Wife Took Cutting From Fig Tree And Now Its Got Its Own Root Ball

Question

My wife has a green thumb. My grandmother brought a fig tree over from Italy and gave cuttings to all of her 8 kids. Only one tree survived 50 years. My wife took and cut the branch of the last one wrapped it in some root tone and a plastic bag and left it at the tree. A year later we went back and the cutting had a huge root ball inside the zip lock baggie (I’m not sure exactly what she did ). We took the root ball back to Florida from NY, and she potted it. It looks great in just a few months. It is at least 12 inches tall and very healthy. My question is since we have very short winters here, 2 weeks, and I saw in your articles they need to go dormant. How do we do that? Will it survive if we plant it in the ground, and when should we do that? This plant is the last of a family tradition, and I want to make sure it survives for my kids to know its history. I’m sorry if this all sounds crazy, but it means a lot to us. Thanks.

Answer 1

Likely it is not a cold hardy cultivar. With this being the case, it will be best to put the tree into dormancy. There are a couple of ways to do this. Here is an article that will help:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/figs/fig-cold-protection.htm

This article will help to understand plant dormancy:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/plant-dormancy.htm