Hey monkey trees,
Welcome to fig mania! I'm in upstate NY with similar conditions. You can certainly grow them in pots and they will produce. Give southern exposure for maximum light. In the fall you want to cut back on nitrogen fert so it hardens off the seasons growth. In winter when leaves drop and before freeze, put in garage and wrap it to be safe. Give it just an occasional sip of water when dormant. In spring look up the figgie shuffle on this site and follow that. Hardy Chicago is supposedly one of the best for our climate. You want varieties that ripen early or don't require as much heat to ripen. There are many such types. Suggestions are Gino's, violette de Bordeaux, and Sal's. Happy growing!
Timmy

monkeytreey....

Kick back and relax. You can grow figs, quite easily, especially if they are containerized, as opposed to planting them in-ground in your climate zone.

Your main worries will be overwintering your fig(s) so that they will live into the coming seasons.

You mention that your garage is heated....ummmm....how heated? The warm garage, believe it or not, can be a problem. Your winters are long and cold and your tree will need to stay dormant as long as possible, until spring weather will support, and not kill back new, soft growth. If possible can you cut the heat way back until the garage is about 40 degrees, but not too much warmer? Once your tree(s) go dormant in the fall, you must keep the trees from sprouting prematurely, and storing trees in too warm an area will force out-of-season growth. No good at all for the trees.

Search this forum for overwintering figs, to get an idea what you will be facing in the coming months. Your treelet sounds like it is quite small, so it will need some protection as it grows larger.

I grow all my figs in containers....large 18 gallon containers for my 6 ft tall trees. I overwinter my trees in an UNHEATED storage shed from approximately the last weeks in December, until mid March the following year...a little longer if weather is really cold. The trees wake up in April...but, all new growth takes place outside of storage, so it is already used to the harsh spring weather. So no dieback.

I also put all my large containerized figs on dollies that I buy at Home Depot...and just roll my trees around. Containerized trees can be very heavy when growing medium is moist. Also, containerized growing is very different from planting a tree in the ground. Don't think that you just fill a container with garden dirt and plant your tree. You will need a very quick draining mix for containerized plants, not the 40 lb. bags of soils sold in garden centers. Search for growing mixes for containerized plants here, or in the "gardening in containers" forum.

It may seem overwhelming in the beginning, but you'll be fine.

My own personal opinion....buy the largest fig trees that you can...so they are at, or, near bearing age. I'm an impatient man...I want fruit right away. Why wait for 3-5 years for a tree to bear figs? They cost more, but they give back far more in satisfaction...and they are just as easy to keep alive as small, rooted twigs.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your new tree.

Frank

Good advice from the post above. Except that an UNHEATED garage isn't going to be an option in overwintering a fig in Michigan's upper peninsula. Temps can often fall to -30, -40, or even once in a while -50 Fahrenheit during extreme arctic blasts. An unheated garage would be certain fig death. I have similar problems with my potted fig and persimmons trying to grow too early in my converted garage now plant room, I try to keep it as cold as possible just above freezing, around 40, all winter, and generally squeak them through with some soft, floppy new growth by the time its warm enough early April to transfer to the greenhouse (that I can't afford to heat all winter!).

The other issue you will face in Michigan, especially in the U.P. will be the cooler weather and lack of sufficient heat units to ripen. Anything you can do in the summer in terms of microclimate to up the heat will help, put against a south wall, that sort of thing. Even here in the Detroit area, some summers are just too cool to ripen figs, and they sit green and unripe as frost hits in October. The only answer I have to that is that I found a recipe on line for candied baby figs, and later one for pickled baby figs, both of which use the unripe fruit and turn out pretty good. FWIW, a boiled unripe fig tastes a lot like a green bean, so pickled they taste like pickled green beans. The candied ones take on whatever flavor you use, traditional Greek flavoring is vanilla, cloves, and lemon.

I planted the small sapling in a 5gallon self watering pot. my question now is that the sapling is drooping a bit is this normal from transplantation of figs? I have the fig in a spot that only gets partial sun for now until I start seeing growth and the self watering container is sucking up about half a gallon a day and the temperatures are about 85-90 since I planted the sapling. I am not super worried the sapling cost me a dollar and I hear they are tough. any help would be appreciated.
monkeytreey

Read, and make sure you understand the suggestions posted for your specific climate.

Get a variety theat will ripen figs in a cool, short-summer area, and learn pinching techniques that can help your figs ripen sooner. Search this forum for these subjects, and you will find this information.

Good luck.

Frank