I had the opportunity to take several cuttings on 9-9-12 and thought I'd take a chance and see if they'll root and survive through winter. I placed half my cuttings in a clear plastic box with 50/50 mix of sphagnum peat moss and perlite, and the other half in a baggie wrapped in damp newspaper, then placed in the corner of the living room. The cuttings are about 8" long.  At this stage, what temp should I keep the cuttings at?  Let's assume they root by December...would I then place in small clear cups and place in a humid storage bin with a growing lamp?  Any tips/suggestions are greatly appreciated!  I do plan on getting more cuttings in Feb, but I thought I might be able to get a jump start now.
I live in western VA, so daytime temps are currently around 80 F with 50 F nights.

You got it- I did the growlights over the containers and then acclimated to outside temps by opening the lid slowly.  Then I took them out and put in 1 gallon pots directly under the lights for the winter.

75 to 80 are good temps.

Hi Frank!

Welcome to the forum!  Most figs will stay green if kept warm enough and under a grow light in a snowy winter.  You do get snow right? 

Once you see several white roots, prepare some damp perlite and potting mix, and put the rooted cuttings in a clear 24 oz cup under a grow lamp so you can see when the cup fills with roots.  You should see some leaves beginning to grow too.  These are babies and must be treated as such.

It's natural for figs to go dormant when the weather gets colder.

What types of figs do you have, or are you new at figs totally?  We'd love to know more about you and your collection and the environment in which your figs will live.

Good luck with your cuttings!

OH, go to the control panel in the link top right of the screen, and edit your profile to let us know your growing zone and anything else you care to share.  We are a friendly group here, and it's nice to know our newest members.

Suzi

70º seems to be an awesome general temperature to root for me.  Humidity is an important factor, and so is NOT overwetting your soil - they hardly need any soil moisture, excess wetness will lead to rotting and many people over-wet on their first few batches.

Don't commit to planting your Brown Turkey in the ground (if it's really what you have), they don't taste very good compared to most other fig varities.

Wow, you all are so prompt and most helpful!  Let me give you a brief story on the figs I'm involved with.  When I was a child, from the age of 5, I can remember my grandfather having at least 4 fig trees in his back yard in the middle of Cleveland.  He would send me egg cartons full of fresh figs throughout the years.  My Dad got a few cuttings from him about 15 years ago and started trees for close friends and family.  I recently had the desire to carry the legacy in my own yard, and I have a two year old fig tree that gave us 5 delicious figs this year.  I got so excited that I air layered two branches off the poor young tree so I can quickly have 2 more trees for next year.  Those are currently in pots on the back deck.  One of the air layered branches has exploded with leaves and is already half the size of the 2yr old! 
Below is a picture of the fig tree that I took the 25 cuttings from last weekend.  It's about 9 years old planted by my Dad (cutting originated from my grandfather's) on the lot we used to own.  It has been neglected and it's still puts out HUGE outstanding figs!  I wish I knew the history of how my grandfather started them, but he passed in '96.  Based on pictures and descriptions from the internet, I thought they were Brown Turkey, but looking deeper, they're definitely not.  They are SO good.  There is an emotional attachment to the fig trees grown from my grandfather's cuttings.  It really means a lot to see them thrive and continue his legacy.  We're all Italian and my grandfather came here from Sicily, so there's a good chance the tree may have came from Italy.

I really appreciate everyone's help!  If you have the patience, I'd like to ask a few more specific questions, as the winter months intimidate me.  And please correct any of my assumptions below.

1)  Once I get a heating pad, should I be removing the lid once a day while the cuttings are trying to grow roots?  If so, how long for?

2)  While waiting for roots, should the heating pad be applied 24hrs a day, or only at night?

3)  After rooting, I'll place them in clear cups and store in clear bins with a growing lamp outside the container.  Should the growing lamp be on 24hrs a day?  If not, how long for?

3a)  Will I need a heating pad along with a growing lamp at this stage?

During winter, my house may only reach 65 at the location of my cuttings, so as you can see, keeping them at 70 F and above will require another heat source.
Thank you all SO much for the help thus far.  Later this evening I will post pictures of the figs cut open so we may be able to identify the true type.

"So good" is not typically something you see when people are talking about Brown Turkey.  Unless you think sweet and watery figs are good.  I'd be interested to see pictures of the fully ripe fruit, both whole and cut in half longways.

