Cold hardy figs

[hoosierbanana]

Can you bend some growths down to the ground and cover them? I think the mums would be OK under all of that after the tops die, I wouldn’t really know though.

I’d try keeping about 5 (nicely spaced) growths intact by covering and then remove all the other ones completely early in the spring when buds break. Then remove any vigorous suckers during the growing season because they will try to smother your selected growths, I do leave a few extra suckers though because the 5 intact growths will not bend as easily next year after they have thickened, but the suckers will bend and can be a sort of insurance policy. Sometimes I can bend them down for 2 or 3 years, sometimes only one, it depends… but sooner or later the main growths will need to be replaced with new suckers. The good news is that every year a fig tree survives intact the hardier it becomes. I had a couple survive almost totally intact without any protection for the past 2 winters, which were mild but they still saw single digit temperatures each time.

[BobVance]

@clarkinks

We are hitting 26 F at times and this fig is hardy down to 0 - 10F so I don’t have much time. It will suddenly turn on a dime and be -10 by December I think. January is nasty and nearly always negative temps much of the month. February & March begins to warm up and by April 15th most frost has passed. I will be out of the safe zone soon. Having trouble finding many fresh wood chips so I’m having to go get them here and there.

Even though our winter lows aren’t that different, your winter sounds a lot colder. We haven’t had a hard frost yet, though we’ve come very close. I had one thermostat register 31.5F, but beans and tomatoes weren’t killed, so I suspect that it was off a bit. Normally we have a frost around Halloween, so we’re on borrowed time. But, it if often late December before we hit 10F. It may have even been January last year. We went down to 0F or -1F briefly in Jan or Feb last year, though often we have 1-2 days in the -5 or -8F area.

I went out collecting pine needles today. Last year, I packed the fig trees in leaves, but wasn’t thrilled with how wet they got. This time I’ll try the needles and see if it works better. I’m also going to ease up on packing them as high as possible. I think a 1’ mound will do- no need to use tarps to try and cover 2-3’ up.

People are blowing their leaves to the side of the road and I found a couple places where they have mostly pines. I’ve made 4 runs so far, each time filling 4 big barrels (32-40 gal), packed with needles. I only got one load from the first place, because the town was too quick and collected the rest before I got back for more.

Most of my in-ground figs set fruit way too late this year. Even with a longer than usual season. I think I’d need another 1-2 months to ripen them. Here’s a representative one- Adriatic JH.

When putting my first coat of needles on, I discovered that the Hardy Chicago which I thought had died, started to come back from the roots. It waited until ~October to do so though, so it is all tender growth which probably won’t survive the winter. Not only that, but when it didn’t come up, I gave the spot to a Celeste, which is now about 6" away. I managed to dig it up, but butchered it a bit in the process. Only 1 of the 3 has a decent amount of roots (the one sitting in the pot in the pic).

While most in-ground figs set fruit (though very late), Alma stands out as being remarkably non-productive. I have 2 big ones (on both sides of the Hardy Chicago) which haven’t produced a single fig in 3 years.

Many of my potted figs produced. For the ones which are late, I simply brought them indoors. Here’s a LDA with a nice big one (bottom left in pic) which is just about ripe and a few others in progress.

[clarkinks]

Gorgeous figs Bob. Glad we are doing similar things. Wish I had pine needles. This was right before the warm up

[hoosierbanana]

Longue d’Aout is still ripening some good figs. Actually had almost a dozen today from one tree, all with that resin drop at the eye.

[SMC_zone6]

@hoosierbanana, you might have said this before, but what temperature do you think fully lignified, first year, above ground growth of most figs dies at? Thanks

[mamuang]

Yesterday evening, forecast said it would be in the 30 this morning. They were wrong (again). It was 26 F this morning.

This evening when I got home and checked my potted figs, the leaves of almost all the plants were toasted. The only one that leaves looked relatively well is Chicago Hardy (I have one in ground and one in pot). At least, it showed me how cold tolerant this variety is comparing to others.

[hoosierbanana]

I’d guess zero is probably the limit, it is really hard to say because there are other factors like microclimates, wind, and level of dormancy.

[danzeb]

It’s going to be in the low 20s tonight. The only in-ground fig I have is just starting to ripen on Nov 10th. That’s too late so I’ll remove it from the garden. I was told it was a Brown Turkey but the figs from the last two years were not brown so maybe not. A few of the figs were a week away from full ripeness so at least they were edible but it’s too much trouble for results like that. It will get replaced with an unknown local fig I have potted and hopefully that will ripen sooner.

