JOLLY TIGER FIG CULTURE
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As you can see I am redoing this entire web page. There are many viewers who do not have English as a second language and I feel their need is best addressed more as pictorial essays.
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FIG TREE CUTTINGS
All variegated plants have a genetic disease called chimera. It effects the plants ability to produce cells that have chlorophyll. Reproducing plants that have desirable variegation can often be challenging. One of the most difficult is the JOLLY TIGER fig. Let us look at 5 chimera examples that I have found on my farm.
Virginia Blue Bell Japanese Wine Berry Pachysandra
American Spicebush Wapsipinicon Peach Tomato
This peach tomato is the best example as how to develop a new cultivar should you find an interesting plant that has developed variegation on a leaf or branch.
This peach tomato is the best example as how to develop a new cultivar should you find an interesting plant that has developed variegation on a leaf or branch.
A single leaf was discovered growing on a Wapsipinicon Peach tomato. The leaves growing above the variegated leaf were green and the branch was allowed to grow.
When it was an appropriate size the branch was removed and the cutting was sprouted in water. After roots had formed it was potted and allowed to establish its self in a pot.
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After it was established the green top was removed and the leaf bud of the variegated leaf then sprouted. As you can see, new leaves were variegated.
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A new cultivar was created. This new cultivar does not reproduce from its seed and must be reproduced from cuttings. If seeds are planted they sprout green or albino and of course the albino ones die.
Jolly Tiger figs present a number of difficulties in propagation. First it is not like other figs. If you have a cutting of a Hardy Chicago with just one bud and it sprouts you will get a Hardy Chicago. However this is not true with Jolly Tiger. The chimera disease is spaced unevenly through out the stem and any single bud can sprout as green, albino, poorly variegated or highly variegated. You want cuttings to have as many buds as possible, this gives you more chances. If it sprouts albino just cut it off and let another bud sprout till you get a desirable result.
Starting Cuttings
I have a preference to the baggie method. It is simple and almost foolproof.
There are two ways to wrap the figs depending on which season you have taken your cutting. If they were taken in full dormancy you wrap the stem from the bottom edge to an inch from the top. If the figs are in an active growing stage and they have leaves, cut the leaves off and then wrap the cutting with 1/2 inch of the bottom showing and leave 1 inch at the top exposed.
.....................tired will finish tomorrow???????
There are two ways to wrap the figs depending on which season you have taken your cutting. If they were taken in full dormancy you wrap the stem from the bottom edge to an inch from the top. If the figs are in an active growing stage and they have leaves, cut the leaves off and then wrap the cutting with 1/2 inch of the bottom showing and leave 1 inch at the top exposed.
.....................tired will finish tomorrow???????
Here are the cuttings I have callused using the baggie method and will pot up. These are small scraps from trimming figs that needed pruning.
This is all ten cuttings, 8 are thinner than the pencil. I have found that small cuttings have a higher % of success at rooting than longer thicker ones. Larger cuttings also have more of a tendency to sometimes develop leaves but no roots or develop roots and no leaves. It is not common but will cause occasional failure.
Very important to note are the large number of leaf scars on shorter thin cuttings, the one the left of this photo has 16. Should the first bud to sprout be albino or green you just cut it off and let the next one sprout till a well variegated branch is achieved. Often larger cuttings have just 3 leaf buds, just 3 chances to achieve variegation. Also if at any time in the future there is a need to cut the whole top off the latent buds will sprout and probably give you a multiple trunked tree. **Good for cutting stock.
Pick a spot to grow the cuttings and prepare every thing in advance.
And NO SUNNY window sills.
You will need to keep 100% humidity. I have terrariums but a pot with sticks around the edge and a clear plastic bag will do just fine. Here in my colder climate I use a seed heating pad. The ideal temperature is between 70 and 80 degrees.
It is of the utmost importance that the pots never be in standing water!!! Also you should not over water the cuttings, that is the leading cause of failure. Below is the terrarium fitted with wood slats to keep pots well above the standing water.
I cut the bottoms of nursery flats to fit and support the pots.
Pour some water in to help maintain the high humidity.
Choose your pot. You can use small clear juice cups or standard nursery pots. The advantage with the clear containers is more cuttings fit in the same space and you get to see the roots that have formed, but then you have to replant them to larger pots. The soil mix for these small containers is (2) parts perlite - (1) part vermiculite - (1) part seed starter mix.
The nursery pots are filled with commercial potting mix and in the center a depression is made and filled with a mix of (1) part perlite (1) part vermiculite
(1) part seed starter mix. These do not need repotting and don't suffer the shock from doing so.
I have chosen pots. I fill the pots loosely with potting mix and push a juice cup in and then pack the pot with more mix. The cup is then removed and the 1-1-1 mix is placed in that hole. Poke a hole in the mix and stick the cutting.
Place the cuttings in the terrarium mist them and cover. I keep the spray bottle handy and often mist them through out the day. The thermometer is a good idea. And remember do not let standing water touch the bottoms of the pots.
Below are the cuttings one month later. I have numbered them 1 through 10 in the order they leafed out. All of these cuttings were trimmed from plants and would have been discarded but instead I sprouted them to see if they could be used as examples and show how you can work inferior stock and hopefully get some good trees with a little effort. We shall start with plant #1.
#1 upper bud all green. Top view. Cut green branch off. Lower branch is more albino on one side and may need to be trimmed to a well variegated branch later on.
#2 top view. Small lower branch albino. Cut it off and your done.
