My co-conspirator, DK, also tried rooting twigs in water.

RESULTS:

Water - The cuttings rooted in water just fine. I am not sure what DK did with his experiment.

Dirt - The cuttings rooted in dirt "took off."  I had two pots with about 6 or 7 cuttings in each. Only a couple of cuttings failed to root. Early in the spring I transplanted the cuttings to individual pots and all 12 small trees continue to thrive. The only problem is that I didn't pay attention to which fig was which (we were working with 3 different figs, you might recall. Two are tasty large brown figs. One is a giant purple. That tree has not been producing, hence the need to try and propagate). I just used the "leftovers" after I set up the paper towel process. I am not sure if I will be able to determine which is which from the leaves, but I will make the effort to keep only a few of each variety instead of all 12 trees(!).

Here are my two containers of cuttings rooted in dirt. They are in gallon  containers so you can see they are getting crowded (because almost all grew). Fortunately the roots were not too "entwined." I lost no transplants so far.

Paper towel method - I have tried this twice - once last year and once this year. Apparently I do not pay close enough attention to the procedure. Each time my cuttings have molded. My conclusion is that it is silly to go through the hassle of cutting and misting and airing when I can just shove a cutting in the ground and get an 85% (or better) success rate.

Air-layering - DK and I decided to give this method a try. Neither of us could wait until the growing season so we layered dormant trees, first in early February and a month later in March. We were going to do a third set of layers in April, but we were getting some root growth and decided we were good.

First, I have to share that none of our three pear tree layers show any signs of roots. We aren't going to give up as the fig efforts are so good, it just may be that the harder wooded pears are just taking a little longer.

Second, OUR FIGS ARE AMAZING! The February layers are within weeks of transplanting. The "rule of thumb" is that it takes about two months and you wait until the containers are full of roots and you cannot squeeze or flex the container any longer. I tried this today and they are getting pretty tight.

It appears we are having an early year for fruit. Both of the readily bearing trees are full of figs. Even one of our layers has figs on it! The mystery purple giant has at least two figs on it! I am going to try scaring the birds with pie plates so that we may get to experience this special fig this year. Even if the birds beat us to the fruit, we should have the opportunity to SEE it. I have a photo of the fruit in years past and it is amazing.

So, go back to the earlier posts (February 8 and March 16),* if you want to see our process or watch the Youtube videos we watched.

I took photos of many of the layers and will try to identify the different ones:

Here are the two mystery figs. I looked around the tree and didn't see additional fruit, but I will look again. DK thinks this is a Bathenjani fig from Palestine. I don't know, but we hopefully get to taste one this year.

This is a February layer (not pretty, but effective!) on the mystery fig. It looks like we will get a tree (actually all three layers on this tree are growing). Roots are filling up the soda container we used.

This is another of our February layers. Again, you can see the strong root growth.

These figs are on one of the prolific trees. The figs are already quite large.

Yet another February layer with loads of roots. I think this is the branch that actually has figs on it this year. The others are bare. I am curious to see if the figs will continue to ripen if we transplant.

This is the top of the limb we are layering. It will make quite a good sized tree. You can see the fruit.

In March we used CEFCO cups on smaller limbs** to differentiate the layers. You can see that there are fewer roots. This makes sense. The trees were still dormant when we layered and these are a month behind the others.

Here is a view of another CEFCO cup layer.

A few final comments:

We are surprised and excited that things are going well, even as we are disappointed there is no growth in the pear layers.

The directions suggest regular watering. I know that DK and MK have been trying to water these things but the layers are in difficult places and hard to water. It is important to try and find upright limbs to layer, but trees don't always grow that way.  We have a number of containers that are "laying down" or are difficult to reach. Our current success in spite of these challenges tells me that this is a pretty fool-proof method. Like the guy on the video says, "This is guaranteed to work." As the weather heats up, I will need to plan regular trips each week to water.

It appears that we might have some trees to share. We will need to start making plans for our "extras."

NOTES:

*http://walkinthepark-padimus.blogspot.com/2015/02/adventures-in-gardening-air-layering.html (this is the one with the goods)
http://walkinthepark-padimus.blogspot.com/2015/03/air-layering-of-magic-fig-trees.html (this is the one with the photos of the fruit trees blooming, some bees, a spider, and one air-layer in a CEFCO cup - to differentiate the March from the February layers)