During the winter I was gifted a young dormant Marseilles Black VS plant by a generous forum member.  This plant was about 2 ft tall with 2 smaller stems arising from below soil level.  During the winter I kept it in an unheated room in my basement with my few other figs, and uppotted it to a 5g container.  One of the small stems broke off, very brittle and dead when I uppotted it but the main stem seemed very supple.   I was very disappointed when it did not wake up with my few other figs when I started the fig shuffle back in April.  The other smaller plants all woke up 6-8 weeks ago, but those were in my basement room all winter.  I suspected that the MBvs might have been exposed to some pretty cold weather before I got it, and waited to see what would happen.  I kept it watered and lightly fertilized, but nothing happened.  The tip of the main stem got shriveled and I prunted it back some, and the other small stem looks dead.  To my surprise and joy I found leaves sprouting from the main trunk yesterday, and another 2 green buds growing from the trunk as well!

 

 

I do not know what finally woke it up.  We recently have had very warm days (for Western PA in June) - mid to upper 80s for several days, and the nights have finally been staying in the 70-72 degree range - maybe that is part of it.  Maybe just needed time after the cold winter.

Sorry for the sub-par photos, but I'm not the best with iPhone photography.

Hope that the rest of you with late-awakening plants will be also rewarded for your patience!

Great to hear Ed! My Marseilles Blk VS awoke last week and is now getting a nice amount of growth. Malone is still a tiny bit of green . About 4 others are just stark naked , patience , patience I know, I'm trying... 

Pattee - are yours in pots or inground?  Were they protected from the unusually cold winter?

Hi eboone,
The tree might have had roots problem and recovered the root mass before growing leaves.
Put her in full sun and water + fertilizer like crazy.
Luckily my figtrees did not have to suffer a bad winter this year- but the elders had it in 2012 .

Until July there is still hope for figtrees. I remember one of mine from the ufti strain waked up in July the first year. I almost weeded her but once I had her in my hand I all of a sudden
remembered that this couldn't be a weed and there she was with her five leaves. I had kept on watering the place from April to July 2009 with no signs of life ... But I got my reward ! well, later, she died in February 2012 ...
I never got to taste a fig from that particular tree although she popped a dozen in her short life ...

Ed mine are in pots and were heavily protected with tarps , insulation and blankets on our unheated glass enclosed side porch. Lost one for sure , another really looks bad so far and 3 others ,trunks are green when scratched , but no show of green leaves yet. Without all that extra care we put into covering/insulating them, I know my casualty count would have been much higher.

Congrats, I had a similar experience with MBvs. I rooted mine last Oct. It went dormant over the winter and this spring when every thing was waking up this little plant kept struggling to get going. After a couple months of watching it suffer I pulled out if the pot and removed all the dirt from the roots. From what I could tell the soil seemed to collapse and most the roots had rotted off but there were still a few roots attached to the bottom of the cutting. I potted it back up with a heavy dose of coarse perlite and about 1/3 potting soil. It responded immediately and double in root mass and top in a month. Since it has slowed down again and shows heavy signs of FMV. I need to go ahead and fertilize it again but I have a feeling it might go to the trash bin soon if things don't change. I don't have the time to baby along a sick little plant when I have plenty that are thriving. Good luck and I hope it thrives for you!

Ed, I started with 41 pots that did the exact same thing. So far only 8 have come around. I did a root check on
all of them and discarded 25 after finding no signs of life. Still holding out hope on 12 others. We shall see.

That's a huge loss Mike, sorry. I hope the 12 grow for you. If there's something I can help you with in the fall re: cuttings , pm me and I'll list what I have that I can take cuttings from. 

Congrats!
My MBVS is a very vigerous grower for me so yours hopefully will make up for lost time.