Calling all Figgies and Figophiles....

I need to decide what to do with my (supposed) Brown Turkey Fig treeling.

A short(ish) history: Bought it at Home Depot in August of 2010. It had lovely big leaves and we followed the tag directions to plant it in full-sun in well-draining soil that is semi-dry. It developed rust, and rather than digging it up and returning it, I hit it with fruit tree spray to control the rust. It overwintered in the ground, uncovered (we had a bad Orlando winter with a higher than average number of sub-freezing nights) and over the summer last year it only managed to squeeze out a few teeny-tiny leaves.

It overwintered in the ground again this year (only 3 sub-freezing nights) uncovered, and remained stubbornly stick-like even though the citrus have all bloomed and set fruit and the peach trees and pomegranate have flowered and my avocado stick is once again verdant.

So, three weeks ago we go to Lowes, and there they have Black Mission Figs with HUGE leaves and FIGS! So, my husband declares that the BT is toast and he wants to replace it with a BM. OK, sez I, and the new fig rides home in the car with us (so the figs don't fall off, pee-yew!) and we set it on the patio for the grand exchange.

Read the tag: Full sun, well-drained soil, SEMI-MOIST! What the heck? Do research online, yep, that's the ticket. So, clearly the BM can't go where the BT died, cuz we'll kill it just like the other. I did have a mango seedling I've been raising that needed a home in the ground, so I dug up the BT stick and planted the Mango there and it is loving it.

For some reason I felt bad for the BT stick we'd killed and decided to give it one more chance, so I rescued it from my German Shepherd Dog's jaws (she loves sticks!) shook off its roots and dropped it in the mango's old nursery pot with no additional soil or amendments. Brought it up to the patio for a week, but it was depressing and still dead, so moved it down next to the composter in its last step before going IN the composter.

Danged if it hasn't sprouted all new leaves,easily quadruple last year's size and quantity.

Since I posted this question this morning on the Fig forum, I've noticed new growths that look like they might be fig buds...