List of Difficult to Root Varieties + Please Add More

PapaFig

PapaFig

Well-known member
  • Coll de Dama Mutante
  • Black Madeira
  • Sangue Dolce
  • De la Senyora (Hivernenca)
  • Barbillone
  • Nuestra Senora del Carmen
  • Preto
  • Moscatel Preto
  • I-258
  • Martinenca Rimada
  • Genovese Nero AF
  • Cavaliere
  • Smith
  • Zidi
  • Abebereira (Bebera Preta, Bebeira Preta, Figaholics Dark)
  • Col de Dame Noir
  • Malta Black
  • Violette de Bordeaux
  • Panache (Tiger Fig)
  • Nero 600M
  • Grise de St. Jean
  • Noire de Caromb
  • Saint Martin (St. Martin, not San Martino)
  • Sant Agostino
  • Galicia Negra
  • Ponte Tresa
  • NdE (Noire de l’Estaque)
  • Capoll Curt Negra
  • Zaffiro
  • Deanna
  • LSU Purple
  • Bourjasotte Grise
  • Negreta
  • Hative d’Argenteuil
  • RdB (Ronde de Bordeaux)
  • Longue d’Aout
  • Verdino del Nord
  • Fico Moro
  • Atreano
  • Goutte d’Or
  • Bebera Branca (Bebera Blanca, Bebeira Branca)
  • Saint Anthony (St. Anthony, not St. Anthony PC)
  • Luv
  • Sobon Blue Green
  • BFF (Bass’ Favorite Fig)
  • *Brooklyn White
*Reported to root readily by some.
**This is a compilation based on my own experience and reports of other experienced propagators. I have rooted many of these varieties on the first try and also had many fail repeatedly. Individual results will vary.
 
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I have a large amount of that list, majority of the ones I do have were rooted cuttings. My opinion is method of rooting matters a lot and level of dormancy when you get them. If rot gets them within the first week even if you can’t see it then it’s not difficult to root so much as it’s just going to die. The ones that rooted for me all rooted similar fashion, however there were some outliers that came from the exact same branch that took months to root while other cuttings on same branch took off in the same week it was started.
 
DCallahan said:
There are a few on that list I would disagree with being hard to root. Angelito being the first, I have a few trees from different sources and they are all super vigorous.
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I'm glad to hear that. I have two cuttings from FigGazer that's I've been grafting from under the belief that it's pricing AND hard to root.

The basis for that belief is that the Figtator once said he tried rooting over 60 Angelito cuttings and not one was successful. He is an experienced propagator - but maybe it was some other factor (damaged by cold, in storage?).

@DCallahan, I appreciate the feedback.
 
It could be other factors also, like Ischia Black - lacks vigor, probably due to heavy FMV (maybe a "weak" constitution?) - I don't know.
 
PapaFig said:
It could be other factors also, like Ischia Black - lacks vigor, probably due to heavy FMV (maybe a "weak" constitution?) - I don't know.
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Ischia black rooted fantastic for me, 6 of 6. The downside is one year later and half of them look as if I rooted them a month before dormancy because they did not take off like others because of the fmv load it carries.
 
Ok my 2 cents on my very best method of rooting. I used buddy tape in the top half, then I filled with some awesome mix I get from local store. All I know is it’s called ball professional grow mix and it’s in a brown and white bag with around 50% perlite then peat with some stabilizers. I dampen and fill up my 5 inch pots from bootstrap farmer that has the best air holes in the bottoms of them, then into a seed tray on a heat mat under lights and cover soil with 1/2 inch of sand. This way was 19/20 success where other soils and methods yielded me around 50/50. The pots are spendy but the amount of drainage holes with the perlite allows great air flow through the soil and I believe that’s the key to success. It hasn’t mattered on variety using this method for me at least.
 
PapaFig said:
I'm glad to hear that. I have two cuttings from FigGazer that's I've been grafting from under the belief that it's pricing AND hard to root.

The basis for that belief is that the Figtator once said he tried rooting over 60 Angelito cuttings and not one was successful. He is an experienced propagator - but maybe it was some other factor (damaged by cold, in storage?).

@DCallahan, I appreciate the feedback.
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Last year Fig Gazer provided me two very small cuttings on my request with one of his donation auctions. They were very small, but much appreciated. Think Bucatini pasta size and a few inches long. They Both are now 4 ft tall full and bushy. This season I got 4 Angelitos in FigGazers donation auction and they are 100 percent rooted, Ive rooted other Angelitos and Im 100 percent lifetime on rooting them save one that was totally my fault.
Brooklyn White was another on the list that rooted very well for me. I received a large bag of them from a inground planted tree and had a very high rooting rate on them.
One factor that I think doesn't get talked about much with rooting success, Is the condition of the parent tree. Many of the trees out in circulation are young and potted. Potted is fine but most don't get the nutrition needed to get near their full potential. This could be a whole different thread on its own.
 
