Note as of December, 2019: This is consistently one of the top blog posts on our site, so I’ve updated it to remove some fluff and added an FAQ at the end. Hope this is helpful!

Method Requirements

• High success rate (80+%)

• No pre-washing, mold control, shuffling, potting up, root formation monitoring, or otherwise babying the cuttings

• Use of readily available inexpensive supplies (potting mix and containers, shop lights for growing)

• Must work in my basement (65F, ~35% humidity in the winter)

Supplies

• 1/2 to 1 gallon pots

• Lightweight potting or rooting mix

• 1" Parafilm

I use 4x4x9 Stuewe Treepots for the pots, straight Pro Mix MP for the potting mix, and the 1" parafilm available on eBay. We’ve also used Pro Mix BX and Pro Mix HP with good results, though the latter will tend to dry out pretty rapidly.

Rooting Method

1. Take cuttings in the late fall during dormancy before the low temps dip into the teens

• In south-central PA, this is done in late fall (typically late November through early December)

• I’m told fall is the best, as the sap flow is into the roots at this point and is preferable to taking cuttings in the Spring when sap is flowing upward.

• If you wait too late and the temps dip into the teens, you risk the cuttings being damaged, especially those from wood that hasn’t fully hardened off.

• Cuttings from this year’s growth seems to work well (wider than pencil width up to probably 1” in width). This year’s growth is the most susceptible to dying in the winter anyways, so I don’t feel bad cutting it off. As long as the base of the tree survives in the winter, the tree seems to bounce back the next year.

• Cut a whole branch and worry about cutting it into pieces later.

2. Cut the cuttings into pieces to fit your pot

• I use 4x4x9” treepots as I can fit the most under grow lights and it offers a lot of soil surface (height) for roots to shoot out.

• We use cuttings around 8-9” for our 9” tall pots. We don’t want the cutting touching the bottom of the pot but we do want as much of the cutting under the soil as possible.

• Cut about a quarter to a half inch above & below the top and bottom buds (respectively) to help keep the buds from drying out)

• Cutting length should allow 1-2 buds above the soil surface, ideally just 1, but it’s okay if you have more (some cuttings have closely spaced buds)

3. Fill the pots with a loose potting mix that’s labeled for cuttings and thoroughly water the mix

• Pro Mix MP (biofungicide + mycorrhizae) is my favorite as of 2019. It’s an OMRI mix that seems to have a decent nutrient charge to get the cuttings going and doesn’t seem to dry out too fast.

• I use Pro Mix MP, Pro Mix BX, Pro Mix HP or Berger BM1 or OM1. It’s readily available here, fairly inexpensive, didn't contain fungus gnats like I've seen with other mixes, and seems to work well. You can add a little coarse perlite if you feel it’s too “heavy”.

• I haven’t seen much of a difference in success rate with just straight Pro Mix but adding perlite may help with overwatering issues. The downside of extra perlite is that the mix dries out more quickly so you need to stay on top of watering once the plants begin growing.

• Pro Mix MP (and other organic mixes) tend to lack good wetting agents that conventional mixes have. We’ve found it helpful to dampen them slightly before filling the pots, otherwise they tend to repel water.

• Pre-wet the soil, let the water drain out thoroughly (sometimes overnight). This allows you to make sure soil is consistently and thoroughly damp.

4. Wrap what will be the exposed end of the cutting (the part sticking out of the soil) in parafilm down to ~1” below the soil level

• Parafilm prevents the buds and wood from drying out prematurely. Since the parafilm breaths mold never forms. The stuck cuttings aren’t placed in any sort of humidity dome.

• Parafilm stretches really well, make sure to stretch it well over the exposed buds. The pressure of the swelling and opening bud will break through the parafilm as long as it’s stretched well.

• Parafilm is the only “odd” supply needed here. I use the 1” width and find cheap rolls on eBay. 1 roll should do 100+ cuttings as you’re only covering the tips.

• Remove the parafilm later in the year while potting up when the new tree has outgrown its pot.

