Old Wives Tales or Stubborn Opinions on Fig Growing

I agree with most in the OP, I think my experience of fragile roots comes from my stent to water rooting.
Taking them out of water to put in soil I was trying to be so careful but they were breaking off anyway.
Even seeming to have turned a darker shade and being rather long.

I could just be heavy handed. lol
 
DCallahan said:
@bushdoctor82 , I'm curious on the rational for the Grafted tree statement.
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A seller can take a limited amount of propagation material and graft onto unwanted rootstocks and pump trees out faster than rooting a cutting and selling the rooted cutting. In the event the graft dies on the buyer, the buyer is only left with unwanted rootstock.
 
Lafiggy said:
There are no “hard to root” varieties. All varieties root just fine but countless cutting related (freshness, tree health, storage) and grower related variables contribute to the false belief that a particular variety is difficult to root.
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A false belief is still a belief, which contributes to being an old wives tale or just a stubborn opinion as many of mine in this thread.
 
BucksCountyFigs said:
Is this really not true?
Newbie minds want to know.
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It’s only true if you don’t suck at grafting 😅. I’ve done a bunch of it trying to figure it out and I’ve got better luck rooting cuttings than grafting 😅. I’ve watched endless videos, ensured Cambium alignment, etc. I’m gonna guess time of the year has something to do with it.
 
Lafiggy said:
There are no “hard to root” varieties. All varieties root just fine but countless cutting related (freshness, tree health, storage) and grower related variables contribute to the false belief that a particular variety is difficult to root.
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I agree here. I also feel the vigor of a plant is highly variable not the variety nessecarily.
 
bushdoctor82 said:
A seller can take a limited amount of propagation material and graft onto unwanted rootstocks and pump trees out faster than rooting a cutting and selling the rooted cutting. In the event the graft dies on the buyer, the buyer is only left with unwanted rootstock.
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So no consideration for rootstock selection that may of been selected to increase vigor, RKN resistance?
Also grafted trees are often of rare or in demand varieties , so the seller is increasing the availability of said variety to the community. Benefits the seller but it's not a complete one way street.
 
bushdoctor82 said:
A seller can take a limited amount of propagation material and graft onto unwanted rootstocks and pump trees out faster than rooting a cutting and selling the rooted cutting. In the event the graft dies on the buyer, the buyer is only left with unwanted rootstock.
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I completely see what you are saying. However, there are some pros. When a new variety comes out, the price for a grafted tree is cheaper than when it’s on its own roots. I have no issues airlayering later to get it on it’s own roots. Like @DCallahan said, the more material that gets out there, the faster it gets propagated, driving prices down. Fruitnut would be a great example of this.

Vigor is another, i.e. throwing a Madeira type or heavy FMV affected variety on good rootstock. Really the only con to a grafted tree would be possible winter loss in ground. If it’s in a pot and is a prized variety for someone, they should be taking steps move and protect it, in addition to airlayering and taking cuttings.

Other pros, but I’m going keep the this on topic.

An old wives tale (for me), is the fear of over fertilizing figs. I’m not saying it’s impossible (especially freshly rooted), but I fertilize 1st years pretty damn heavy every 1-2 weeks during summer and haven’t really seen the ill effects people worry about. My trees got drip irrigated so almost no fertilizer wash out either. I also planted some in 27 gallon SIPs with same fertilizer schedule as everyone else. No fertilizer run out because it’s a SIP so all the salts were accumulating down in the reservoir. They had amazing growth, with 1st year whips getting 1.5 in to 2.0 in trunks at the base. Those SIPs had blackberries in them before, so actually those figs were planted in a SIP that had 2 prior years of fertilizer accumulation in the reservoir.
 
DCallahan said:
So no consideration for rootstock selection that may of been selected to increase vigor, RKN resistance?
Also grafted trees are often of rare or in demand varieties , so the seller is increasing the availability of said variety to the community. Benefits the seller but it's not a complete one way street.
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My statement will change if a rootstock exists with proven RKN resistance, as that would benefit me.

I’m not in the market for high demand or high vigor varieties. My original statements are just my stubborn opinions, though I can also see the other side of the coin.
 
ohiobruce said:
Great topic. I'm new and have seen so many successful growers that do things exactly opposite from other successful growers.

I'd like to hear more of your thoughts about pruning inground before winter. The guy I got my CH cuttings from prunes before the winter. He leaves trunks less than a foot tall and then covers them with straw. He's done it this way for years and has hundreds of figs.
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That's my process as well for inground figs, I keep at 12 to 16 inches before covering with a 10/20 gallon pot, cover with straw, silver tarp, never fails.
 
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