There are people who believe that only fully dormant cuttings are viable (been exposed to freezing/ near freezing temps).

This simply is not true.  My BEST success rate for rooting cuttings has come from actively growing (leaves still on branches) one year old wood, that are lignified (brown wood as opposed to green wood) and sharpie sized.

I strip them of leaves and treat them EXACTLY as if they were fully dormant, they typically root the easiest, and fastest.  

I have experienced this time and time again, whether from my trees or someone else's. If the tree is healthy and cuttings are fresh (not dormant) lignified wood they simply root better.

Now true green cuttings, where the wood is indeed green don't work this way.  

They do better with a leaf or two left on, preferably the leaf is cut smaller to reduce transpiration, and must be watched more closely.  I don't have as good luck with these, these have a strike rate similar to refrigerator cuttings.

I'm hoping this clears up any misconceptions that are floating around, and gets a general discussion on the topic started.  Please share your experiences.  Thanks.

Don you are right. The reason people like to wait is so they dont miss out on fruit also some people dont like the bleeding actively growing tree do. But that doesn't hurt them either. Best resalts are from cuttings from a growing tree.

I completely agree, Don.  These have the most energy and have momentum.

I have found the same thing to be true.

Fresh cuttings from my trees that are anywhere on the lignification process (from hard green to fully lignified) root close to 100%, whereas fresh soft green cuttings with zero lignification root about 50% of the time for me.

Agreed and old wood cutting root better than green wood whether dormant or not .I always failed to root truly green cutting.

"I just pruned half of my biggest Hardy Chicago tree, and I darn near had tears in my eyes as I stripped off about 80 figs that seemed to be just a couple weeks away from ripening."

That's more than all the figs I got this year.  That is sad. Next year is looking to be a great one though, I can feel it.

I haven't really wanted to think about my success rate, too depressing, if I had to guess I'd say 60-70 for winter cuttings, from stick to gallon.  I lose the most right after up-pot, failure to launch, or too much water too soon.

Same for early spring, I put them out too early and they drowned in one gallons.

With Summer cuttings I only lose a few, so much better percentages.  I pretty much can't over water them, which I am guilty of.

Autumn cuttings good percentages if they go into gallons by early October.  The Rains start usually for us in mid-late October, I need to be diligent about keeping them dry.  Wet and cool gets them every time.

Great Post Don!

Don
For a lot of us itching to do something fig related in the winter,we need the dormant cuttings that we have put away in late fall.
I have been making cuttings by taking them directly from my trees in the garage and those do nicely. I still have some in the refrigerator that I root too and can't really see a big difference in success rate, however the freshly cut ones always do well, but they are dormant at that point anyway

I World like to know if heavy pruning Before completely going dormant would hurt the plant itself

Coop, I need the winter distraction as well.  Plus I expect to have a much better success rate from cutting stage to tree stage, practice makes perfect, er, at least better. I root all year long :)  I'm new and still like to experiment.  Only thing I have dialed in is Summer growing.

Mario, I'll let you know in the Spring.  I have 3 step overs to compare production, and 2 are in the process of being pruned for cuttings and will probably be completely pruned prior to dormancy, one will be pruned after dormancy to compare.  These are all one year olds and will be covered over winter.

What are those beetles called?  Sounds serious.

OK, guys, no need to fight over this  :)

I wait for mine to go dormant because I usually don't want to remove a branch big enough to include last year's wood.  And because I'd just never have the courage to do what Greenfin did  :)  My HC is ripening several figs a day and you folks aren't getting cuttings until it's done.   :)

Old wood certainly does root more easily than green, that's for sure.  Waiting for dormancy means letting that green wood become 'old'.

Don, how high off the ground are your step over , any preference or suggestions?