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I strongly suggest you keep your cutting in a zip-lock baggie or similar. Anything and everything you can do to reduce transpiration will help. The cutting doesn't really need roots or leaves at this point. Its energy is contained in the trunk, keeping too many leaves just means that you will overtax you new rootsystem quickly.

I've been doing some playing around with defoliating ficus retusa and taking cuttings, trying to find out how well these kinds of procedures work in my environment. The one thing that is most clearly noticable is that anything you do to increase the humidity around your ficus is well appreciated.

Currently I'm simply using a bowl of water with a 'magic mister' in it, which works wonders to increase the humidity locally. A magic mister will cost you about $12,- on eBay, and works way better than the humidifier I've got as well.

Good luck with your monster cutting

Stefan

Attached Images

	tigerbark_ficus_01.jpg (54.4 KB, 14 views)
	tigerbark_ficus_02.jpg (45.6 KB, 16 views)
	magicmister.jpg (18.9 KB, 17 views)

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