I have been waiting for a long while to get cuttings from this tree that has been in the family for 60+ years. It was my great-great-great grandparents tree. It is located in Arkansas unprotected. I was soo darn excited when my mom told me she got some cuttings, I could not wait. Yes Jenn, I got you 8 cuttings. She cut them yesterday morning, wrapped them in a wet paper towel in a zip lock.

She got here to Texas late yesterday evening. To my dismay they are tip cuttings. All the leaves were wilted. I immediately put them in water & cut off all the leaves as they were wilted pretty bad. They are still sitting in water. Is it even possible for them to root?

I was only able to get one leaf pic. My grandma said the earlier figs were much larger than the one pictured. Any ideas on what variety it might be? The pic of the fig only was very ripe & tasted of something like a melon berry. Not too sweet, no seed crunch, thin skin. The fig in the pic with the leaf was not as ripe. I didn't get a very good pic of the outside of the fig (stupid camera phone). I am attaching pics of the fig, leaf & mother tree.

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide!

My $$ says Celeste.

Jenn, anyway you can have them dug up an sucker with roots or set up an airlayer?    I have been lucky rooting the green cuttings of my own tree. I plant them in the soil, with very little exposed to the air. cover with a bottle with no bottom and keep it under filtered light (under the tree). some died back completely, but new shoots are coming up from the ground. So, even if yours seem dead, continue to treat it normally, maybe it makes a came back.  good luck .

Bass has a technique for rooting summer cuttings on his website.  It works for me.

Hi Jenn42,
Remove all leaves except the last two . Put 2/3 weeks in a bottle of water - changing the water every other day in a shady spot but not in darkness.
Then put in moist dark compost from nurseries during one month (keep water in the plate under the pot ) in a greenhouse. Avoid windy and cold spots as wind and cold desiccate cuttings .
Keep babying the cuttings and when they show stress of too much water ( yellowishing leaves) then progressively treat as trees by giving less water each day.

Do you have hardened (brown) wood attached to the cuttings or just really green wood ?
My method works for both .

The earlier figs where Breba figs meaning figs on last years growth the main crop figs are grown on new wood most often they are different in size. Any chance we could get a picture of the whole fig before cut?  for rooting softwood cuttings the 2 liter bottle trick works great 
 use a good potting soil with a little sand and fill a 1 gallon pot 1 inch from the top with the potting soil mix. water the pots, make sure the growing media is damp but not mud. remove all the leaves except the top 2 and cut them in half. a rooting hormone be it a powder, gel, or honey helps your chances of rooting so dip the bottom 2 inches of the cuttings in hormone if possible. make a hole in the center of the pot with a pen and stick your cutting in the hole. firm the soil around the cutting and place a 2 litter bottle with the bottom removed over the cutting. This acts as a mini greenhouse with extremely high humidity the leaves should not touch the edge of the 2 liter or mold will be an issue. place in highly filtered sunlight or under a CFL or FL light. in about 3 weeks new growth will form and it's time to loosen the cap just enough to break the airtight seal. a week later give it a half turn looser.  a week after that remove the cap from the bottle. watch it for the first 24 hours if looking wilted replace the cap ASAP and try again the following week.  after a week or so with no cap remove the bottle. if it looks wilted replace the bottle and try again next week. the total time for a small plant with self supporting roots is anywhere from 6-9 weeks. good luck

Thank you all! I cut off all the leaves. They were already wilted too bad, so there are no leaves. I still have them in water. I will get them into gallon pots tomorrow. I would say the 2-3"on the end is green & the rest (5" maybe) is woody looking. All are pencil thin tip cuttings. I will attach a pic of the fig before cutting, buy the color didn't come out right. It wasn't as dark as the pic shows.

I was guessing it was probably a Celeste also but I didn't think the leaves matched and it wasn't very sweet.

With quite a few cuttings I think you have a good chance.  Spread them around different methods for better odds, IMO.

Wow, my cuttings take less, I just put them in ground with no leaves and they sart leafing after 3 weeks. I just peal the bark that goes under the soil and reveal green under the bark.

Score!  

Just for encouragement, I have found green cuttings rooted faster, and a much higher success rate than when I did dormant cuttings.  I keep them in a humidity bin in clear cups of sifted moist perilite until I see roots.  

70's in September, haha, this has been a cool summer for us, today's high is 96.

Good Luck!

Jon was right Celeste is the name of your fig.  Celeste is very sweet when it gets ripe and not overwatered . So sweet it goes by the name Sugar fig in some parts of the south. 

100% Celeste.

Celeste it is. I wonder why it wasn't sweet. Anyways I'm very thankful for everyone's help in identifying this fig! And thank you for the rooting suggestions also! My fingers are crossed that I don't mess it up & can keep this one in the family! If I get any more cuttings when it goes dormant I will gladly share (don't know if anyone wants more Celeste lol) but I'd be more than happy to share =)

That's a very special fig.  I wish someone had thought to preserve my family fig.  I wish you have great luck.   Please let us know WHEN they take.  I jsut know they will.