After a few yrs of growing figs I've made a lot of mistakes and have also have learned lots about growing figs.  Thanks in part to this forum and also through lots of trial and error.

Please share 1 tip you've learned that you wish someone had told you in the beginning. Mine would be

"Control the moisture on new cuttings. Do not drown you new cuttings or freshly potted cuttings. Pre moistened soil is better then drowning them with a hose"

This is a good topic, Ben.  Something I wish someone had told me is that...

"a thicker cutting has more energy stored than a skinny cutting making the thicker one a better candidate for rooting." 


I had the wrong impression when I first started.  I used to think that a fat cutting would NOT root easily but this was incorrect.

Thanks for posting on this subject.  I'm sure it will help many.

Well ben i was going to talk about drowning cuttings in water. ; )
Mine would be
Only get the varieties you really want because no matter what you think. You will get too many fig trees.

an excellent fig is one that ripens reliably with a bountiful crop.

When starting cuttings, keep in clean water for 5 days, wrap in Parafilm, plant with rooting compound.

Potting soil matters.  A lot.  My first figs got potted up to a mixture of manure, perlite, soil conditioner, and peat moss after rooting.  Many drowned because my ratios were all off, plus soil conditioner+manure+peat made a really sloppy mess when it rained a lot.  Didn't drain worth crap. I now use a TON of sifted perlite (30-40%), as well as manure, pine bark mulch/fines, and a healthy amount of promix (30-40% maybe).  This mix might not be what the pros recommend on this site, but its done excellent for me.  No drowning, no lost leaves due to overwatering, and a TON of growth.

Also, in ground trumps pots, and its not close.  My 3 in ground ones are all weeds.  My RDB has grown 2 feet this year already (after only 3 feet last year), plus another 2 feet of side branches.

It's about eating good figs and sharing them with the people you care about, not collecting figs or propagating figs as some kind of investment.

Enjoy!

Pro-mix for baby cuttings! And don't drown them.

Don't start your cuttings too early. Growing them and babying them for months before you can get them outside is a hassle and a burden.
Also transition your young cuttings very slowly once you get them outside. Don't rush getting them into full sun.

Join a forum!

Honestly, I would have a much more productive, healthier tree if I had found the forums when I first got it.  3 years without winter protection have led to dieback ever year--I'm so lucky it came back strong!

Mulch and keep the root zone of your potted plants cool during the warm summer months. They will cease to grow if the root zone is too warm.

I can't think of anything better than what has already been mentioned. but,

Pinch early, pinch often, maybe because most of my figs are grown in part sun they want to be lanky otherwise.

A weak solution of fish fertilizer weekly with help cuttings struggling with FMV, until they get large enough to out grow it.

I agree with many of the comments here but also disagree with a couple. 

Only thing I'll add is the following:

If you are just starting out and don't have any fig trees yet, start as many cuttings as you want, but also pick a couple well known, productive varieties and buy large trees from an established, reputable source.  This is much more expensive than cuttings, but from cuttings you will be waiting years until you get any substantial amount of figs.  Buy a Hardy Chicago (for example) and get that guy producing in the first or second year.  That way you'll have something to compare to when you start getting yield from all those special, exotic varieties you started from cuttings.

If you collect the figs because somebody said it was one of the favorites, make sure you do not have it already. The same fig may go by a different name, like VdB, Negronne, Nero 600M, Petit Negri, etc. ; almost all the Mt Etna figs are identical like Hardy Chicago, MBVS and about 15 more.

It is better to have 10 that produce reliably than 100 with fancy names.

If you are in California z10 or similar and with the wasp, about 70% of things discussed on the forum will be different for you, including the fig taste, look and the rooting procedures.

I agree with using a fresh clean soil like Pro Mix for first potting and not too big of a pot, one gallon or smaller depending on the cutting size. Because you need such good drainage at first it is difficult to keep even levels of nutrients in such a porous soil. Becky made a good point about frequent weak doses of fish emulsion. I am not waiting until the new leaves are not as green as they should be, a very mild shot every second or third watering has them growing like mad.
One lesson I learned on my own is potted plants can develop dry pockets that no amount of regular watering can penetrate. You must put the pot in a shallow pan or put a large piece of plastic under a larger pot and form a bowl to hold a few inches of water and for 20 minutes or so let the bottom soak in water and flood the top over and over until bubbles stop coming up. I have had pots put out so many bubbles for minutes on end I wondered if there was any moisture in them at all before I started.

Don't over-complicate propagation. It happens naturally. Look, listen, learn. Observe the natural world and follow what you see. While it can speed things up, you do not need high tech equipment or store brand products. Sand and Soil will do the trick.  

