I put a half dozen cuttings into three cup rooting environments on Sunday and when I looked last night, I noticed the terminal buds on several had popped their cork and had begun to sprout.... My concern is that with only 5 days in the rooting medium, roots would really not have had much chance to form despite the use of rooting hormone (no roots visible in the cups yet) and so the cuttings are likely putting all their stored energy into sprouting those terminal buds. My question is... should I cut them off at the pass and pinch the sprouting buds off now so that the cuttings can shift back into expending energy into developing roots or is it too late? A corollary question is: if I see that a cutting has a healthy terminal bud that looks dormant when I am about to cup the cuttings, should I knock that dormant bud off as a preventive measure to ensure that it doesn't sprout before the cutting can form roots able to support green terminal growth? Is this helpful or hurtful to the chances for a successful rooting of the cutting?

Thanks...

I don't. The leaves will produce energy for the plant.  There's no way to know if the cutting will have enough energy to put out anything else.  Plus as the leaves evaporate water they should produce hormones that encourage root development.

I conducted several experiments on cuttings from the same source (Tree/branch) in the same pot taken at the same time, in order to see which ones make it and which ones don't. I still don't have a formula for success. I use SIP's and never add water from above while rooting.
Some take off and some don't. Covering the cuttings with clear plastic cups, seems to help trap the humidity and increases the odds of success.
Once started, I don't like to move them or dabble with them. Since the longer the cutting the better the odds of success and the unpredictability of which bud will break out first, I wouldn't cut anything.

Thanks, Bob!

I'm with the consensus here,I don't do anything to them.Some cuttings will sprout leaves first,some roots first,some grow at an equal pace,there may be roots you can't see yet because they haven't reached the sides.As there are no or not much root yet at this stage I hold off watering,if there aren't roots moisture just promotes rot.I find humidity helps sustain leaves until the roots can catch up and in the meantime the leaves wil start making energy for the plant through photosynthesis. I keep mine in a humidity box until there are a good balance of both leaves and roots before moving the cutting out gradually.

If you mean by "terminal bids" the bud at the top of a branch aka "tip cutting" then you did well,they take more energy to break those buds for some reason(hormonal?).If you just mean the top bud on a cutting just below a cut that's fine,they break bud easier for some reason,If I have a "tip cutting" I tend to snip the top off before rooting and let the plant break the next bud down because they break quicker.

If the cutting puts on a lot of growth before roots catch up you may loose a few leaves,they might just drop off,that's normal because there aren't the roots to sustain them, that statement is especially true if I move mine out of the humidity box too early,once the roots catch up more leaves will form,why they do this?,no idea,that's just what figs do lol.

Good luck

Thank you, Sas and Haroon! A pleasure receiving your inputs!

Tony
I agree with the others that leaving them alone at this time is the best option.
Have heard that some people do snip the terminal buds before they start the rooting process. 
The idea is that the terminal buds tend to break sooner than the roots formation so cutting them off initially could even the playing field. 
You should seal the tip if you try this in the future so the cutting doesn't desiccate. 

Thank you, Pino. I appreciate the advice!