#3 top view, small new leaf is very variegated. Second photo shows scar from branch that was removed above a slightly variegated leaf. The small side branch that sprouted had some variegated leaves and as you see the terminal bud put out a excellent plant. But we are not finished, we must think of the future of little Jolly Tiger. In the third photo the pointer indicates
Have a great now. JIM
I shall post the progress of these cuttings, remember short is good.
The unabridged version.
PROPAGATING JOLLY TIGER FIGS
(there very aggravating, time consuming and rewarding if you successfully
beat them into submission and don't go crazy in the process)
And so it starts. 22 cuttings were taken on the 15th of November and placed in two ziplock bags. The cuttings were from the very best variegated branches and as you can see written on the ziplock there are 6 cuttings from the # 5 clone. The # 5 clone is also shown above in PRUNING TO MAINTAIN ARCHETYPE. Most looking at that # 5 clone photo would consider that 20 cuttings could be taken. NO, you want the best. Even with taking the best cuttings possible you will see that does not guarantee it will sprout variegated. The potential is there and with pruning variegation can be achieved.
December 1st, initiates have formed.
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The ends are well calloused.
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I chose to plant that day with out waiting for roots to form on the calluses the reason being that the cuttings were taken during a warm spell and were engorged with rising sap. The nutrients stored in the cuttings precludes the necessity to wait for root formation. If you have dormant plants I would suggest bring them into a warm room and wait till you see some slight swelling of the buds - take the cuttings then and put the plant back in to the cold till spring. Cuttings that are taken after such rise of sap often have 100% success rate as did this batch of 22.
At one month there is 100% bud break. The cutting medium is two parts perlite, one part vermiculite and one part seed starter mix. As with all fig cuttings there is a wide variance with some developing roots first, some leaves only and a great difference of progress - some with branches others have just a touch of green on the bud. As you can see all cuttings are in a covered terrarium and on a grate so they don't stand in water
Here are some of the larger ones at five weeks and showing good variegation. This and all the photos below were taken under grow lights.
All the next photos were taken on January 1st and will show the percentages of quality plants from a typical group. Mind you the cuttings were selected from the very best variegated plants and shows there is no guarantee as to what you will get! The first three photos are of plants that are excellent, sale-able and need no work, just let them grow. You can click to expand for a better look. There is one issue with the third tree from the left of the first photo. The bottom bud sprouted albino. In this case it will be removed and when potted in a larger pot the soil level will be raised to just under the top variegated sprout.
In this next photo below the first tree has to much albinism so I will let the green sprout at the bottom grow and supply nutrients and see what happens. If it gets a more balanced variegation the green sprout will be removed. If things don't go well and the tree has a strong root system both sprouts will be removed and the wound of the top albino sprout will be scraped so it does not sprout again. How ever you do not want to scrap to much to the left or right as there always are two small latent buds to the side. It's natures failsafe and if a bud gets damaged they should sprout and hopefully with this little surgery be well variegated.
The second tree in the photo has an easy fix - prune the albino top off. You can do the remove the sprout and cut close to the latent side buds, exacto knives are best, and see what happens and if it fails cut it off.
The second tree in the photo has an easy fix - prune the albino top off. You can do the remove the sprout and cut close to the latent side buds, exacto knives are best, and see what happens and if it fails cut it off.
Now for the last two plants in the photo they are green with a smattering of variegation on all leaves. They will be left to grow, if they do not develop properly cut the offending bud off and let sprout again. There are 8 yet to sprout buds on the terminal cutting and six on the last. The odds that you will get at lest one of these buds to develop an excellent variegation is very high. It's not a situation you have to over think.
Now on to the last photo. The sixteen plants that were shown above will all be great quality trees and 16 out of 22 isn't bad but remember all the cuttings were of top quality stock so it's just a matter of making them sprout again and keeping fingers crossed.
Now on to the last photo. The sixteen plants that were shown above will all be great quality trees and 16 out of 22 isn't bad but remember all the cuttings were of top quality stock so it's just a matter of making them sprout again and keeping fingers crossed.
OK. Here in quick order left to right. First tree all green - cut branch and let latents sprout. Second tree two albino branches - remove lower, remove upper and scrape leaving only the latent bud on the left side. It's at the edge of a green and albino stripe. This third tree is all green but has a new branch forming so I will give it time to prove it's self. If it fails remove all branches and let the latents sprout. The forth tree is green but the terminal is now active if it fails the terminal and the two branches will be given the ax, It has a number of buds that have yet to sprout. The fifth has an albino leaf and a green one - let it grow and see how it does and the terminal just sprouting may be it's salvation, if not cut top off and let the other buds (4) sprout. The sixth and final tree, green on bottom and albino on top. Again the latents on both sides of the albino are very close to green stripes. All the procedures should yield some good results. To those that did not you must try one last and most draconian procedure. Take a hand pruner and cut the trees 1/4" below ground level and see what eventually pops out of the ground. There are buds on the buried trunk and also some times they will callus at the cut wound and sprout new growth.
**If you are really hard core you can cut in between two leaf scars and let the wound callus. Then you can scrape off most of the callus leaving only a small part that is above chimera lines on the green stem. The cells will organize and sprout. With the chimera in such close proximity it has a very good chance to variegate. To much effort for my taste.
And that's all it takes to get a good tree to market. Have a great now. JIM
**If you are really hard core you can cut in between two leaf scars and let the wound callus. Then you can scrape off most of the callus leaving only a small part that is above chimera lines on the green stem. The cells will organize and sprout. With the chimera in such close proximity it has a very good chance to variegate. To much effort for my taste.
And that's all it takes to get a good tree to market. Have a great now. JIM
Have a great now. JIM
