Newbie Rich here with a question. I've heard often about in ground figs being blasted by low winter temperatures and dying to the ground only to come back with new growth in the spring. Does that new growth produce figs that season or does one have to wait for 2-3 years for fruit production as if it were an immature plant?

On another note so far I have about 20% successful rooting (after 5 weeks for most) of my 108 cuttings of 28 cutivars, a good portion of which were given to me by some generous members. I gerw weary of the spaghnum moss/ baggies/shoebox method- opening bags in the dark, warm half cellar, on my knees airing out the bags -spraying if needed etc. I took  "Dave's Lazy Way"  to heart and transfered them all to clear cups with a 60-30-10%
mixture of Perlite, Vermiculite and potting soil. I built a sheet plastic covered potting chamber in my 60 deg orchid greenhouse added flourescent daylight tubes and a 75W incadescent bulb for heat and pebble trays. The chamber remains between 71 and 76 deg  (76 closer to the  bulb) with a constant humidity of 69%. I check every Sat. for dryness and transfer the cups with cuttings that have visible roots and well developed green buds or leaves to the geenhouse bench under 8 hr. grow lights. Then they really take off!
 I'm keeping a special anxious eye on the 2 Black Madeira cuttings which, in 9 days,  haven't shown much progress.
Thanks to all

Welcome Rich!  Sounds like you are doing a good job.  Can't help you with your question, but bumping to the top helps!  It never freezes here.

Good luck to you!

Suzi

Rich,

My Celeste froze to the ground the first year in ground.  That spring it woke up and by late summer it was 6 feet tall and had many figs on it that ripened......and hooked me on figs.  Granted my growing season is just a tad longer than yours.  

Rich,
   Some varieties are just more stubborn than others, but it sounds like you have hit on a method that is working well for you.  It gets to be a lot more fun come springtime and all those little plants are transfered to 1gal. pots and then they take off and become beautiful fig trees.

out of 200 i have lost only five with that method so far this year rich, so far so good. and still havemany more to get started. i have a spare bathroom with a shelve and lights, when a cup gets rooted they get moved to there. until roots are good enough for my liking they stay in the bathroom or laundry room with under warmth.

In my experience, your first question is not so straight forward to answer. There are some varieties which only fruit on growth from previous year. Common figs should fruit on new growth (even after a freeze), however this not always the case. Also, I find the figs ripen later after a freeze. If you are in an area with a short season...

Black Madeira is a tough one to root.  Nine days is too short a time to see roots in most cases.  I've had some root after 5 months.  Whether you get figs the year after freezing to the ground depends on your variety, the weather in the growing season and the age of the plant.