In October of 2024 I was graciously allowed to take a bunch of free fig cuttings from a local gardener’s trees.  The only downside was that he did not remember what kind they were; but he knew that he owned two different varieties.  He had 4 large trees and told me I could take as many cuttings as I wanted. His only request was for a couple of the cuttings come springtime, if I am successful.

I went over one afternoon and cut down about 20 branches with his help. We stripped the leaves, and I put them in my trunk. Once I got home, I put them in 2 tall cups of water to keep them hydrated while I processed them.

I trimmed the long branches down into smaller pieces, each roughly 6-8 inches long and containing 2 or more growth nodes. Each branch provided several useable cuttings. I ended up with 60 sticks to attempt to propagate.  I have had very good success this time around. 

Full tray of cuttings stuck in soil.

I’m curious if freshness and vigor were factors in the success, since these came off of trees that were still awake and producing figs.  All my previous attempts were from dormant trees over winter. Once each cutting was trimmed to a useable size, I put them in cups of coco coir mixed with pine bark fines. This combination will have good water retention and also drainage. These were sterile medium, no active microbial growth or fertilizer added. I wanted the sticks to focus on only root growth.

Since I had so many free cuttings I decided to do an experiment. I put half of the cuttings in a tote with a lid to make a mini-greenhouse. The other half were left open to the air, but all the cuttings went on heat mats. About 20% more of the cuttings from the tote greenhouse rooted than those left in the open air, so perhaps the added humidity helped. Over half of the total cuttings rooted, 25 have roots and leafy growth and about 10 more have solid root development but no new green growth yet.

I use clear plastic cups specifically so that I can see the roots developing. Sometimes fig cuttings start leafy growth before roots. If they wake up in this manner they often don’t survive, because they have no way to access water and nutrients. Sticks that do this end up pulling nutrients from the stem itself and then die when the leafy growth becomes unsustainable. I initially kept the totes in an upstairs hallway with very low light in an attempt to force the cuttings to focus on root growth.

Healthy cuttings, after being transplanted to slightly larger pots with actual nutrients. Old potting soil mixed with vermiculite, worm castings, and an all-purpose 3-3-3 veg fertilizer. The fun now is to balance keeping them alive while limiting growth. I don’t want to re-pot them too many times since it is winter, and I have limited indoor space. I currently have two trays full of happy, growing baby trees.