• A note about tip cuttings: If your cutting contains the tip of a branch (a pointy vegetative bud) I usually remove it, as the parafilm wrapped around it will tend to constrict it (unless you wrap it a different way) and restrict it from breaking bud properly.

5. Stick the cuttings in the soil and thoroughly wet the soil until water runs out of the bottom.

• Rewater when the top inch of the soil is dry (probably in a few weeks, depending on the humidity of the rooting place). Only rewater enough to dampen the soil, do not drench the soil again.

• Cuttings can be stored in the dark until the buds start to swell and open. At that point I introduce them to the grow lights. There shouldn’t be any drawback to placing them immediately under lights (other than the cost of running the lights)

• We’ve used both cheap fluorescent shop lights placed directly above the plants and now LED grow lights. The benefit of LED lights and some other types is that they can tend to sit significantly above the canopy so watering and rewetting the soil isn’t as much of an issue. The T12 fixtures we’ve used in the past need to sit almost touching the plants to provide sufficient light.

• Most of the time we stick more than one cutting in each pot. That way if a particular cutting isn't healthy, we have a backup. We've done as many as three cuttings in a pot without any detrimental effects that we've seen. We view it as a bit of added insurance and a way for a tree to start out with multiple trunks.

6. Water as needed, and only as needed.

• Water only when the top inch of the soil is dry. Overwatering can kill an otherwise good cutting by causing it to rot before it roots

• Remember that cuttings starting out don’t need much water. You're just trying to maintain high humidity in the mix to force the cutting to push out roots.

• Don’t fret if a newly pushing out cutting loses a leaf or two. I’ve seen them recover.

• Once a cutting is growing vigorously (has put on and kept 4-5 leaves) it’s far less sensitive to overwatering so feel free to water it well.

That’s it!  Seems like a lot, but there’s no babying, no monitoring (besides for water), no mold issues, no supplies beyond potting mix, pots, and parafilm.

FAQ

My cutting comes with parafilm on the top & bottom, does it need to be removed prior to rooting?

Parafilm should be removed from the bottom of the cutting as no roots will push through the parafilm. We place it on the cuttings we sell in order to prevent the ends from drying out. It can be left on the top of the cutting as long it follows the wrapping method described above.

Do I need to wash or sanitize my cuttings?

With this method, no. This method allows you to root in a way that discourages mold growth as there’s no elevated humidity. The only reason we’d wash or sanitize our cuttings were if they were stored for some time and were showing some mold in storage.

Do I need to score or wound my cuttings or use rooting hormone to encourage root formation?

We haven’t found that this is necessary with figs, though it may benefit other plants. We are getting good take rates without resorting to these methods, so we haven’t used them.

How do I prevent or deal with fungus gnats?

Start with a bagged, dry mix, preferably a compressed bale. I’ve found that starting with clean media is the best thing you can do. If you begin to see fungus gnats, you may be leaving the mix too soggy. For fungus gnats in the psat, we’ve watered with water that has a Mosquito Dunk (Bt) in it. This seems to take care of them. We simply leave a Mosquito Dunk in the watering can between fills. Excess fungus gnats may be a sign of overwatering as well.

What are the downsides of this method?  

I’ve only found one: you can’t monitor root development.  I think this is likely a really good thing, as formation of roots (or lack thereof) probably causes premature action to the detriment of the cutting.  

What’s your “take” or success rate?

As of approximately 6 months into the cutting process, my success rate is 142 rooted out of 152 total cuttings, or about 93%.  Check out our Store to see what's available for purchase from the rooted cuttings this year.

At least half a dozen cuttings were pegged for being dead but ended up surviving.  They originally pushed out a few leaves that withered and fell off.  In many cases these cuttings shot up growth from below the soil level a month or so later after I set them in the "probably dead" pile.

Pictures

Pictures are worth a thousand words, so check out some of the photos below to see growth progress and some shots of the parafilm wrapping.

Update: Winter '14/'15 Observations

• ProMix HP: Experimented with ProMix HP (high porosity) versus BX. Found no discernible difference in success rate. ProMix BX is easier to obtain here and cheaper so I'll stick with BX.

