There are different varieties of figs, just like there are different types of apples, so figs of different varieties may have differing flavors, and hardiness may vary according to the type you grow.

main question though is was cutting it to a stump a bad idea instead of leaving about 5" tall branches?

I didn't want to cut it down to 5" tall branches in case those 5" branches got winter damaged and then the new growth would have to come from those 5" damaged branches.

I figured new suckers straight from the stump would be better.

here are some pictures. There are some non-fig 'weeds' mixed in but should be able to see what tree is doing. Should be fine, right? I think this new growth will be about 5ft and produce plenty of figs by Fall like it usually did if cut to 5" tall stump instead of a flush cut low stump like this.

There's not much if any new growth coming from the main center of stump though, so hopefully it doesn't just basically rot out and then kill the roots and everything?

New growth will come from roots or low areas of bark, not from the center of the cut stems.

^ I sort of knew that.

but if I didn't cut so much off and instead left it as like 5 inch branches, new growth would basically come out of the sides of those 5 inch branches. Instead now it's like what's going to happen with the larger flat center stump area? I don't know if branches will grow so well out of there, and if not then it's basically a large flat surface that'll probably never heal over and instead might die from rotting out.

Should I have just cut less off of it?

Maybe once the new growth is a decent height I should bury this cut stump with a few inches of dirt and then add more the next year (to not sufficate it all ant once) and then these cuts will be buried deeper and less likely to turn into big rot holes that could kill the tree??

I am no expert by a long shot, but I believe you cut it too low. Being that low to the ground the center of the main trunk will decay/rot as it is nearly always moist. It will still likely grow back from the root material left undamaged, but not as vigorously because you cut off a lot of energy stored in that wood. The good news is that in a couple seasons you should be back to where you were before.

tree doing good 2 weeks later, lots of new branches at the same pace as when it was usually cut to about 5" instead of this low. Should produce plenty figs by Fall if watered and fertilzied and will try insulating it for the 1st time. Trying to propigate off it too which is kinda tricky but I'm up for the task.

Surprised no one mentioned also about this type of tree having so many crutches where basically like 15 different trunks/branches all bunch together leaves an area where water and leaves etc collect and eventually might rot out the stump - you can see this in the first set of pics, areas of soil basically between branches that were cut.

we had a large maple with 2 trunks with a crutch rot and had to have it removed although buth trunks were leaning and very heavy is a different situation but I'm not sure about a smaller tree like a fig what happens with those soil areas that accumulate? is it better to put more soil over something like that and it'll turn that area into roots, or better to try and keep it dry and free of leaves/debris?

I think this is what happens with woody hedges - branches inside might die off from this but then new growth just occurs. Let alone as the hedge expands it discards/gives up on the inner wood since it's blocked from the sun anyway and becomes sort of useless to the hedge.

As for the cutting the stump this low my original theory was to eliminate any cold-damaged wood and let new suckers grow from the stump like it's doing. Surprised that a tree nerd (I mean that in a good way) didn't chime in with confident assestment of this type of scenario as I know there are lots of them on this forum but either way I'm not worried at all about this fig tree but want to learn more about agressively pruning things similar to scenarios like this. I don't recommend agressively pruning anything actually - and especially not topping trees - just plant small plants where you want small plants and med-size trees where needed etc. not only does disease/rot get into large woulds that aren't sap wood, but any new branches that come out will be weaker and prone to wind - a different scenario than a small fig tree/bush but just saying.

treer doing great now, figs starting to form.

ONly thing I'm wondering is what pertains to some other plants/hedges - is if I should cover with soil over the stump-cut areas and they're become roots? Or leave them be? but if leave them be won't they rot out and introduce disease etc into root?

Butthis is very common for a hedge , and old hedge sometimes I'll see the inner branches are rotted down to the base, but not necessarily dead branches that the plant gave up on in order to expand (because I see live branches right next to it) - it seems some branches die possibly from the base rotting out, so shouldn't you cover that with soil so it doesn't rot out?

surprised no one mentioned MOUND OR STOOL LAYERING.

Which is what I described and apparently no problem for the tree. Google it, you can just pile soil up aroudn the base of most trees/shrubs etc and it will grow roots into that new mound of soil, you can then either cut each one out and have a ton of independant trees with their own roots from the 1 original tre, or just leave them and they will root ball together as one tree which is how I would (and will) do this one so that this older sort of rotten wood will become healthy root zone instead.

You can even do this with a stump. For example we had a white birch that died, cut it to a stump and it was growing suckers (new trunks) from the stump. You can mound layer that and get a bunch of new (but small) white birch trees for free, and they'll have the same good genetics as the original tree (as opposed to planting a sapling that formed by accident by a fallen nut or seed etc. If you just leave the stump without soil and let the new suckers grow they won't be nearly as strong as if it's mound/stool layered because they'd be basically easy to snap over, plus the stump would start to rot, but not with the stool layering method.

I've always known not to mound mulch up against a tree because it could rot out the trunk. Even though soil holds moisture even better than mulch, soil usually won't rot it out because with soil the tree can actually root into it as opposed to mulch it can't root into and thus just rots eventually.

https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/353446-mound-layering-is-easiest

Can you post an update on how your fig tree is doing? I had a ginormous fiddle leaf fig tree that was cut down (by mistake) and new leaves are coming out of the ground and I wonder how I should care for them and how many seasons before it grows to original size...