How to Root Green Fig Cuttings

Hi all!

I am new to the blogging world, and would love to share my experiences growing in Canberra Australia.

For my first post I would like to share how I successfully rooted four green fig cuttings that I recently took from a tree I came across on the way to Orange NSW.

Here are a two pictures of the donor tree. I choose this particular tree because it was quite laden with fruit, appeared totally wild and was extremely healthy despite any apparent human assistance. I am yet to taste the fruit, but will be returning in April and hope some fresh figs will be ripe then so I know what I am in for!

Fig tree cuttings are generally propagated at the end of winter when they are pruned as they come out of dormancy. Propagating an actively growing, green cutting is just as easy! Here is what I did:

First, I went down to Bunnings and bought a bag of seed raising mix, which will cost about $6 and a bag of perlite which costs about $8, although these prices may vary depending upon where you live.

I then mixed these together in a ratio of about 40% perlite to 60% seed raising mix, and put them into an empty shoebox, the final mix looked like this:

I took four cuttings from the donor fig. I chose four branches about 1.5-2x larger than a pencil thick, and pulled off any figs and leaves that were on the branches. I have read previously that green cuttings can be fooled into a state of semi-dormancy by placing them in the fridge prior to germination. I put my cuttings in the fridge for just over 1 week.


Before putting the figs into my propagating mix I used a pair of scissors to lightly scrape away some of the brown bark on four sides of the cutting so that the green stem underneath was visible, and then dipped each cutting into a rooting hormone with 3g/L Indole-3-Butyric Acid. I bought this at Bunnings and it cost me about $10 from memory. There were two types available, a red version and a purple. I chose the purple, as it was listed as for softwood cuttings.

Before placing my cuttings in the soil mix I dampened the mixture so that it was damp to touch, and yet still light and fluffy. It is important to make sure that the soil mix isn't too wet, as this can invite rot, and suffocate any newly developing roots.

I put the cuttings in my mix, covering them totally with the soil mixture, and then put them in a room in the front of my house that receives plenty of afternoon sunshine, and stays nice and warm. About every 3 days I went with a spray bottle and gave the mix a good spray to ensure it remained damp.

After just over 2 weeks I dug up the cuttings to check on the root growth and was greeted with this lovely image!

I then potted three of these cuttings into plastic cups, so I could see the progress of the root growth, and one into a 1.9L pot. I then put all of these cutting into the bath in the bathroom, to ensure a nice high level of humidity to encourage further root and leaf growth.

I will talk about the soil mix I potted the cuttings into in another post, and update with the cutting progress as time goes by.

Thanks all for tuning in to my inaugural blog post!