1) Most guys avoid heating pads.  Putting them on top of your fridge is usually sufficient, as long as temps stay above 55º-60º, they should strike and root just fine.  70º is ideal for my rooting trials, and anything over 80º is overkill or detrimental to rooting.  The only time I've ever used a heating pad was during the ice storms we had in Atlanta a couple years ago, and it was under the outside of the plastic bin, and all of my figs were an inch off the floor so the cups or bags never came in contact with the actual pad.  Opinions vary on that one.

2) See #1.  I'd add that I kept mine on a timer and kicked it on for a half hour, off for a half hour.  I was just using a typical bed/medical heating pad, though.

3) There is a plethora of rooting info here at the forum and at the main Figs4Fun website - have you read it?  Start here, with the top entry: http://figs4fun.com/Growing_Tips.html

3a) Grow lamp... overkill.  Figs are practically weeds.  They don't require special treatment.  A little humidity, a generally clean environment, a stable temperature, and NOT overwatering the soil you're rooting them in.  Get those right and you're good to go.

65º is fine - this is the ambient temp in my house during winter.  Above the fridge or inside the entertainment center (with my STB, Tivo, etc.) usually stays warmer, so does the laundry room.  Get creative and don't get stuck in this mindset that it's so rigid.  Again, figs are virtual weeds.  They don't like to be babied.  You'll ruin more by caring too much than you will by not caring enough.  There isn't any hardcore science, and if you can get to a 30%-50% success rate on rooting, you're doing better than many.

Don't think about it so hard and you'll do just fine.

Yes, I do tend to over think.  Thank you for the info!!  Below are pics I took of my first fig I picked this summer from my 2yr old tree.  The last pic shows details of the leaves, in hopes to better identify what type of fig I do have.  If it is BT, and you say it's 'ok', I'm really missing out on the better stuff!

Not a BT. Looks similar to my Flanders.

Jason,
Thanks so much for all the help!

No problem.

I want to prefix this with one note:  You must understand that some figs have one crop and some have two.  The early crop is called Breba crop and the late crop is called Main crop.  Breba often is in late spring or early summer domestically.  Main crop is often second crop which occurs from early fall to early winter.

Breba crop figs and Main crop figs are often different in shape, size, texture and taste.

With that said....

Your fig reminds me of Flanders.

Link:  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/First-to-ripen-breba-2012-Flanders-5849425
And:  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Beall-and-Flanders-breba-2012-5862050

It also reminds me of Longue D'Aout.

Link:  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1270992117&postcount=5

I bet there are other folks here at the forum that would chip in and say it reminds them of something, but I haven't seen a lot of additional input from people here lately ;)

Seriously though, it's not a Brown Turkey and it looks like something other members here may be interested in!  Brown Turkey is really common and often not interesting to people, so I would definitely not tell people that's what it is (besides, it looks nothing like one).

Welcome!  There are many great figs and eventually you'll want them all!   :)   If you're going to over winter your figs the leaves need light.  If you have a sunny window that may be enough.  Here in the PNW, where it's cloudy 70% of the time I use 2 tube T8 fluorescent fixtures, 5000K.  the lights keep the room warm enough.  A small plant will grow almost as well as if in full sun.

Frank,

  Once again someone has given me hope that I can successfully grow figs. I am 70-80 miles south of Cleveland and so was delighted to hear your story. You say "the middle of Cleveland," but did you perhaps mean Mayfield Road/Murray Hill area?

Frank welcome to the forum!
Definitely not BT, I agree with Jason this is Flanders.

Does anyone know if figs are Day-length neutral?  Or do they require long days to continue with growth?

And welcome Frank.   Pretty fig!   

I 100% positive that this is not BT. Here is some picture of BT 6 on the right, they all have big hole in center and are more oval then long like yours in shape.

I should've posted this first...the shape is different from my young tree, yet they're genetically identical.
I took this picture of the batch of figs I picked a few days ago from the mature tree I posted earlier.  A few of these figs were VERY ripe, as you can see from the splitting.  Can you guys determine what I have based on this pic?

Also, I use resin shelves from Home Despot and hang the lights right above the plants.  I put 2 18x36 shelves next to each other.  I hang the fixtures from the shelf above and clamp 2 100W 500K CFLs in the middle to give more light to the figs not right under the fixtures (when there get to be a lot of plants).  If you search for topics started by me you'll see photos of my grow room.  Coming out of dormancy early is bad for figs unless they can get enough light.  If they get the light they need you can ripen some figs that need long seasons.  You can extend the season into fall the same way.  You may not need this because of where you live.

This is great, Bob.  Thank you so much!!

Frank

    Yep. Some of these guys tranpsorted bits of the mother land  over here wholesale. I love  listening to the stories of how they produced their own food and wine from the back yard.  Sorry to have lsot so much of htat collective wisdom.