I just have to defend flies! There are about 150,000 described species of flies and only a very few are pests. Many are important pollinators, model organisms for genetic studies, regulators of other pest insects (as parasites), and so on. The flies you see dead attached to substrates by their mouthparts are infected with a fungal disease that kills them. This is a very well-known phenomenon in the entomological world. So, some flies are awful, most are neutral or even beneficial, but we need them all. Brian (Dipterologist)

No they can be on any part of the fig, side, bottom and top.

I live in South Carolina in zone 7, so my info may not help, but our tree is well over 100 years old, been on our family farm for generations. All I do is take a green cutting in the spring, make a diagonal cut right below where I've removed a leaf, dip it in a rooting powder, this stick this in wet potting soil in a clear plastic cup (so I can see when the roots are forming) which I've poked about 5 or 6 holes in the bottom, place all this into a gallon zip lock storage baggie, mist inside the bag 3 or 4 times, seal it up and put it in a place where it will get indirect sunlight. I usually get about 75 percent rootage on my cuttings. You just have to be sure and acclimate them before you take them outta the bags, you know, after they form roots, open the bag a little, wait about a week, open it a little more, wait another week, etc., until its opened all the way. Now I do get some hard headed cuttings that after they form roots, they don't wanna be taken outt the bags (wilt everytime I take them out), so then, I just place them under a 1/2 - 1 gallon pickle jar and wait until they perk back up and then see how they do on their own. I have read that some figs will only root on dormant cuttings like Al above stated, so I'm planning on trying that this winter. Hope this helps and good luck, Joel. Oh yeah, I remove all the leaves from the cuttings except the top 2 and the process can take around 2-3 weeks or longer.

Dave, hopefully this will be my last question. In reference to the back budding you mentioned above, would this occur in the areas where the leaf scars are? Or would it only occur in the axils above existing leaves? I read a post on here about a rubber tree where the owner pinched off the growing bud at the end of a branch to encourage back budding and buds appeared above leaf scars. Is that the same with all plants or does it vary? Eventually I may have to pinch back because do that because this is growing indoors and it will have to be limited in height at some point. So would back budding potentially occur in these gaps at that time? I'm hope I'm not seeming to ask the same question in a different manner - I'm just trying to understand this fully. Thanks again!