Ficus microcarpa cuttings

I recently bought a Ficus microcarpa online, only for the #?€**%¥ø courier to drop in en-route. It looks ok (fingers crossed) apart from a couple of small branches which were damaged. I cut them off and divided them into several little stem cuttings, dipped them in rooting hormone and have them in a humid propagator with bottom heat. Will this work? Has anyone had experience with the propagation of this particular plant? Or am I just wasting my time (and electricity)? Any thoughts and advice would be welcome.

Paul

They come easily from cuttings, but they root better in the summer after they've gained some energy reserves after the winter's rest. I find that woody cuttings about half as thick as a pencil strike at the highest % rate. I try to take cuttings when I can keep them at about 70* until they root. I often approach graft multiple cuttings to the trunks of plants I'm growing on for bonsai and remove the tops after they have fused to the trunk. They look like prop-roots and help add caliper and taper to the trunk.

Al

Thanks Al. I didn't have the option of waiting until the summer, unfortunately! Still, I'll persevere and hopefully I'll have some new plants in a couple of months.

I've done them in the winter, too. I have a 10 gallon aquarium I can put a lid on to keep humidity up around 100% with a 2', 2-bulb fluorescent light above it that works very well as a propagation chamber. If the parent material was robust when you took the cuttings, half the battle is already won. 100% screened perlite works well as a propagation medium. I wish you well. ;o)

Al

Ok, that was a disaster. After just over a week in the propagator all the leaves started falling off the cuttings, some having yellowed and others having turned black. I threw them all away. At least I still have the parent plant! Al, if you have any suggestions on why the cuttings didn't take, I'd appreciate your, or anyone's, input.

Paul.

What rooting medium did you use?

Al

It was a mixture of about 50% MG multi-purpose compost and 50% perlite/bark chips/clay granules.

Next time, try rooting in 100% screened perlite. Especially when the cuttings are low in stored energy, unsterile media will cause issues by introducing any one of a number of fungi that cause damping off. Whenever you are starting cuttings, you're betting on a race that depends on the plant growing roots and making vascular connections between roots/shoots before the fungi that cause rot can clog the plumbing and make that connection impossible. Selecting rooting media that are highly aerated and sterile should be very close to the top of your list, if you want to tip the balance in favor of success. It would even help if you use a wick to ensure there is no excess water in the perlite after you wet it. Your medium should be about as damp as a well wrung sponge. If the cut end of the cutting, or any of the lenticels for that matter, are covered by a film of water, it inhibits gas exchange both in and out of the cutting, which also helps to set the stage for anaerobic rot organisms.

Maybe it was a Freudian slip, but I made the same typo 2 times while I was typing this, so I'm going to make the best of it and make a little phrase out of it to help us to remember that aeration is very important when you're starting cuttings. The typo was: I typed "mudium" instead of "medium". So remember when you're growing anything, you'll be much better served using a well-aerated medium, rather than a poorly aerated mudium. ;o)

Good luck!

Al

Thanks Al, for your usual, considered response. I can see the logic in the 100% perlite medium so I shall try that out next time I root some cuttings. I'm assuming that you would advise this medium for all cuttings, not just the Ficus I mentioned above?

I tend to prefer screened Turface for my cuttings, but I don't know what's available to you in the way of calcined clay over there. Perlite works very well. I've grown a few plants (started as cuttings) in 100% perlite for a couple of years before I got around to potting them up. I usually rinse it thoroughly, either before or after the cutting is stuck. Perlite has a fair amount of fluoride in it. Rinsing it thoroughly makes happy those few plants that don't tolerate it as well as others. That's probably a good tip for those of you growing peace lilies and spider plants, too. If you make your own soils or add perlite to commercially prepared soils - it's good practice to rinse it thoroughly before adding it.

Al

I bought a cooking sieve just last week for the purpose of washing out my perlite, clay granules and pumice. Well, I'm not going to use it for cooking, am I? lol. About the Turface, Al - we can't get that over here but I asked you before about using cat litter (as recommended by a Bonsai site http://www.bonsai4me.com/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm) and you said it was suitable as long as it was clay that was fired at a high temperature and could withstand cycles of soaking, freezing and thawing while maintaining its structure and not clumping. This is what I've been using instead of Turface. I may experiment with cuttings rooted in 100% perlite and 100% cat litter and see what works best. Thanks again for your input,

Paul

Take care.

Al