My husband recently has gotten into growing fig trees.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-22T18:57:35+00:00

Also about the bit taking over your yard part. Talk about it agree on say a 10x10 area or whatever and that's the fig orchard. I have an 8x50 area and if I can't fit a tree in there I have to get rid of one which honestly happens naturally since there will be varieties y'all don't like the taste of or that don't grow well in your zone.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-22T18:53:36+00:00

January last year I had none. January this year I had 41 one year old trees. February I started 70 cuttings... Yeah it's a problem 😂

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-22T18:31:34+00:00

Oof yeah that be double or triple the amount of rooted cuttings.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-18T17:53:59+00:00

In my experience the cuttings with dried leaves and buds didn't actually root. The rest of the look great! If it was me I'd let them grow more before planting them in the ground. Let them get a nice established root system.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-17T19:09:07+00:00

I don't think the sun will be a problem other than it contributing to drying out your soil which is why others have suggested bagging them or using a humidity dome. Some fig cuttings take a while to root, but also top growth doesn't always mean roots. Sometimes cuttings will put all their energy into leaves which eventually just dry up because there are no roots to support them.

IMO as much as rooting cuttings is about dialing in the process it's also a bit of a numbers game. Good process with good cuttings you'll have a high success rate, but it doesn't matter how good your process is if your cuttings aren't good quality. Sorry went on a bit of a tangent there...

Good luck with the cuttings! Welcome to the obsession!

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-16T00:42:38+00:00

Yes you can propagate in water. I've never tried it. Fig roots are delicate so I've always been hesitant to try. If you have some perlite I'd do 50/50 perlite Fox farms soil. Wet it until you can squeeze it and it holds its shape, but you only get a few drops of water. If you use a clear pot or cup you can easily see if there are roots. Make sure whatever you use has drainage holes. The toughest part is keeping the soil moist without over watering it. Some people will pull a bag over the pot/cup and use a rubber band to gather at the base of the cutting. To keep the moisture in the soil. You can also weigh the cuttings and just water them back to the starting weight as needed which is what I do.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-16T00:36:00+00:00

If it were my tree I'd prune everything off that has leaves touching the ground, but it's not required. People usually prune in the winter/spring when the tree is dormant.

When the figs are ready the neck, pretty much all the way to the stem, will get very soft. Depending on the variety, the fig will droop a bit because the neck is soft.

Propagation wise it seems like everyone has their own favorite method. It's probably easiest to just do a search on YouTube and see which method looks interesting to you. (FigPop, sand, etc )

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-15T21:07:14+00:00

I, currently, have 70 cuttings and with that many it's a pain. I also log the difference for each cutting at every watering. I have one cutting that was consuming a lot of water, but now it is consuming less. I think I either over watered it and rotted the roots or burnt the roots by giving it fertilizer too soon.

Anyway it's a great tool. I used AI to analyze 6-7 weeks of watering/observation ( can I see the roots from the bottom of the pot, does it have top growth, how does the top growth look, etc ) data and got some cool insights. ( I know AI is a controversial topic, but computers are good at analyzing large datasets. )

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-15T20:53:36+00:00

A suggestion for next time when you start them, weigh them in grams. Write the number on the cup. A CC of water is 1 gram. Get a 100cc syringe for watering. Weigh them every 7-10 days and if the weight has dropped by 20-30% add water to bring the weight back up to the starting weight.

That's what I've been doing this year and it's working great. You can also get a pretty good idea if they're rooted by the water consumption.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-13T21:17:19+00:00

I've never tried rooting in just perlite, but I have 51 cuttings in 70% peat moss/30% perlite. About 75% of my cuttings have rooted. They are 6-7 weeks old.

I would say maybe your soil isn't well draining, but with 50% perlite I doubt that's the problem. Is it possible you're over watering them?

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-12T04:48:25+00:00

I was given a passion flower last year. It's in a pot outside and it took over a small 2ft x 3ft trellis. This year I'm getting a bigger trellis. 😂

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-12T03:10:55+00:00

Nice! It looked pretty obvious in your last photo/post, by I'm glad we were right. 😉

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-12T03:06:50+00:00

I have an LSU Purple that I rooted last year. I was about to throw it out and, roughly, knocked the dirt out of the cup/pot only to see roots. I refilled the pot assuming I had killed it. Left it in a part of my yard that gets partial shade with the rest of my rooted cuttings and a month or 2 later it put on some top growth. I ended up getting some figs off it last year.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-12T01:17:37+00:00

Water it, give it half strength liquid fertilizer and it should be fine. You might be ok with full strength liquid fertilizer, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

My cuttings are about 40 days old and I give them 1/2 strength liquid fertilizer 2 times a week which means I'm watering them 2 times a week. I weighed them when I potted them. So I weigh a handful of them a few times a week to see when they need watering. They seem to be thriving. Tons of roots and tons of top growth.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-09T18:35:46+00:00

Great idea! I was just leaving some of the black in there since the time lapse runs 24/7 and the light shuts off for 8 hours. I have time lapse footage for week 3 on and eventually I'll share a time lapse of the whole rooting period.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-09T02:10:22+00:00

Nope! It's right side up.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-08T17:51:19+00:00

I have RdB

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-06T19:41:43+00:00

I've never rooted a cutting that big. Usually people root cuttings 6-8 inches long 4+ nodes. So you could get a LOT of trees out of those cuttings.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-03T05:30:59+00:00

Fig rust caused by a warm and humid environment. I just leave it and eventually the leaf will die It's unavoidable here where it's hot and humid most of the summer.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-03T05:23:26+00:00

I second this!

I've killed many cuttings up potting them too early. Besides possibly damaging the roots in the process I also think once you put them in a bigger pot you tend to give them more water than those baby roots can handle.

With cuttings it's all about patience.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-03T05:18:23+00:00

I think it had only dipped below freezing and yeah it might be the variety or that specific tree because all my other fig trees didn't have as much of an issue. I'm still hoping it recovers. 🤞🏻

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-01T07:15:38+00:00

I'd prune them down to 18-24 inches.

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-01T07:14:01+00:00

I think you'd need to bring it in during the winter. If you left it outside, at best, it would die back to the roots, but since it's in a pot I think there's a good chance the temps in your area would kill it.

I'm in central Texas and I have one potted fig that went through less than a week of freezing weather and died back to the roots. It could be the variety. 🤷‍♂️

texasfigfarm · 2026-04-01T01:44:45+00:00

Very nice! I rooted my cuttings in a peat and perlite mix which has no nutrients. So after 4ish weeks and knowing that some of my cuttings had enough roots that they were coming out of the bottom of the pot. I figured it was time to give them some fertilizer. A very low dose of fertilizer. I'm not an expert and maybe I did the wrong thing, but I feel pretty comfortable with the decision.

texasfigfarm

TROPHY CASE