[IL847]

It was 26 in Chicago’s suburbs too this morning. Rose , Stevie, tea, kale, collard leafs are still undamaged

[mamuang]

Roses and mums are OK but this hard frost did a number on cannas, hardy bananas and most of my figs. It was not just low temp. It was killing frost, too.

[hoosierbanana]

Damage from a friday night (temperature just below 20f, with no prior killing frosts) is becoming apparent.

Brown leaf scars from enzymes released due to cell bursting:
Unprotected, vigorous tree in the open, leaves are hard to pull off, a layer of the petiole remains attached.

Under 2 layers of row cover ~4ft. high, minor damage, leaves are 90% detached, clean leaf scar.

Soft green tips with tan blisters, floppy leaf petioles. Vigorous, unprotected tree in the open.

Oozing lenticels… Unprotected tree in the open.

4 YO tree with moderate growth in a sheltered location, trained next to a wall. No damage, green leaf and fruit scars, petioles still firm.

2nd year seedlings bent down to 2-4 ft. under 3 layers of row cover, minor leaf damage.

Seedling left unprotected, minor damage, dropped leaves naturally, no explanation for how this one did so well…

3rd year trees bent over to 2 ft,. covered with one layer of black ground cover, spotty damage, most leaf petioles are still firm near the stems.

3rd year vigorous trees under 3 layers of row cover, about 4-6 ft. tall, leaf petioles are still firm, figs still edible.

Slow growing 2nd year trunk, unprotected and exposed… vigorous watersprout shows oozing lenticels.

Vigorous trees in compost socks that were laid on their sides and covered with one layer of black ground cover, less than a foot high, no damage.

More trees in compost socks, one layer of ground cover and one layer of row cover.

Glad I hustled around to get some covered, it is uncertain whether the damages growths will be able to survive winter, even with protection they may rot or dry out.

[Matt_in_Maryland]

Over the last few weeks I’ve finalled begun picking at the swelling Battaglia Greens. These formed late in the summer, after the potted plant suffered shock damage from two hot weeks without water (vacation neglect).

Here is today’s fig. Dark red inside. Edible. Mildly sweet, but would probably be lots better if it were still hot instead of cold. Scar almost completely dry. Just a little latex sap. Skin tough and leathery with the usual disappointing vegetative taste typical to cold-ripened figs.

An underwhelming conclusion to this year’s drama. I have high hopes for next year… if I can keep the plant happy…

[Derby42]

I failed to water my potted HC late this summer and basically destroyed most of the tiny figs. The trees leafed back out in the fall and I uppotted them in to twelve gallon containers. I brought them in before frost and put them in a sunny window. It would no doubt be best to let them go dormant for the winter but I selfishly decided to keep them growing in the window. I really enjoy having something green to occupy me in the winter, I think it is therapeutic. I now have a couple of figs forming. Do you have an opinion on what would happen to the figs? Will they stay on till spring?

[tonyOmahaz5]

I am still eating fresh figs for Thanksgiving. I am glad I brought them in the sunroom before hard frost about 3 weeks ago.

Tony

Black Jack is huge!

Sal’s Corleone is also big and very good tasting.

Nero 600M and a few more…

[Derby42]

Those black jack really look nice, do they taste similar to HC?

[tonyOmahaz5]

Black Jack taste somewhere near the Black Mission fig but Sal’s Corleone, BARI, and Nero 600M are a tad better.

Tony

[tonyOmahaz5]

This is a cool way to do multi grafts fig tree. Please use your grafting knife or box cutter and do not use the blade like this gentleman.

Tony

5-IN-1 Fig Tree | Grafting & Re-Potting Techniques

5-IN-1 FIG TREE | SPRING UPDATE | APPROACH GRAFTING TECHNIQUE

[hambone]

Since my figs are all in-ground here in 7B, where tops frequently die back to the ground in winter, am guessing grafting would be pointless unless winters warm significantly and consistently.

[Drew51]

Yeah no point. I grow in containers, and they have grown widely large in numbers, so putting one or more cultivars together makes sense for me. I’m going to do this to reduce the amount of containers.
Thanks for posting Tony, very interesting techniques by this guy. I’m going to try them myself.

[tonyOmahaz5]

Me too. A very clever way of grafting with a high percentage of take and spared the original cultivar.

Tony