Best to uproot when dormancy sets in & Baud did mentioned that new growth within the year can freeze in temperature under 12*C(52*F) and any temp. under 16/17*C(62*F), growth may be destroyed. I have some of this year rooted cuttings about 2 ft tall with all leaves gone due to colder nights & morning temp. in Sept. Thus any form of protection you can provide would help.

With regard to winterizing -- almost all the younger trees in pots that I set out last Nov were killed by BC winter. Very unfortunate the miracle fig plant had such great soil mixture to continually feed its growth.

If your miracle plant came from those commercial dried figs, you will need miracle luck for it to have ripe figs in our zone.

If  space is an issue in Vancouver, other proven variants grown in pots are Lattarula & Negronne. They have to be winterised indoors. However I have to add the best variant to grow in-ground in Vancouver is Desert King. Most variants grown in Vancouver are Desert King, Osborne Prolific & Lattarula.  For now, best to stay away from variants like Vern's BT, Mission, Peter's Honey,  Black Jack etc unless you have a greenhouse.

Plants 2 years or younger left outside were almost all killed. My apologies for the confusion. I did not set them out but left them out intentionally like survive or die attitude for those variants.  Good thing they were not my favourites & I could recycled the pots. All my first year plants goes indoors. The plants left outside last winter were all 2 years old or slightly older. All my in-ground plants have no protection and they are Latarrula, Desert King, Tony's Greek, Vern's BT, Vicenzo & Osborne Prolific. Next spring I amy put  a couple more in-ground & VBT may have to go.

Regarding great soil -- nothing wrong with that. The issue is with tender growth due to continued fertilisation. With tender growth the plant is more susceptible to damages  from the cold. It is best to grow figs in our zone in pots for at least 2 years in a more manageable control environment before putting them in-ground. In my case I think I totally stop fertilisation by 2nd week Aug for all my figs. Most of my larger plants fertilisation in pots are stopped by end July and I hardly used any for my in-ground ones. However you case is different, it was a miracle/volunteer plant.

I lived in Chilliwack & the valley soil is very good. However my potted soil is a mixed of top soil, compost, bark mulch & perlite in the general ratio 50:20 :20:10. Bear in mind, fig plants do not need a lot of fertilisation. The spread of the nodes is a good indication. Also, the wider the spread, the less fruits & the tree will be so Talllll. Prunning roots from the pots is very easy and I am not too concern about the fig roots in ground as I don't plan to have too many to put in-ground apart from those that are reliable producers with good taste.

If it is me, I will dig up the plant by 1st week Nov. Having a pile of hay may seem a good idea but it is also a perfect hiding place for rodents to feast on your precious plant like what they did to BASS  figs,

JM -- I am still learning from lots of figfriends here who share their experiences. Since you are in my region, its best to share some of the challenges  this region provides. Yes, there are lots of fig trees in Vancouver. I gave up hunting new variants as almost everyone had no idea what they are growing & I can end up with so many duplicates with so little space. The best time to hunt for fig variants in Vancouver is in Aug when most fig trees are ripening but the timing clash with my other hobby FISHING. thus its best to connect with some ethnic folks like the greeks, italians. Also if you go to the italian cultural center they have a few fig trees there. I do not know what they are but was told once they are likely to be Gentile.

Baud have an excellent summary on fertilisation & plant's well being.

Hey Paully,

Justine,
if i may but in just for a second.
So you can rest assure about digging it up and taking care of it for the winter.
If its not a fig plant send it to me , i will eat it all of it with a little spaghetti sauce and romano cheese on top of course and take a video of doing so. 
Oh and um any imposters and i will know  ; )

OK JustineM, now I am in trouble. My son had acquired the fig taste & just called to find whether I could pick more figs for him. We had more than 30 yesterday & this morning we picked another bunch like 20 plus & he woof them all. Now, if you really want to grow a fig, I can give you a small potted DK.

Figs can take quite a lot of abuse. My Vancouver fig friend helped me to butcher out a plant & it survived the winter & is giving me a bonanza of figs. I had another one that was virtually chop off in the ground & now in its 2nd year, I have a wonderful sweet harvest. Thus all you need is get a 5 or 10 gal pot & dig out that miracle fig when it goes dormant. I keep my fig plants in an unheated garage & I throw a blanket over it. Temp goes below 0*C in my garage. Thats all I do for winterisation. It is best to keep your plant in a place with temp just under 0*C or just above. You want it to stay dormant. If you keep it in the house, it would start to leaf out early and most likely it will be stringy too which is terrible. A 12 to 15 inch girth is sufficient. Last year I got 2 other fig plants & I just dug a hole & left them in there(outside) in Nov. It came back to life. Once it is dormant & you have taken the necessary winterisation precautions, the fig should come back by early spring.

Fishing is super great. I caught lots of sockeye helping DFO to tag fish although we cannot keep them. Only the sockeye stock have been impacted but still over a million of them. And now we have over 19 million pink salmon. They are all over the river. Imagine every cast you can hook a fish if you just want to hook a fish anywhere. Aha, we are so spoilt that we now considered the pink salmon as junk & target other species.  Right now all indications are very favourable for the fall run of salmon up the Fraser, Vedder & Chehalis river. I catch them for fun & so far I have only kept the Chinooks. The pinky's in the Vedder river are so many that they are a nuisance now.

Hey Paully,

Paully - wanted to show you the fig plant I found last year survived the winter no problem. I posted it to the wrong thread this morning...

hello justine. Have been so busy and had no chance to check the forum yesterday in preparation of wife's trip to Hawaii and the many guests visiting from overseas.

For now I would say that you have made the right decision to go with pot culture. With pot culture you can always decide what you want to do if you get the opportunity to sample the variant. Pot culture have a tendency to force the tree to bear earlier & it makes good sense that this unknown may even turn out to be a non common fig variant. If it is a non common variant, there is no hope of getting ripe figs. Good luck.

Hey Paully,