Cold hardy figs

Buds greening up on my just-rooted Sodus Sicilian (right) and Staten Island Bomb (left).

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@Drew51,
How’s that Olympian Fig holding up over the winter and did you get any fruit off it last year? I planted one a few months ago.

So far it’s fine, no fruit, it’s still a little twig. I got it late in the season.
It looks good, holding up well to the cold.
I have a number of small figs, and decided to let them go dormant. Best get used to the routine, right from the get go.

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I just placed ten gallons of snow on about twenty pots and thirty tubes of Paw Paw that I have dormant in the garage. I still have green figs on some of my plants with no leaves about the size of quarters. They didn’t shrivel up or change color. I wonder if they will keep on growing in the spring. I picked a lot of the unripe ones off with the dead leaves in the fall. I am wondering now if I should have left them?

@clarkinks Hi Clark- Just read your post about repeated pinching plus N to get your Brown Turkey to fruit. Did you pinch every five leaves or so, as I’ve seen elsewhere? I’ve also seen advice to start pinching end of June- not sure how those two ideas go together. Did you reduce number of stalks to three to five? When did you apply N? Thanks.

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Disregard the end of June idea but in many locations that time frame is right. Calendar is not important but once they have 5 leaf sets pinch the top off and hit them with N fertilizer. Learned theses tricks from @tonyOmahaz5. I did not reduce the number of stalks at all.

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Clark,

What size pots are your productive figs in? Which varieties are producing for you?

I have my brown turkey in the ground. My Chicago hardy are in 2 gallon pots now but are going in the ground this year. The brown turkey produced figs last year. The Chicago hardy set a half a dozen figs and I pinched them off.

Marseilles Black VS
after it’s first winter in-ground at my friend’s home (zone 5b IL. bent to the ground and covered)

Planted this spring at my friend’s home… a ‘White Triana’. Same size as Marseilles Black VS at planting last spring (1-gallon.)

Dax

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Two of my Chicago hardy figs in pots have figs forming on them already!

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Dax are you drinking a beer in your avatar? Every time you post it seems as if your taking another sip. I just read the grafting thread and by the time I got to the end I was thinking you must be plowed, Lol!

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I’ll take your Hardy Chicago and raise you a Battaglia Green.

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Brown turkey and Chicago Hardy are about as adventurous as I get Matt. Your fig looks excellent!

Moon Apple pie shine.

Dax

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Chicago Hardy are shaping up fast!

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Yours are ahead of mine, but I just rooted them this winter, the figs are the size of a pea

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Brown turkey have not set figs yet. I learned from last year they need to set figs pretty soon so I’m going to need to push them a little bit. It sure was nice to eat some fresh figs!

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I live in Richmond, VA. A 7a/b type place depending on which hardiness zone map you look at. I bought a Celeste and a VdB this year. The Celeste is in the ground, and the VdB in a pot that will probably go into the garage when winter comes around.

The Celeste already has figs on it, and I removed all but 2 or so. The VdB doesn’t. I’m vaguely considering getting a 3rd, since nobody sells figs here except for Brown Turkey shipped from California. What would be a good option?

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If you’re buying trees rather than rooting cuttings, I would suggest:

Sal’s Gene/GS/EL
Marseilles Black VS
Desert King (pot)
Hardy Chicago*
Verte aka Strawberry Verte aka Green Ischia*
Battaglia Green
Malta Black (pot)
Nero 600m (pot)
Ronde de Bordeaux (pot)
Black Bethlehem
Alma
Smith (pot)

Most of these should be able to survive z7. Some might be better suited for pot culture only.
I have witnessed the roots of (*) survive over winter unprotected in Zone 6.

These can be had from:
Rabbit Ridge Nursery NC
Trees of Joy PA
Edible Landscaping VA
and the Dave Wilson Nursery affiliates (Sanhedrin; Raintree; Bay Laurel)
among other vendors

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That’s about right for me too, many have yet to form even.

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