I've several healthy looking cuttings in a shoe-box being rooted.  They are the apical part of the branches.  They have developed pretty nice roots so far.  However, the top buds have done anything, that is, to bud out.  I have other sections of the cuttings that have already shot out side branches (from side nodes). 

My question, is there anything I could do to "encourage" the apical buds to start budding (the wordings sounds funny, but hope you all know what I mean here)?  Temperature is around 21C (room temp. at home) and pretty humid inside the box, as I mist it once in awhile.

Thanks.

What 'soil' do you have them in?  If the roots are healthy and over 2" long try some very dilute fertilizer.  Look for instructions on houseplant strength and use half of that or less.

I can tell you my limited experience. I cut the top off a one year old tip cutting. At least five new branches grew at the top. On a cutting that's s few months old looks like three or four buds are forming at the top. My thought is that the roots are important. I personally would let it grow for a while until you have good roots and then cut it back. If you have enough cuttings you could try cutting the top of one now and another after it's been going for awhile and see which works better for you.

With all that being said, all of my tip cuttings opened sooner or later.

HTH

If you have good roots I would go ahead and pot it up.

Toysan have you been using hormone? Many times hormone will produce roots but inhibit bud break. I have several times seen an apical bud form 1 or no leaves, and then totally stop growing for an entire season, while a side bud takes over and becomes the dominant branch of the tree. Then the next season, in spring, both buds will break. Its just the odd nature of some cuttings.

Hi,
For now, there is nothing you can do, but let them become one year old trees.
Then if you are targeting a tree form, just cut the unnecessary stems.

Some times when using too much rooting hormones, the cutting will grow lots of roots and die without making leaves.
So as written, let them grow and see what happens. They may bud out later .
In the future, try to use less hormone or no hormone at all, after all that's th big advantage of fig trees: You don't need rooting hormones to propagate them (normally. But some strains are harder to root ...) !
I never used hormones and already propagated lots of fig trees .
Good luck !

I had a thick Salce fig cutting that took two months to finally leaf out after rooting. There was no rooting hormone involved in that case. Sometimes cuttings are just slow about leafing out. Perhaps the best you can do is just keep providing plenty of light, warmth, and fertilizer. I used very diluted fertilizer and fed with every watering. Fertilizing gives it some nutrition since otherwise it has to rely on its stored reserves without leaves. Plus, getting enough nitrogen might finally kick-start vegetative growth. You could also try a bit more light to jumpstart leafing out. Not a guarantee, but others had luck with these approaches.

I don't recommend using powder hormone, I'd go with Dip n'grow, or as a secnd choice, Clonex.

Thank you all for the suggestions and recommendations.  This thread has been very educational to me!

For the next rooting project, I will do without hormone.