• Success Rate: Around 90%, with over 400 plants grown from cuttings. This is lower than last year but was somewhat expected that I'd lose a few more due to the number of plants.

• Don't give up too early: Some plants will push out a leaf or two only to drop it. Many of these recovered and pushed out more leaves with no intervention (humidity chambers, etc).

• Lighting: Position the lights as closely to the plants as possible, moving them up only as the plants begin to grow into the lights. We use cheap T12 shop lights (around ~$10 at a home improvement store) and hang them from adjustable chains. We use daylight bulbs (5000k) but I'm not certain that it really matters. We look for the highest lumen output per bulb. Lights are on for 16 hours a day.

• Pomegranates: We rooted a number of pomegranate cuttings using the same method and found that they had a hard time pushing through the parafilm. We rooted several in the spring outdoors with no parafilm at all and they did very well. Next year we'll either avoid wrapping over the bud or wait until late spring to root them.

Update: Winter '15/'16 Observations

• Higher Temperature Rooting: We rooted in a different basement this winter that maintained a temperature around 77F. This did cause many cuttings to push out and grow much faster, but it did not have an effect on our success rate. I believe humidity may have been less than 30% with the elevated temperatures.

• Success Rate: I did not keep official totals this year but simply counted my discarded plants. I ended up once again with around a 90% success rate. I do double-stick my cuttings at times (2 cuttings per pot) as a bit of added insurance.

• ProMix BX: This potting soil remains my favorite though I'm going to try a Berger OMRI-listed mix this coming year for the sake of comparison. I like this general-purpose mix as is heavy enough to hold a decent amount of water but not rot my cuttings. With a 3.8cu ft compressed bale I can pot up around 120 cuttings.

• Fertilizing: This year I fertilized my plants when I could tell they had really taken root and were starting to grow. For me I used 3 strong leaves as a guide. For fertilization I use a slow release general purpose fertilizer to get them going. I did not measure exactly but probably initially added about a teaspoon or two per plant and added more when the plants seemed to need it.

• Fungus Gnats: These little beauties aren't much of a problem since I use the compressed bales and that don't seem to harbor any eggs for these guys. For added insurance (or when I do see a couple), I add a product called Mosquito Dunks to my watering can. From what I can tell, the Bt in the product takes care of the gnats just fine.

• Terminal Buds: If you have a cutting taken from the end of a branch, it will have a terminal leaf bud (the pointy bud at the end of a branch). I've read that these can cause issues with perhaps delaying or inhibiting rooting but I'm not convinced. I do remove the terminal bud, but only because it's tricky to wrap.

• What Hasn't Changed: Lighting, parafilm use and technique, initial care with watering, and 4x4x9" treepots remain the same. I'm happy with the overall growth of the trees so I'm not inclined to change much of the method.

Updated: Winter '16/'17 Observations

• Success Rate: I did not keep official totals this year but I believe we only had a single plant fail to thrive, meaning a success rate of 99+%. It may be that this year was an anomaly, but I think a 90+% success rate is very achievable with this method. This success rate may be attributable to the change in potting mix but it's too early to tell.

• Average Temperature Rooting: We recently switched heating systems and that has meant our basement has actually run cooler than normal. To supplement heat, we actually ran a space heater by our rooting tables to keep the temperature around 70-75 or so degrees.

• Berger OM1 Potting Mix: We switched to this Berger OMRI-listed mix this year and were very happy with it considering our success rate. Is it all that different from our old standby, ProMix BX? Probably not. I do like that it's OMRI-listed (though we still supplement with time-release conventional fertilizers). In retrospect the decision to do a wholesale switch was somewhat risky considering our lack of experience with the product but we were pleased with the results.

• Sticking Multiple Cuttings: One thing we haven't mentioned before is the fact that we often stick multiple cuttings per pot (2-3), if we have the cuttings for it. This not only contributes to our success rate, since one bad cutting doesn't ruin the chance in a pot, but in the case where 2 or more cuttings "take", we start out with a multi-trunked tree, which is our preferred method of growing. It also makes for a larger plant to sell to the public.