How about your timing?  Is it time in your area to start cuttings?  How much does it vary by zone?

I waited until March last year and decided that I was way too late.  This year I decided to start much earlier.  I put up everything I had two days ago and am waiting now on whatever comes my way.  If the cuttings root normally I should be able to put them out when the warm weather arrives.

How about the rest of you?  I'd like to hear from the veterans here, you fellows who have been rooting cuttings for years. 

I'm no veteran that's for sure. Having only started to collect and grows cuttings. I have haphazardly started a couple by sticking branches in pots a couple of years ago and they grew into some nice trees, but it was only luck or something. In November of 2009 I started my first cuttings using methods I found here on the forums, basically Dan's. By reading carefully each post, especially those with problems, I've learned to avoid the same or corrected what I was doing wrong. I have some of those cuttings growing into small trees now but let me tell you. I sure wish I had waited until now to get them started. It hard to baby them through the winter. Moisture, light and temperature control is difficult. I must say it's been an adventure and I guess a very good way to get rid of the winter blues.

All that being said. I am ready NOW to start about 30 cutting I've collected over the winter. I say NOW because Spring comes early to Cajun country. We actually get some spring like weather in the middle of Feburary sometimes. Of course you have to watch for those last frost and freezes. I figure by starting them soon they should be rooted and in cups by the middle of February and can be moved outside into my nursery area where they can get light and moisture provide by Mother Nature thus saving me a lot of time and worry. I hope I right in trying to second guess nature but thats my plan.

Manybtrees are not dormant, yet, and with 75-80F eather this week, into next, they aren't in any hurry. As for starting them, since I do it indoors, any time is OK. You just need enough warmth, andf enough space.

When i was rooting scion in the past in my area illinois i start in mid feb if all goes well and they rooted fast and transplanted good i had to keep them by sunny window until weather broke here. Last season i tried a setup useing a type of grow light indoors but no more as this brings bugs.
In short when adding up the weeks it takes to root, transplant into small pot and when the weather is right to bring outdoors dictates mostly when to start your scion and then thats if the weather cooperates and things go accordinly oh the pain !

Well, Martin:
I read somewhere that in the US our seasons start about a week later for each one hundred miles as you go North.  If you started in Mid February, my starting in the second week of January would about be a match. 

Never even gave a thought to what the fellows in Florida or out on the W. coast might do--  I suppose I would grow both oranges and figs. 
Ox

I know of a friend who usually start cuttings in late April or May even if received in Nov. He has done very well.  I have started a few but at least 70% will start in mid March. Those that I started early are usually done for 2 reasons:

a. To share extra cuttings with other fig friends. All I
    usually need is one, most two.
b. As a prelude(warm-up) or something to do before the
    main task.

I usually start Feb. 1st.  My reasoning is 1 month to get root initials, 1 month in the perlite cups. This gets me to April when I can sporadically bring outside in the day.  Usually by May I can just leave outside for good.  I am in N.Y. on the coast in zone 7.                                                               m

Well guys, I am not TOO far off.  If Ed starts his around the first of Feb. and can leave them outside the first of May we are on track.  I can leave mine outside, without fail, by the fifteenth of April.  If we follow that line of reasoning I am about a week early by Ed's calendar.
Ox

I guess I am the only one so far to admit that I start the rooting process as soon as I get the cutting(s). This gives me plenty of time to kill some of them for this reason or that, but mostly by over watering despite making sure that I don't overwater.

Ox,

Figs, oranges, sugar cane, che, jujubes, bananas, pecans, peaches, apples, pears, asian pear, sapotes, macadamias, calamondins, cherimoyas, grapes, star apple, passion fruit, and almost anything else your heart desires.

On the other end of things, I spent most of the day watering, weeding, and picking up leaves. But, then, I wasn't shoveling snow. I think I came out ahead. ;-))

This is my first year starting cuttings.  I have started them as I've received them (with mixed results).  My rooting rate seems to be the opposite of how much I paid for the cuttings.   Here in Florida it usually isn't a problem keeping stuff alive for the winter.  But we are having unusual weather so far this year.  I have all my small (growing) figs in the shed right now.  I hope it stays warm enough in there for them. 

We had sleet this afternoon and the thermometer was blow 32 degrees before the sun set.  This is definitely not Florida weather.


Lisa
zone 9a
Lakeland Florida

Lisa, add a small 1500 watt heater to the shed. Won't cost too much to run it a few hours a day till the snowman leaves town.

For those of you with Lisa's problem;  I bought a little $19 ceramic electric heater at Walmart and plugged it in to the wall in my garage.  Weather outside 3F, took the temp up in the garage from near freezing to 42F. 

I was not so concerned about the figs as I was for the piping in the N. wall.  There is evidence that once the pipes there froze (new fixtures, not original) before I bought the house.  I found the old fixtures in the junkpile out behind the barn when I was cleaning it up. 
Ox

Im rooting them as we speak. I am putting them in UPM and sticking them in my greenhouse.