I've been wondering how long it will take for my baby figs to produce edible fruit.

I'm in the san Francisco Bay Area, mild climate year round. My figs are in pots. Most are first year rooted cuttings, that I got through the California Rare Fruit Growers. One is an old "Italian" fig that someone gave me volunteers from. One I bought on craigslist, but the summer I got it, it dulled, and never grew any leaves. This year it looks healthier.

Five years? Ten years? How long?

This will give you an idea of my luck:

2%-5% of my first-year figs produce fruit (rooted that same year).
30%-35% of my second-year figs produce fruit - at least one fig main crop.
75% of my 3rd year figs produce at least a couple main crop fruit.

I have yet to know about 4th year potted growth since I haven't gotten that far with most of my potted figs, I just started trying to propagate from sticks in 2008. 

Figs have a mind of their own.

You can be lucky and enjoy figs out of them this year.
Or maybe next year or the year after that.

On rare occasions you might find yourself waiting four or five years or longer.
But this would be a long shot.

I would lean towards next year or the year after that ( at most ).

Good luck

Is it cloudy here?

I live in the Land of Microclimates. San Francisco can be foggy. Berkeley can be foggy. Oakland, where I live is generally very sunny.

It has been a strange cold spring this year.

Is it true that figs take a few years before the fruit actually tastes good? Did I dream that?

I forgot to add that I intend to plant these trees in the ground, but need to finish some house construction, first.

Many of my UCD cuttings last year got figs the same year they were rooted. I left one on each tree, just to see if any would mature. Almost none of them ripened, but I did get a small fig from the Violette de Bordeaux. The flavor wasn't anything to get excited about, but it was edible and I thought it was pretty neat that it fruited. This year, most of them look like they'll produce some figs. The most prolific so far is what I think is a Kadota--a cutting from a neighbor's tree, taken late in 2009. It got several figs in 2010 (mediocre flavor and most didn't ripen), but this year it has at least 25 and is growing like crazy, so I'm hoping at least a few will be good.

So, it will take several years before I get figs worth eating?

Even though they weren't prime, I thought some of my early figs were still worth eating, and maybe you'll be luckier and have better varieties than I did. I've heard people say that some kinds, like LSU Purple, take several years to develop top flavor, so it stands to reason there must be others that get there quicker. But, it looks like you ought to plan on at least a couple of years.

I've got a Desert King, a Grosse Monstrueuse and two different passalong figs, one from an old Italian garden in Oxidental CA, and one from a gentleman in Walnut Creek, CA.

Thankfully our little house came with a few mature fruit trees, or the waiting would drive me insane. C'mon plums...ripen!!!