I have two batches of cuttings coming from ebay, five in each batch. I want to root two cuttings from each batch and store the remainder in the fridge. Once the cuttings have rooted the remaining cuttings can be resold on ebay or traded.

What problems do you see with doing this?

How should the saved cuttings be prepared for storage?

Ah-hah. I had been watching those cutting auctions last night, but I decided to sleep rather than see the ends of them. Congrats on your winning bids!

I am NOT an expert on fig cuttings in particular, but it seems to me that -- like anything else -- cuttings will continue to lose viability the  longer they're stored. Why not root them ALL now? You can sell the started plants later, instead of the long-stored cuttings.

Get more for your buck. Egghead is correct. If i buy expensive cutting i always root them all sell my best rooted cutting and keep two of the weaker sliwer growing so i dont have selling issues then not only do i have the tree i wanted i make money for my time and enjoy doing it. Richie from louisiana

You should always tell someone you have not seen the plant fruit and who you got the cuttings from also.   
cian

never know if there was a mix up on sellers part

Cian is also very correct too! Thanks cian. Sometimes i am left with nothing to sell and nothing for me either !!! Drowned them in water. Be carfull
i never killed a cutting from lack of water thats for sure. Lol.

If cuttings are thick enough and properly hardened off (not recent 1st year green growth), then this is possible.  However, shelf life is not infinite. 

Are you doing this as a backup plan in case one doesn't root?  If so, I would suggest re-thinking it.  If one doesn't root, it could be because it's a hard to root variety, or the particular batch of cuttings you have is suboptimal for some reason.  In either case, if a particular cutting fails, there's a good chance that the whole batch of that variety is susceptible to failure (maybe not 100%, but 50%).  In that case, refrigerating for the 2 to 4 months might further weaken the marginal cutting, thereby reducing your chance of a successful root. 

So I'd say decide now whether it's more important that you have a tree, regardless of the cost, or if you want to do it on the cheap by keeping 1 of each and selling off the rest. 

Or even better, as others have mentioned, if it's a sought after variety, you should be able to sell the rooted cuttings if you end up with extras.

Hi Welcome to the forum. You seem to be new to the fig world so If I may, please let me advise you on what you are proposing on doing. This is a bad idea both for you and the fig community in general. You are buying cuttings that you can't really be sure of and by selling them before you've grown them you can be perpetuating one of the biggest problems that we are facing. One of the biggest problems facing our fig world are cuttings that are sold and not true to form. Many innocent and not so innocent people are selling plants that they are not sure of and selling them as something that think they are . You can be innocently buying something that it is not and by selling it as something that you think it is, you turn that into a fraudulent act. This is probably the number one problem in the fig world. There have been many discussions on this problem on the forums. Check them out and you can see what I mean. You would also be selling cuttings that are not really fresh, and I don't think that would be something that you would want to buy yourself. There are too many out there looking to make a quick buck. Don' be one of them.

"You would also be selling cuttings that are not really fresh, and I don't think that would be something that you would want to buy yourself."

This is a question I was wondering about even before Jerry posted. How long can fig cuttings be stored and still retain a reasonable level of viability? I noticed at least one ebay seller of cuttings who has stored them since last fall, and one person on the UCDavis thread mentioned that UCD's cuttings are stored over winter as well. How long can the cuttings hold out?

Ione
This depends on a few factors. Certainly how they have been taken care of is the first. If cut fresh and  properly cleaned and refrigerated many feel they can last at least 6 months or so. Many folks will wax the ends and keep them for close to a year. I myself have kept cuttings over 4 months in the refrigerators crisper in zip lock bags and had great results, but you really don't know how well some sellers take care of them....unless they are a trusted forum member, or one of the trusted sellers.

Very interesting, Coop, thanks!