# How to get Fig tree cutting to root?



## mamastars (Feb 28, 2006)

I have two huge fig trees and would like to root some cutting from them or what ever you do to them to get more. They are about 8' tall and cover about 12' area each. They are delicious!


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

My brother took cuttings from his tree this year for me. I simply stuck them in pots (the deeper, the better) of good-draining soil and kept them well watered. Within a week or two, they were sprouting leaves & continue to do well two months later! 

It's been my experience that tip cuttings root the easiest. My cuttings are around 2' long. Strip all lower leaves, leaving only a couple @ the tip.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Figs are probably the easiest to root. The instructions I read years ago said to take finger width cuttings about 12" long in early to mid winter. Lay them in damp sand until spring. That allows the root end to callous over. Then put them either in a nursery bed outside or in large pots for a year to allow a good root system to develop before planting them. What I do now is take the same size cuttings (cut off the growing tip to encourage branching), put them in a pot inside the house covered with a plastic bag for humidity. Then plant them out in spring after the leaves are budding. I rarely have a failure doing either way but the second way allows me to put them in their permanent place quicker.


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## MichaelK! (Oct 22, 2010)

I"ve got rooted fig cuttings growing in the back yard right now.

Wait till the tree has entered winter dormancy and has lost it's leaves. December is likely ideal. Cut 15" cuttings off the tips of some branches 1-2X thicker than a pencil. Dip the cut ends in Home Depot rooting hormone. I sometimes nick the bark along the lower 3-4" of cuttings and let rooting hormone adhere there also.

I plant my cuttings in 18" long cylinders of 4" drain pipe. Just set the pipe vertically on the ground, fill in a shovel full of soil, then insert the cutting. Fill in soil such that 1-2 buds are still above the surface. Water throughly once a week. Once compacted by watering, the soil won't fall out the bottum and the piped cutting can be relocated elsewhere.

Cuttings will start sprouting next spring. If you leave them in the pipe too long, the roots will start exiting the bottum of the pipe and start rooting into the ground they are setting on. At that point I like to repot them into a 5 gallon pot like you buy things in from Home Depot.


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## rwinsouthla (Oct 24, 2005)

All of the above will work great, but I have two more ways to add. The first is called layering and takes about 6-8 months. You simply take a low branch and put it in contact with bare ground and put a brick or large rock on it. In 6-8 months, you'll have roots and can cut it away from the mother plant and plant it when it's dormant again. Takes awhile but is very effective, and is really good for the procrastinators. The second is to find the branch you want to root, scrape the outer brown skin off in 4 places around the branch with your fingernail (about 4-6" long) take some wetted peat moss or even wetted spanish moss and wrap a 12" section of a branch or multiple branches to about 2" thick. I've mixed in a couple of tablespoons of good fine compost onto the peat or spanish moss. Then, wrap it with about 12-15 layers of newspaper and secure the newspaper with twine, wrapping it about 8-10 times. Over time, the newspaper becomes wet with the dew and rain and stays fairly wet and the branch roots. In spring, you cut the branch from the mother tree at the lower end of the newspaper and you now have a rooted cutting that is suitable to deliver to your gift recipent. Have them just untie the string and unwrap the newspaper and look at all of the roots on there. I plant mine in the ground with the peat/spanish moss still intact so as not to disturb the roots. You can check for progress and should see some roots in about 2-3 weeks. I used this method about 10 years ago after my grandpa died to root some cuttings of a fig tree he had planted and gave them as presents with a card detailing who the tree came from and the significance of the cutting. I was about 70% successful with this method and delivered 43 cuttings to my cousins and aunts and uncles on my mom's side. The only thing is you'll have a tree that has wads of newspaper all over it for the duration of the winter, but if it's in the backyard like mine, it's no big deal. Also, the newspaper dries out in the summer so best done in winter/spring.....Good luck!!!


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Another thing to add:

Cutting at a node increases chances of rooting.


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## mamastars (Feb 28, 2006)

Thank you all very much for all the wonderful information! They need trimming really bad so I will have lots to try all the ways you all have said. I'll find out which work best for me in this location. My Mother gave me these trees about 19-20 years ago and she passed almost 12 years ago. I do have one family member that wants some trees and thought this would have alot of meaning to her. A friend has memory gardens and thought she would like one from me from my mothers trees. And I even asked at the right time of year, surprise, surprise. Thank you all again!


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## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

figs are wonderful trees 

the easiest way I have found to propagate them is to take dormant cuttings, wrap in a moist paper towel or napkin and put it in a warm (70F+) spot for a few weeks. they will callus and root quickly that way.

Here is a great site with alot of info on figs:
http://www.treesofjoy.com/

there is even a forum dedicated to figs!
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/


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## mamastars (Feb 28, 2006)

K.B. thanks for the great site and the forum is wonderful!!!
I started some cutting today since it was so nice out. Noticed the tips were GREEN, new growth. It has been real warm for this time of year and lots of the trees have started budding out. I'm going to wait until it hopefully get cold to try to root more in different ways. The main trunks are about 5"+ thick with lots and lots of long branches and more branches.


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