DCallahan said:
Brooklyn White was another on the list that rooted very well for me. I received a large bag of them from a inground planted tree and had a very high rooting rate on them.
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Gina MCD mentioned she tried several times to root Brooklyn White with no success.

I'm not surprised that anecdotal evidence is not very reliable - but it's what we have at this point.

I'm removing Angelito from my difficult to root list based on the feedback here.

DCallahan said:
One factor that I think doesn't get talked about much with rooting success, Is the condition of the parent tree. Many of the trees out in circulation are young and potted. Potted is fine but most don't get the nutrition needed to get near their full potential. This could be a whole different thread on its own.
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This is an excellent point. I suspect this is one reason Harvey C.'s cuttings do so well. Another good reason to go in-ground.
 
I lost the first three semilingified cuttings of Angelito that I attempted. They were in the middle of summer, and I attempted a method of rooting I will not be trying again. This dormancy I started 13 angelitos with the more conventional fig pop method. I was successful with all 13. In my experience method of propagation, and time of year matter quite a bit in the success, or failure of a cutting. Also phenotype can play a part in the performance of a cutting.
 
I've had a tough time with I-376, both this season and last. And my cuttings came from a premium purveyor of inground planted California cuttings.
 
Personally I've not paid much attention to the "varieties" that hard to root. There are quite a few propagation methods get more fig plants.

As for rooting, the most failure I had was RdB. That is the only variety that I remember.
 
@PapaFig I have expounded on a variety I did not agree with Angelito. Let me agree with CdD Mutante a variety that often has kicked my asp as Cleopatra once said. Thermolito has beating me in a contest of Wills more than once. Though I currently grow it, I'm afraid this had everything to do with the kindness of @Bigbill , and his customer service at OTBP, and very little to do with me.
 
Figless said:
@PapaFig I have expounded on a variety I did not agree with Angelito. Let me agree with CdD Mutante a variety that often has kicked my asp as Cleopatra once said. Thermolito has beating me in a contest of Wills more than once. Though I currently grow it, I'm afraid this had everything to do with the kindness of @Bigbill , and his customer service at OTBP, and very little to do with me.
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Yes. Luckily I got CDD Mutante a few years back by omega graft - one of the first grafts I did.

I've found the CDD's generally hard to root EXCEPT CDD BN (blanca negra), which I got the first try and have rooted several times since. CDD Blanc may be the hardest (and best) of them. We normally only buy one cuttings of somethings, but if it has 5-6 nodes or more we will split it and do two strikes. If it's failed before (BFF, Luv, Sangue Dolce, Galicia Negra - all repeatedly) then I will graft. If expensive, I'll try to strike one of two and graft a couple as well from the one scion. I usually buy from Harvey when possible because I have a good % success with his and the normally have as many as 8-10 nodes or more.

I'm grafting some of his today/yesterday and tomorrow.
 
Genuinely curious, how would one benefit from such a list? Is it intended for newbies to steer them away from these 'hard to root' varieties? Or maybe it's intended to make experienced growers feel better about failed attempts at rooting these?

Similar to @DCallahan, I see quite a few on that list that rooted very easily for me. Many I rooted many times over with similar results. Zaffiro last year rooted in 4 weeks and grew huge by the end of the season, and ripened close to 60 figs for me. VDB, RDB, Bourgasotte Grise, and I-258 are some of my most vigorous growers and root eagerly every time. Rooting Galicia Negra and Ponte Tresa right now and I don't seem any better or worse than other varieties. Both developed roots and leafed out with no problems. HDA rooted great, but not a super fast grower. CDD Mutante rooted fast for me and looks to be ahead of many other varieties from the same cohort. CDD Noir is not far behind. Negretta rooted very easily for me. So did LDA.

Most of the time, IMHO, it's not what we root/grow, it's how we do it.
 
Campaniere 2 - me 0. It has been the most challenging variety for me from 2 different sellers . Also I personally collected half a dozen cuttings from an unknown fig tree growing on the side of a road and all of them rooted and leafed but crashed and burned for unknown reasons to me .
 
Bellefleurs said:
Jolly Tiger...or at least I can't seem to keep this one alive.
Even my grafts grew and then died by the end of the summer.
It is my most frustrating one to attempt to grow.
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I have had a hard time with this one to.
Either pushed out roots and then died.
Did not survive up-potting.
Or if it survived. It did not have variegated leaves.
Fingers crossed this year will be different.
 
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