Mentoring a newbie

Dreyenn

Dreyenn

Member
I have a guy that since July has bought 10 trees from me. Over the months we have become friends, and I started explaining the fig rooting method I use to him. He got the bug to start some that I don't have so he visited FigBid and evidently dropped a rather large amount of money on a bunch of cuttings. He won't say how much but from things he has said it must have been a lot. I know he has some Golden Rainbows, an Angelito and no telling what else. So now he is so nervous waiting for them to root, he is second guessing everything and constantly texting me for advice. He is also watching YouTube videos and starting to get confused. He thought the medium was too wet, so he pulled them and repotted, then he wanted to pull them to wrap in parafilm, I stopped him from pulling them again. The ledge I had to talk him off of this morning was wanting to melt wax on the entire cutting to keep them from drying out so, I recommended a clear tote to control humidity but warned him of cutting dependency on that amount of humidity and removing them from it too quickly. I hadn't realized it, but I have picked up a lot of knowledge over the years from trial and error and from you guys on the forum and I like being able to help the next generation of growers. He just jumped in the deep end before knowing how to swim and is now worried about drowning. I know he is on another forum learning and I don't mind the questions, if I can help him get ahead of the learning curve then mores the better. 

An old local TV sportsman host used to end his show by saying "And do yourself a favor, take a kid fishing", I kinda know what he meant now.
 
You are a kind person, so this doesn't surprise me at all. I'm glad you are trying to help him. Sometimes the fig bug bites hard. It would be an enormous boon for any newbie to have a fig friend and mentor to help out. I sure hope he has good success in the end.
 
Ah, been there, done that! :)

It’s a lot of work, but good on you for helping him. The problem is that there is a ton of advice out there. But what a lot of people don’t realize is how specific some of it is to the region someone is growing in. Rooting in a humid environment is a little different than rooting in a dry one. So you can get conflicting advice just depending on where someone lives.
 
Inflorescence said:
Ah, been there, done that!  :)

It’s a lot of work, but good on you for helping him. The problem is that there is a ton of advice out there. But what a lot of people don’t realize is how specific some of it is to the region someone is growing in. Rooting in a humid environment is a little different than rooting in a dry one. So you can get conflicting advice just depending on where someone lives.
Click to expand...

Truer words were never spoken. Location and climate are key factors in rooting and growing. The US Horticultural Society released a heat zone map years ago that hasn’t been updated that is probably more useful than the USDA Hardiness Map. It would be nice if there was a map with an overlay with heat zones, hardiness and humidity.
 
bushdoctor82 said:
Inflorescence said:
Ah, been there, done that!  :)

It’s a lot of work, but good on you for helping him. The problem is that there is a ton of advice out there. But what a lot of people don’t realize is how specific some of it is to the region someone is growing in. Rooting in a humid environment is a little different than rooting in a dry one. So you can get conflicting advice just depending on where someone lives.
Click to expand...

Truer words were never spoken. Location and climate are key factors in rooting and growing. The US Horticultural Society released a heat zone map years ago that hasn’t been updated that is probably more useful than the USDA Hardiness Map. It would be nice if there was a map with an overlay with heat zones, hardiness and humidity.
Click to expand...

That would be really nice!
 
Many of us started out buying a bunch of cuttings And hoping for the best. And many of us lost a bunch of money. But in the end. We learned what works for us. And what does not. I hear a lot of people that have been doing this for a while. Say they get tired of answering the same ol questions over and over again. Me. I smile when I read some of the "Newbie" post as we all been there. I feel the point of being on any forum of any kind. Is to learn. But it is also to teach. Not to mention the friendships created. So I am happy to answer the same questions over and over again. In short. We all been there and we all can help the newer growers.
 
As a mod/admin, I once had a new grower send me a PM asking, "Can you please tell me everything that I need to know to grow figs?" No more to the message. That's all.    I didn't really know how to reply, other than to tell them that I am not the repository for all information. 

Anyhow... my best advice for anyone wanting to start rooting lots of cuttings... is, DON'T BUY EXPENSIVE CUTTINGS. Way back, when I wanted to learn to weld, a friend of mine who's a millwright came to my house to show me the basics.... I pulled out some nice clean pieces of steel to show him my current skill level... He promptly scolded me for using valuable pieces for practice instead of scrap. He said not to practice on anything that I wasn't prepared to otherwise dispose of. He saved me a lot of money. And today I can do real, practical work with valuable materials without messing them up  :)
 
Now that's some solid advice! Practice first and acquire some skill before spending the bucks. Free cuttings will be available soon. If your neighbor has a tree, they might be willing to let you have some. I'm sure people here will offer give-a-ways. I have given away free cuttings every year as part of my annual sale because I know what it's like to have a limited budget and I believe in giving back. There are lots of generous people here who want to help newbies. Save your money! Don't buy expensive cuttings!
 
Thanks @"2Angels"#127 

I totally get that. If someone in my area wants practice I will gladly offer as many cuttings as the want, gratis... only catch is that I expect them to use try to root them. I don't care how.
 
I had someone from Rhode Island very similar that bought probably 40-50 large trees over the course of a few years for quite a sum

I tried to help the best I could when he wanted help with cuttings, but I could only do so much over text. I kept referring him to the online forum, but not sure he ever went.

Turned out he spent thousands on cuttings and was able to get to like 300 varieties...but he definitely went about it the hard and expensive way. Ultimately, you can just advise to not spend too much but there's only so much you can do. Some people have money, and want to spend....
 
@"Dreyenn"#124 
Good for you for patiently teaching.. LOL your description of your newbie student with a thousand questions reminds me a lot of myself in the beginning part of this year. When the kind people who are members here took the time to teach me. @"ktrain"#2 @"GoodFriendMike"#9  @"TorontoJoe"#1 @Oak Fig and @"Inflorescence"#181 all took their turns trying to teach me. One thing that I wished I had done was to paint the very top of cuttings with indoor gloss, or semi-gloss latex paint instead of taping, or using wax. This came from @"Inflorescence"#181. I would have saved myself a lot of pain, and frustration if I had only followed their advice. LOL try to keep those newbies from buying expensive cuttings. Even I will have about 40 ft of practice cuttings available. LOL Peter's honey jumps to mind.
 
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