I have had the worst year for cutting with more than half of them dying. The first time I did it, I used the paper towel method and then moved them to perlite filled cups. I had a very high success rate with this, especially after they were put into the cups. This year I tried three parts perlite and one part Pete Moss and rooted them directly in cups. Almost all of them started to rot, so I cut off the ends and put them in 100% perlite. Even in the perlite, they were growing roots and then suddenly succumbing to root rot. I did not overwater. Anyways, I started to see that the roots were turning brown on some of my more desirable cuttings (which was how it started with all the others that had died before them). So I said screw it, I'm planting them in the ground outside. I have excellent soil and I just made a double raised bed filled with fast draining topsoil. It's supposed to get into the mid 30s for Lows later this week, so I'm going to make a hoop house over them and cover them with blankets. My logic behind this was that if I plant them in commercial potting soil, they will most certainly die. They wouldn't make it through the first watering. I figure there are things in my soil that might just save them. At least that's what I'm hoping for. I'll let you know in a week or two whether They died anyways. They all had such weak roots anyways. I'm trying my new batch in core.

Troy....I kept hearing about Coconut Coir, so I got me some,this early Spring and it is good as everyone says it is. I have not had no rot whatsoever! When I wet it, I have about all the water, I can squeeze out of it. No problem with the roots , with the media, just shake it off! Try it and you will be sold on it like me! Hope this helps you. : )

Ideal rooting temps: 70-80 F. Anything lower: expect death.

I think you have a chance of some of them surviving especially if they haven't leafed out yet.

Troy try a heating mat or maybe putting your rooting bin on top of the water heater or furnace. Usually when mine rotted it was due to not enough heat and too much moisture in my bin, so I did air exchanges a few times a day. That drastically increased my success rates. Good luck.

Still looking ok. It dropped to 40 last night. I'm most concerned about rdbd and Florea. I'll keep you posted. Tomorrow is an expected low of 34, but they are always wrong.

Good luck, Troy.  Cuttings can be very unpredictable at times.

The thermometer read that it reached 29, but there wasn't any frost damage. The fig cuttings are still perky and green. Good test for what they can endure for low temperatures. However, it's too soon to tell what will happen.

I figured I'd update everyone on the outcome of this experiment. Turns out that fig cuttings can handle pretty low temperatures even when they have leafed out. All of the cuttings that were pictured lived, and grew to very large plants over the summer. Some of them did not live (there were ones not pictured), but I had a 90% success rate with the plants that were already leafed out and rooted, and an 80% success rate with the figs that were rooted in the core and directly planted in the ground (the ones that didn't live had few if any roots). This year, I am going to just plant my figs directly in the ground after I root them in core. To answer questions about what temperature fig cuttings can handle: I had them outside for a long cold snap with highs in the 40's for a few days, and lows in the high 20's for several days. They were under a cold frame, but it still registered temperatures below freezing.

You can try dusting the cuttings which had rot with cinnamon. Its commonly used with orchids which had crown rot and I have used it to save a sick orchid I had with rot issues. There are some people which think it stunts growth but if the cutting is already dying its worth a shot and I never saw any growth impact on the orchid I saved. I was planing to trying this out if I had any rot issues. 

Mai,  Do you put the entire cutting in the soil?