I was wondering if anyone can tell me if young fig trees have to be hardend off before they go dormant for the winter? I'm not worried about them freezing because we don't have much a winter down here and i can protect them. What I'm getting at is that I have a handful of starter plants that are growing like weeds and I know they will still be green when winter does get here. I don't know if I should just let them go dormant or try to invest in a grow light or something?

Last year I kept all my younger plants active by using 250w heat lamps about 30" above the plants.  I believe it helps to develop the young trees.  I am not doing it this year just to see the difference.

Danny, did you keep them in a green house of some sort?

I'm a fig neophyte and live in zone 9A as well, but in desert Arizona.
A lot different climate but similar average winter low temps.

Last fall I caught a mild case of the fig bug and bought a couple
trees at the end of the season sale at the local Home Depot; a VdB and
a Panache. Both were in ~3 gallon pots and were about the size of my first
year cuttings now~ about 3 feet tall. I planted both in the ground in
late October. They went dormant right on time in mid December. Last
winter was one of the coldest ever for Tucson, it got as low as 17F one
night. It didn't damage my two figs in the slightest even though they only
had a couple months to recover from being planted. In contrast my
established citrus trees took some pretty heavy damage last winter. I think
being outside and in the ground for the winter was actually a big benefit for
my two trees and they wouldn't have responded so well this summer if I had
babied them in pots last winter.

I don't worry nearly so much about local "cold" weather for figs now. I'm going to
plant a couple of this years rooted cuttings in the ground as soon as the summer
heat moderates, probably mid September. Hopefully I'll have the same luck I did
with last falls  planting. Only problem is figuring out what to plant. I have been
successful rooting RdB, JH Adriatic, Strawberry Verte, Atreano, Ischia Black and
Hardy Chicago although I killed some others I really wanted to live. I only have
room for 2 more in ground from among the survivors.

With a similar low temperature, you could consider a "hands off" approach on
some of them if you have spares. My limited experience went well with hands off.

Ryan,

I've been battling (unsuccessfully I might add) this issue with my in ground trees in central Texas (zone 8b). Here is how the cycle goes:

The warm weather continues until the first freeze. The trees are still green from the late season growth.
The freeze causes significant damage to the trees.
The damaged trees get a late start in the spring.
The summer heat sets in early stunting growth and delaying fruit production.
As the summer heat starts to wane, the tree puts on a lot of late season growth.
The warm weather continues until the first freeze. The trees are still green from the late season growth.
Etc.

Now mind you, these are trees in the middle of the field without any substantial wind breaks for great distances all around. The cold weather normally comes with strong, desiccating winds. There are trees I've seen fewer than thirty miles south of me which did not completely defoliate last winter. I had near 100% die back. Two trees did not recover. As happened last year, my in ground trees are now starting to produce fruit. I have at least 6 weeks before the first ones ripen.

My goal is to find a way to break this cycle. I have a solid chance to get 2 main crops if I can prevent the freeze back every winter.

Bada bing, thanks I might try putting a couple of my small ones in ground in the fall just to see.

James, I have a few of my in ground trees that put on a lot of late season growth also, they are only 3' tall at most so I can probably put something around them if we do get a freeze this winter. I am mostly worried about my small trees that were started about mid summer, they have no lignified wood and I didn't know if they go dormant with out any of them being lignified would hurt them or not, they are still potted so I can stop them from freezing. In your case in an open field it would be kind of hard, maybe if you can get a bale of hay and put around them or something, good luck with it this winter.

I think you can induce dormancy by cutting back on the water. This might be hard in a rainy area, but where it is dry, it seems to work.