Regrowth from the roots

Bofig

Bofig

Well-known member
So is there any definitive answer from regrowth coming from roots when there is no nodes below ground but all top nodes have died? Many posts out there speculating for and against, some anecdotal reports of it being possible while others claiming it’s just a lateral shoot popping up. Almost every plant out there, if the root system is large enough can produce new vegetative growth from the roots, why not figs. I have a few single node trees I rooted and they are very healthy looking below soil after winter die back but there may not be any nodes left to grow from. I guess there may be one there or maybe they can magically grow new nodes over summer. Lots of us zone pushers have learned the hard way about winter kill, figs will survive zone 4b with light mulching. However my lesson learned is bury the initial planting a few nodes deep to insure new growth has a guaranteed place to start. One tree I dug up I for sure thought was dead but turns out the node above soil grew new shoots even from what appeared to be a goner, so there is always hope. Medici 3 is the photo
 

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It's a fascinating subject. I think there is much more regrowth from buried nodes than there ever has been from The Roots. Having read several threads on the subject.
 
Figless said:
It's a fascinating subject. I think there is much more regrowth from buried nodes than there ever has been from The Roots. Having read several threads on the subject.
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What if the tree dies to the ground no nodes left. You take a nice root and grow said root?
Lots to figs. :)
 
On the old platform there was an exhaustive thread on whether this could happen. Up till that thread I always believed what you just wrote. Maybe you could expound on this a little more to help clarify. As you know I'm just one step above newbie status due to my wet behind the ears just one day old experience in growing figs.
 
I dug up my in ground RdB last weekend, because I couldn't find green cambium even down 3 inches below soil level, with the scratch test. When I got the tree uprooted, sure enough, there was a new growth point sticking out from the bottom of a larger root in the rootball. The growth point was not on the original cutting wood, that had rooted inground originally.
 
FruitBrute said:
I dug up my in ground RdB last weekend, because I couldn't find green cambium even down 3 inches below soil level, with the scratch test. When I got the tree uprooted, sure enough, there was a new growth point sticking out from the bottom of a larger root in the rootball. The growth point was not on the original cutting wood, that had rooted inground originally.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a for sure roots producing buds then, should’ve snapped a pic for us lol
 
Bofig said:
So is there any definitive answer from regrowth coming from roots when there is no nodes below ground but all top nodes have died? Many posts out there speculating for and against, some anecdotal reports of it being possible while others claiming it’s just a lateral shoot popping up. Almost every plant out there, if the root system is large enough can produce new vegetative growth from the roots, why not figs. I have a few single node trees I rooted and they are very healthy looking below soil after winter die back but there may not be any nodes left to grow from. I guess there may be one there or maybe they can magically grow new nodes over summer. Lots of us zone pushers have learned the hard way about winter kill, figs will survive zone 4b with light mulching. However my lesson learned is bury the initial planting a few nodes deep to insure new growth has a guaranteed place to start. One tree I dug up I for sure thought was dead but turns out the node above soil grew new shoots even from what appeared to be a goner, so there is always hope. Medici 3 is the photo
Click to expand...
This photo still shows the "stem" part of the plant. It is just buried below ground. Below or above does not make it roots or stems.

The real roots and stem/trunk have different plant structures. Although some plants can start from roots, it is very rare for this to happen with common fig plants. So we can't just cut off a big part of the underground root and try to root from roots.

The center part of the plant under the ground is actually stem/trunk. Roots grow from the buried stem. This is where all those suckers grow from below the ground.

With fig plant gets winter damages, it kills off all above-ground section and several inch below ground. The viable buried stem sends new shoots. If the damage is too deep, or there is little buried stem, or the soil is too heavy, the new shoots won't be successful. So the plant dies. This is how fig plants can be killed in ground.

For this reason, some growers do bury fig plants several inches deeper. So it protects more stem section. This can stress the plant is the soil is too heavy.
 
All this is clearly root. No thick underground shoots. If you cut a piece of any of the roots, it won't root.

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One thing I’ll do is this fall I will cut some root chunks and try to grow them indoors to see what happens. Definitely is a difference on thickness of roots being viable. What red sun is showing are mostly feeder roots which definitely won’t sucker. I think the thickness roots say sharpie size or bigger are needed to store enough energy to grow a new vegetative node. I personally have seen stem above ground push growth from non node points when I first started. The cutting was one inch diameter and rooted heavily into a one gallon pot grew nicely but something broke off the only green growth, a week later little green bumps formed on the cutting in random spots and produced new nodes/shoots. If there is energy available I’m sure anything is possible but maybe not the standard.
 
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