So far so good, if I do say so myself. All 5 branches at each of the three windows are showing some kind of growth, be it solely at the roots, budding leaves, or both. Keep in mind that all three jars of water and cuttings are located in very sunny windows, and that we hit 90 degrees F a few times last week. So here is your week 2 update on my propagating fig trees in water experiment.
There are two cuttings in one La Parfait jar (1 liter size) in the left living room window. Last week neither had any bud growth/development, but did have the beginning of little nubs that would become roots. This week cutting #1 grew two leaves with another in the works...
...and a little bud is forming further down the cutting closer to the water line.
There has also been a little more root growth, but nothing as significant to note as budding leaves.
Cutting #2 is also getting some little leaves, though in the top third of the cutting.
Some more root nubs (I'm sure that's not the official name, but it's what I'm going with for now until I find out otherwise), on cutting #2 as well, in addition to a little budding that is actually happening on the part of the cutting that is submerged in the water. Can you find it? It's the little bit of green that is all the way on the right side of the picture.
The right living room window also has 2 cuttings in a 1 liter La Parfait canning jar. We'll refer to them as cutting #3 and cutting #4 to avoid confusion from here on out. Cutting #3 was the only cutting last week that showed signs of real roots (and not just nubs), and has shown even more root growth this week.
Cutting #3 is also beginning to show a little bud coming out near the top, as can be seen above (faintly - it's teeny tiny).
Cutting #4 is showing more root growth, but no budding to speak of yet. It's becoming harder to keep this branch submerged in water as the roots are growing at the tippy top of the water line, and some of the roots are actually growing upwards out of the jar.
And last but not least, the lone fig cutting being attempted upstairs by our bedroom window in a half liter La Parfait jar. We'll call this cutting #5 to keep with the trend. There's a little more root growth on the nubs, but nothing to write home about...
...but I'm excited to say that there are 2 small leaves coming out of the top bud. This is a huge difference from last week when the bud was just beginning to open.
How things went down in week 2:
22/7/13: Bud opening on cutting #5 by the bedroom window.
24/7/13: Full tiny leaf present on cutting #5.
25/7/13: Side bud opening on cutting #1 in the left window of the living room; 1 root broke off of cutting #4 in the right window.
26/7/13: Cutting #5 starting to get 2nd leaf; more budding at the top of cutting #1.
Observations:
Handle the jars with care. We moved the jars hastily during a huge thunderstorm this week when we had to shut the windows on the quick, and I think that is when the root broke off of cutting #4.
Thoughts:
Now that some of the cuttings have significant root growth (cuttings #3 and #4), or significant leaf growth (cuttings #1, #2, and #5), I'm beginning to wonder when I should actually pot the cuttings. I've read that cuttings in soil can actually get leaves before roots have developed, so I think I can wait on cuttings #1, #2 and #5 until the root systems are more developed. However I'm not sure when the cuttings with an inch or two of roots should be potted. I'm leaning towards another 2 weeks, but will revisit that once I see the changes this week.
Forget what happened in last week's update? Check it out here!
Not sure what I'm trying to do here? Here's the explanation.
Check back here next Monday for the week 3 installment of this experiment!
A la prochaine friends...
Honey
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