Cold hardy figs

He is active on ourfigs and is a respected member of the fig community

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What is his name or username on ourfigs?

Mgginva

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I definitely will post back here when I get them!:slight_smile:

Does kind of look like that but there was nothing there lol

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Figs that I buried under a pile of woodchips are now uncovered. I just finished this morning!

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How’d it do, Clark? It looks like a mix of growth and dead branches, but hard to tell. I had a lot of die-back on my protected figs this year, which I think was because of a prolonged warm fall and then a sudden drop to 17 degrees before we had any other sort of light frost. But I also think my protection method, as well as a wet fall, caused too much moisture and that created some problems too.

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I will post some pictures in a couple of weeks when it leafs out. Right now it’s hard to say. I did see one limb that rooted but I did not care to propagate brown turkey so I didn’t worry about it.

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I recently bought/ordered those fig varieties:

Brown Turkey (keeping in pot), Dalmatie (waiting for it), Dauphine, Desert King, Hardy Chicago, Ronde de Bordeaux

Thats enough for me now ^^

Going to plant them in ground next year.

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May 24- no sign of life yet from four figs planted last Spring: Adriatic JH; Ronde de Bordeaux; Takoma Violet and Battaglia Green. If they’re alive I should see growth by end of June, yes? I planted them deep and in Nov. piled 3 feet of oak leaves on top. The leaves appear to have been no help in insulating top growth.

Yes. July is the cut off point, literally. I waited for a Dawn Redwood until almost July one year and it completely leafed out.

July is the rule of thumb for all woody plants whether you’re in zone 8 in England or me in zone 5.

A dendrologist I once had contact with told me this information.

Dax

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Most of mine are leafing out up to 30" high. The ones from the garage have some medium size leaves and small ones popping all over now with several figs.

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Keeping the figs under woodchips worked much better this winter. The extra growing season time I gained by doing this should get me lots of extra figs! It was a cold spring so although it sounds like I gained a lot I lost a month already. Today is May 25th.

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She lives! I thought the Col Dame de Gris in my front yard was a goner when I saw it shriveled to the ground, but she LIVES!

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Here’s what mine are looking like. They are a bit slow but they are just starting to grow fast now.


VB from out of my garage. It dried up over winter. I didn’t give these big pots enough water. Plus I remember now too. I quit watering in the fall to make them lighter and never made up for that. My other unknown fig I rooted that was supposed to be Black Madeira is below in a root pouch also had the same problem. It has five figs. VB has two.

Panache on the far right died to the ground and is coming back up in a three inch shoot. One verte looks dead in the picture but actually has a green bud with a leaf about 30" up. Chicago Hardy is in the middle doing good on every branch. I had a large Brunswick behind the post about six foot tall that died down to the lowest branch and is shooting up growth all over the ground. That fig in the pot was just layed down with the rest in the ground before covering with shredded leaves and being tarped. The other fig that’s dead in the pot was sacrificed for a tarp weight.


All three of these made it. One CH, and two Verte.

The CH on the left. The Verte in the middle has leaves that just opened all the way at the top on two branches.

Out of the 50+ potted figs I have, Panache is the only one that died back to the roots after a sudden frost last fall. Others had some die back, but nothing like Panache. It seems to be one of my least cold hardy figs.

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I noticed yesterday that the trees I had row cover on for the cold snap in November are way ahead of the ones left uncovered, guessing these had a better chance to return energy to the roots before the tops died? A little surprising since I always thought a dead top is a dead top is a dead top. Of course the ones that still looked good in December were winterized and only had minor damage, but the ones that just had a cover for one week in November look like they appreciated it also.

Looks like about 1/3 of my container trees were killed back or killed completely due to being left out in November because there was no time to move them in. Since I can manage about 3x as many fig trees in compost socks as containers it makes sense to switch over.

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Need Advice: My first year in ground Adriatic JH died over the winter. Three survived and are just now sprouting from roots: Battaglia Green; Takoma Violet and Ronde de Bordeaux. So I’ve got these tastes covered: Adriatic berry; Mt Etna and Bordeaux.

What could I replace dead Adriatic JH with that would taste different than my 3 survivors? I’m looking for intense and complex taste, not into super sweet.

OR-- Is Adriatic JH so distinctive a taste that I should try it again even though it died on me?

Thanks for any ideas. Zone 7 - average low 5 to 10 degrees.

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Based upon what I have heard about JH Adriatic there are very few varieties like JH Adriatic, they are all in the Adriatic flavor category, I have seen the unknown variety of GM 142 being compared to the Smith variety which supposedly tastes a lot like the JH Adriatic variety, I have a GM 142 yet no Smith or JH Adriatic so I am taking other people’s word for it.

The fruit of both Smith and GM 142 are said to be nearly identical in taste and texture. The fruit of JH Adriatic is supposedly sweeter yet to me GM 142 tastes very sweet, weather conditions during ripening can make fig fruit taste more or less sweet. I think GM 142 is a must have fig, picture strawberry jam with a very naturalness too it and way less sweet than strawberry jam of course. It has survived 3 degrees Fahrenheit here very well without protection. Yet the temperature does not necessarily mean anything. How long it stays that cold and how many times has it hit that coldest temperature that winter is what matters most. Although it’s first winter in ground it was way less cold hardy than it’s second winter in the ground.

Here’s is more info on it
https://foodplace.info/Bountiful_Figs/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=622#p5684

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I am reading that, how alike JH Adriatic and Battaglia Green are depends on the climate, some people say that the fruit flavor and texture is exactly the same between them and some people say that Battaglia Green figs are actually better than that of JH Adriatic. GM 142 is an early cropper, Battaglia Green is a late cropper.

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