john_ny

Last year, I had 1 basjoo planted in the ground. It did well and, come the fall, I wanted to save as much of the p-stem as possible, to give it a head start, in the spring. There were also 4 pups that I wanted to try to save. The stem was about 6 feet ( approx 1.9 m.), and the pups were about 1½ to 2 feet. I, first, wrapped each of the stems with several sheets of newspaper. Then I wrapped each stem with a plastic bag, using kitchen trash bags for the pups, and an extra large bag for the mother stem. I taped the bags around the stems. I, then, got a large drawstring garbage bag, and punched five holes in the bottom, corresponding to the locations of the stem and pups. I slid the bag down over the five stems, so that it fit snugly around the base of each, and filled the bag with leaves tying the drawstring around the main stem, above the pups. I had intended to pile up some more leaf bags, around the main stem, but couldn't get them to stay in place, so I tied one to the stem. Before I could get one on the other side to balance it, the first one shifted and broke the stem off at about 3 feet. So, I just put a few more leaves around, and covered the whole thing with a tarp.

When I uncovered, a couple of weeks ago, the main stem was firm, up to the break and, when I cut it, about an inch below, it was green, and started growing from that point, in a day or two. One pup made it, full size, two were firm, and green, up to about 6 inches and one was mush down to ground level, but firm below. There were also two new little pups.

Here's a picture of mom, and the largest pup.


Here's a picture of some of the pups, #1 being the largest.


I also had about 50 of them in 7 gallon (14 inch) pots. I laid these on their sides, place bags of leves, or newspapers between the stems, covered the whole thing with a sheet of plastic, and put more bags of leaves, and newspaper (and even a couple of bags of perlite) on top. They all made it! When I uncovered them, they were quite dry, so there was no rot. Some of the potting mix had spilled out of some of the pots, and I could see beautiful new white roots. They all were green and firm up to 3 feet, mostly closer to 6 feet. Many also had new, extra shoots near the base. Since they were on their sides, the new shoots grew at right angles to the stem (first picture, below) but quickly turned, once the pots were uprighted. I'm, now, upping them to 11 gallon (16 inch) pots, as the 14's were wall to wall roots.

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John

Randy4ut

That's awesome, John... Great job and thanks for the "how to"... I am sure alot of us will be using your techniques in the future... Keep us posted throughout the summer of how LARGE yours are!!!

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john_ny

Thanks, Randy. I hope the method proves reliable; that it wasn't just a fluke, because of a mild winter. I don't remember it being real bad ths year, Most people, around here, cover figs in the winter. I have one, here, that I didn't get around to covering, and it did fine.

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John