Rooted cuttings make the best inground trees, they will outpace their siblings in containers in most cases even with winter damage to their tops. A large container tree will still be just as vulnerable to the cold if it grows too much after planting.

If you have 2 rooted cuttings and plant one at the beginning of your planting window and it dies from any number of things (that could kill an older tree also, although more slowly) you can hopefully correct the problem or change the plan and plant the other before the window closes for the year. 

Keeping them longer in containers does make them more resilient to difficult situations, the situation that would have killed a small plant might make a larger tree languish if it is not improved though.

That coir is super simple to use for rooting figs.

new rooted cuttings and baby trees dont like much sunlight    I keep my in pots under a big ole oak tree.

A Fig does NOT have to be expensive to be  Outstanding !!

You said "share one tip" and well, sorry.

1. First year cuttings: Knock all or all-but-one of the figs off. Figs aren't great until the tree gets older and anyway, first year fruits generally are a bad frame of reference for a mature tree's product. During this period, I allow only one fruit to ripen just to see if what I purchased resembles what I received. The first year or so is when you should worry about growing the size of the tree, which will give you larger harvests in the following years.

2. Building on the advice to not spend a ton of money until your rooting technique is good, just know that sometimes fig cuttings just die. Sometimes it’s the plant material and sometimes your techniques are at fault. It happens. Keep in mind though -

3. - there is no one correct way to root figs. I've had tremendous success with 100% moist perlite in punctured solo cups, and yet other people maintain that 100% perlite is horrible for them. Either way, figs root at their own rate. Just make sure they're properly watered, fertilized, and are out of danger of things like mold or fungus gnat infestations. The subject of good rooting practices is tremendous and can’t be accounted for here.

4. So when it comes to advice on the internet...

Story time: I once read a post on some other forum where the OP was experiencing algae growth on perlite in a container. The first response was from someone who told the OP to boil the perlite. lol.

There's a lot of correlation vs causation claims, confirmation bias, and just flat out untruths floating around. Hobbyist or not, sharing our experiences is great even if our findings aren't scientific but I think after a certain point, the more experienced you get, the easier it is to spot when people are just making stuff up just to write something down. I guess, just remind yourself that this is still the internet and skepticism along with discerning research can save you a lot of frustration and money. I don't mean to be contentious about this but the take-away should be to get a second opinion. 

5. Having said that, lol, in my hobbyist experience, unfertilized figs in containers have been bland and a major waste of the tree's energy. Since all of my trees are in pots, I have my figs on a slow-release fertilizer regimen. I use veg&fruit fertilizers with micros, important among them are magnesium and boron. (I mention those two because I've seen fertilizers that exclude them. I'm not sure whether they're required for figs but I've noticed no adverse effects.)

6. Um... sometimes Violette de Bordeaux has droopy leaves mid-day in my brutally hot summer climate. There’s another thread on F4F in which a few other people have noticed this about VdB. Not 100% sure what this means - whether it’s a quirk or if we’re all doing the same wrong thing to this variety. However, the leaves are just fine by sunset or if VdB has had partial shade throughout the afternoon.

7. For the love of all that is good, wait until your fig ripens before you pick it. Figs should be soft and supple. When you pull the fig from the branch, no sap should seep out from the break. 

8. If you get a long cutting with about 5+ nodes, cut it in half and make two perfectly rootable cuttings. You should divide the branch in half at the point where both ends will receive the maximum amount of nodes. You should make the actual cut just immediately above what will turn into the first node of the bottom-half’s cutting.

9. If you see a too-good-to-be-true deal on ebay, use the F4F search function for the seller's username. Peony77 will definitely come up. Also, don't be afraid to create a new topic and ask. Be careful about condemning people from the start because you never know what's going on - honest mistakes get made all the time. Still, truth-seeking is important. These forums are used for monetary transactions and people share their home addresses. It's imperative that we all at least try to keep one another safe.

10. Keep your receipts and PMs when purchasing/trading. If you're gonna start selling Galicia Negras and whatever and I'm the purchaser, I'd really like you to be able to provide a source. I definitely wouldn't ask to see how much you paid for it but if you got something from Herman, drivewayfarmer, or Bass, let me know that. That's gonna be good for the both of us because you'll get your sale and I'll get my fig. 

11. "Longue d'Aout" is pronounced "Lung dee-you"
"Ischia" is pronounced "Ee-skee-ah"
"Brogiotto" is pronounced "Bro-joe-toe" (Roll the R)
"Hative de Argenteuil" - "Ah-teeve - day - Ahr-jun-tie-uh" (The “jen” is almost pronounced like the J in “just” combined with the “sh” sound in “shush”)
"Hollier" - “Uhll-yey”
"Filacciano" = “Feel-ah-cha-no” (Cha like “charred”, not cha like “change” or “Jackie Chan”)

Night everybody.