Richard

Today (Sunday) an outbreak of hairy white fungus was again found in the same pot of cuttings. I removed it from the enclosure, cleaned the cuttings, and sprayed them with a Physan 20 mixture. (A half teaspoon was added to 1 cup of water to make a 0.2% solution.) The pot was set to one side for 6 hours, sprayed again, and then returned to the enclosure.

The growth buds on all of the fig cuttings have swelled to the point of showing internal green growth. The growth buds on the Diospyros lotus cuttings all doubled in size during the last 24 hours. The growth buds on the pomegranate cuttings might have swelled slightly, but nothing is really expected to happen with them for several days.

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harveyc

Richard, you are using bottom heat, right? I saw some electronic control and assume that's what it is. How warm are you keeping it? Where do you put your soil probe? Or is it a timer for something else?

Thanks,

Harvey

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Richard

Yes, there is bottom heat supplied by a heat mat that came with the enclosure. I also purchased a $12 Taylor digital temperature probe w/ alarm from Target (in the cooking section). The probe is inserted 2 inches into the soil of a peat pot. The heat mat is plugged into a timer. In this particular room, having the heat mat alternate on and off for 70 minute periods keeps the temperature in the 75 to 85 F range. The only light they receive is ambient -- the window they are near is partially shuttered and faces north.

Today's inspection revealed another tiny outbreak of white hairy fungus on the top of a different cutting which I cleaned and then treated with Physan 20 (an 0.2% solution). The growth buds on nearly all the cuttings are swelling. On a few of the ficus and lotus cuttings, some of the buds have started to sprout.

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Richard

Today, whole leafs have opened out on most of the Diospyros lotus cuttings. Several leafs are also half open on the Ficus “Panache” and “Black Fig I” cuttings. One of the Punica “Golden Globe” cuttings and one of the Punica “White Flower” cuttings are putting out green growth at the nodes about 1/16 inch long and half as wide.

A half-cup of water was recovered from the enclosure hood and poured into the Black Fig I peat pots which were beginning to show signs of dryness.

One-third teaspoon of alfalfa meal was distributed in each of the 18 peat pots.

A small amount of hairy fungus developed overnight again on the Brown Turkey cuttings. It was again treated with Physan 20, but a stronger 1% solution (2.5 teaspoons to 1 cup water in hand-held sprayer).

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Taylor

Lookin' good Richard. Keep it up.

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Taylor

Update:
23 California Gold fruit expected by Thanksgiving!
Harvested!

harveyc

Richard, just a FYI in case you didn't know, punica usually produce leaves much sooner than roots.

I cooked mine when I tried last year and this year will try rooting them in a shady outdoor area.

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Richard

Day 10. (3/27) The hairy fungus present yesterday was clearly dead everywhere today except on the 3 Brown Fig cuttings that have been having trouble all along. The peat pot containing these cuttings was permanently removed from the rooting enclosure and placed in an open-air environment.

Yesterday's 1% Physan treatment caused noticeable damage on sprouted leafs. Leaf edges have been browned on the Fig cuttings, and leaf drop occurred on several Diospyros lotus cuttings. New undamaged sprouts were also found on these plants. No damage was seen on the Punica cuttings.

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Richard

I became tired of adjusting the timer on my heat mat during the spring temperature transitions, so I splurged and bought a thermostat at my local hydroponics store. I found the same product online here: Flora Hydroponics | Hobby

I also purchased a second propagation tray and cover to enclose my growing collection of cuttings and seedlings!

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harveyc

Richard, has the mold problem ceased?

I just potted up my cuttings tonight. I think I'm going to get an electronic leaf control for a misting system next week because I'm going to get too busy to watch these real closely. I've been toying with the idea of getting one for some time and I think I'm tired of putting it off.

Harvey

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Richard

The mold problem ceased with the removal of the one pot of Brown Fig cuttings. I have it elsewhere in the open air and they still develop mold every 24 hours, even when sprayed daily with 0.5% solution of Physan! The remaining cuttings are putting out new growth and have stopped dropping leafs. Of course, it will be many weeks before enough roots have developed for planting. I will wait until roots are vigorously exiting the pots.

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Richard

The hardwood cuttings are progressing nicely. I have spot-treated tiny amounts of mold only a few times in the last week. Also, the moisture level is very stable: I have added 1 tsp of water per pot only once in the last 4 days. Here are some photos I took this morning while the cover was briefly removed. In the first picture you see figs in the front, then Carissa spinarum and pomegranates, and finally Diospyros lotus.

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Richard

Roots are now emerging from the fig cuttings!

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harveyc

Whoohoo! Looking good. I'm installing my misting system today since that will make it much easier for me while I'm away for 5 days next week.

What fig cultivars do you have there?

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Richard

The figs are:

Black Fig I
California Brown (aka Turkey)
Panache
Osborne Prolific

The Black Fig will be trained as a regular fruit tree, esp. since it's best fruit is borne on 2-year or older wood. The others are best on 1st year wood. Further, I don't really have room to grow them as a regular tree. Instead, I am going to train them next to my property line using the Japanese commercial system for white and brown figs, as shown here:

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harveyc

Richard, do you have enough heat for Panache? Jon ("Pitangadiego") barely gets his to ripen, as I recall. Maybe you're warmer where you're at, though. I've got it, and Osborne Prolific and Black Madeira, as well as a couple of others of Ken Love's favorites. Are those photos from Ken? He just returned from another trip to Japan.

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Richard

We will see how the Panache does at my location. Jon is about 4.5 miles inland from the harbor at 450 ft elevation, whereas I am 8 miles inland from the ocean at ~575 ft elevation. I have just enough heat to produce a summer crop of seedless Flame grapes.

Those photos are from the 11/2007 Fruit Gardener.

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harveyc

Ken wrote one of the fig articles in that issue so those are most likely his photos. The cover shot was his though they rotated it (but not the key index inside) when they published it. In case you're interested and haven't visited it yet, here is Ken's fig page http://www.hawaiifruit.net/index-figs.html

Good luck with your Panache! It can be a great tasting fig and very cool looking.

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Richard

Thanks for the link to Ken's fig page. I only knew of him through his photos published over the years in the Fruit Gardener. That November cover photo has proven to be a very useful aid when teaching my home orchard culture mini-course. Although I don't understand why Ron Couch rotated the photo for the cover -- it was nearly square to begin with!

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Richard

This evening (4/17/08) I repotted about 1/2 of my rooted Fig cuttings. I left the others for a later date in case something goes wrong with this batch. The root development was as follows:
Panache - tremendous amount
Black Fig I - heavy
Osborne Prolific - medium
California Brown Turkey - few roots, each about 1 inch long.

For repotting, I like working with a dry soil mix. It is easier to control. After the soil is added, I wet it with room temperature water that has 1 drop of kelp extract per gallon added to balance the pH and impurities in the water.

Shown in the photos below is the repotting of 3 Black Fig rootings and then all of the repotted figs in a cloche. Note that one of the Black Fig cuttings has a small fruit developing! Also in the cloche are my Escallonia rootings and some pepper plants I'm germinating from seed. This work was carried out under the auspices of the local agricultural inspection authority.