Advice Please!  I got some cuttings relatively late in the summer and I rooted them successfully, but they have fairly young root and shoot systems actively growing out.  Last night it was 39 degrees F (I'm in Maine).  Should I bring them in for the winter and just keep them growing, or is it ok for them to go dormant and store them in the dark 40 degree room I over winter my figs in?

I'm tempted to grow them through the winter in my sunroom.  It's unheated, but stays above freezing all winter, though sometimes not by much, and is south facing.

I'd wait for a better answer than mine, but you may need to keep them alive indoors since the growth is so new.  I don't know if they'll come back to life if they go dormant so soon after the initial tender growth.

I'd defer to the the experts but like you, I have a sun room which I only heat enough in winter to keep it above freezing. My experience has been that it stays above well freezing for at least 1-2 months longer than outside conditions and it gives me a much shorter and more moderate winter dormancy period. The longer growth period might provide the extra maturity your plants need to survive a winter dormancy period. No reason you could not use a double pot and surrounding the inside pot with wood chips or other insulating material just to provide a more consistent temperature around the root system. Plants also break dormancy earlier and the biggest risk could be setting them outside too early and damaging early new growth.

These are my august cuttings that developed some good growth and strong roots. It seemed much faster than my cuttings in spring. The cuttings are grown indoors so I will definitely keep them inside till next year. They're also in a south facing window in an unheated room. Temps drop below 55 degrees in coldest time of the winter. I am curious if the cuttings will just stop growing or if they'll drop it's leaves and go dormant.

I'm not an expert but for lack of a greenhouse I kept 2 figlings indoors in a south window last winter.  They grew like crazy!  maybe you can see on the tall one, it produced and ripened 2 figs in March. (NOT delicious).  They were put outside in late Spring and finally in ground. Neither one made any figs this year. Hopefully they are back on schedule now for next year.

No expert but just my two cents.

Since you have a room where the temps stay at 40 degrees then I don't see any harm in over wintering them in there. I've down that with no problems before. If you do, then it might be a good idea to keep them higher up on a table or shelf where the temps would be slightly warmer and less chance of a cold draft hitting them.

But on the other hand if you have the space to keep them growing and they are the only trees of a certain variety you really want then I would opt for growing them all winter, that way they'll have a jump start come Spring.

Another option would be to let them go dormant and store them in a garage until temps start to get really cold and then bring them into the house where they'll break dormancy and then continue growing them til Spring when you can put them outside.

I am having the same problem as you Greg. I got some cuttings just recently and they are rooting like mad but I don't know they will be able to survive dormancy with the wood not even hardened off yet. I am planning to keep them inside the house but I don't think I will do any special lighting.
I have no idea if this will work out or fail miserably but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I have the same problem. I may build or buy a cheap greenhouse just so I don't loose them because I really don't have room in the house.

  This winter I have several of the little cell cutured babies.  I'm keeping them inside in my bathtub window this winter and hopefully benefit from the extra growing time. Plus I can do a little bonding with them.  Why are baby fig trees so darn cute?

I don't fancy myself an expert, but I have some experience. I'd recommend you grow them indoors through the winter. Especially since you have a sunroom and can provide a nice environment for them. Putting them in cold storage and letting them go dormant when very young is too risky. And why risk losing them after the efforts to get them started. 

They will drop their leaves and put on new ones.  The trick is not to let them dry out.  I do keep some in doors over the winter inside my garage.  My garage is insulated and I have 2 large windows inside.  The small tree that get sunlight will be the first one to put on new leaves and extra growth. I also have a greenhouse.  The GH gets older trees with large root balls.  My GH is heated using a space heater and I try to keep the temperature no lower than 30.

The rule of thumb is to bring them inside if you can.  It's a huge risk not to protect them in a cold winter.

Bring them in and heat the sun room. If heating is not an option then put under grow lights in another part of the house.

I think you have to have a good balance between light and heat. If it is dark and foggy over weeks in the winter you shouldn 't heat up the place too much. The young plants will shoot out very weak then. If it is sunny the temps can be higher.

I picked up this inexpensive greenhouse last week for $120. Trying to get an extra month of growing season. All my cuttings still have a ton of fresh green growth as well with new leaves still coming. Weather in Seattle has been overcast and 65 for the last week. I know NOTHING about greenhouses, but so far it seems too humid with little to no raise in temp from outside. If I close the vents the temp goes up and so does the humidity. If I open them the humidity drops but so does the temp. Thinking about getting a small heater.

i'm with soni on this. my teeniest plants go in east facing windows in my kitchen and make decent growth in the winter. good root development too.

Thanks everyone, my small guys will get a sunny window seat to watch the winter from.

Greg,

That would have been my vote as well. Keep inside, some warmth, as much sun, and a lamp or two with grow lights. My young plants responded well to this over-wintering process last year. Just practice safe gnat control early and often!

Bottom line: Keep them warm and let them grow. You do not need dormancy now, you need good sustained growth. You have done the hard part, getting them rooted - now turn on the TLC and keep them healthy till spring.

Newbie chiming in here. 1st winter with cuttings to deal with. The trees in the photos are 1st year cuttings. So should they not be allowed to go dormant and stored? They're about 18 to 24 inches tall. A few still under 12.

I'm in zone 8b with no sun room... Closest I could get is heating my little green house thru the winter.

All great advice. I will put this to use and grow my plants inside. 

This is the inexpensive temp controller I used last winter.  It comes in different heat ranges. I got the 35F-45F unit You just plug your space heater into it and it will automatically keep the greenhouse temp above freezing  They sell it with other temp ranges too.  I got up a few nights to check on it and it worked fine.

http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-TC-3-Thermostatically-Controlled/dp/B0006U2HD2/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&qid=1379488882&sr=8-30&keywords=temperature+controller

Ok this is good info so far but what about someone in zone 9a/b? Im recieving cuttings today and wondering what Im going to do with them this late in the year. I know Ive got time to root them and my winters on average are not that cold. I could always do the fig shuffle if temps are gonna get below 45 or so. Is this a plan? What would you do?