Cold hardy figs

Those look great Bob! I’m sure you will be eating those in October like Tony mentioned above. Let’s hope they all get ripe sooner than that!

Two years ago my CH fruited late like yours and did not ripe in time. It got cool fast by late Sept/early Oct. By then, there was not enough heat to ripen mine.

I hope yours will ripen in time.

That’s what I was afraid of, given their small size. I do have them up against a short (~4’) stone wall, so that may help keep them warm a bit longer.

But, it is encouraging, just at the time when I’ve got more fig plants. One of the guys I’ve exchanged scionwood with very generously sent me an instant fig collection- 10 varieties. I had mentioned my spotty record with rooting cuttings (3 successes in 20+ tries) and he offered to send me already rooted plants!

I’ve potted them up (cups to 1 gal, bread bags to 2-3 gal) and am planning to grow them inside for the winter. Though I am tempted to plant a couple of them outside, in hopes that they hit the ground running next spring. Would that be pushing my luck, given how late it is in the summer and their recent transport & transplant shock? The ones I planted last year did fine, but it was almost 2 months earlier that time. I did recently plant a Macool, which I received this spring and have been growing in a pot.

What I received:
Gris de St Jean
Fico Bianco
Nero 600m - cold hardy Bordeaux type
Atreano Gold
Takoma Violet - Mt Etna type found in Takoma park MD (yes with a k). Favorite of Herman in NJ
Adriatic JH - Hardy great tasting fig from Austin Tx, favorite of Herman
RDB = Ronde De Bordeaux - Hardy and early small dark fig
LDA = Longue D’Aout
Sumaki - Hardy fig from Syria, found by Bass
BryantDark - Hardy early dark fig from Brooklyn

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I have a feeling yours might not ripen based on the size at this time of year. My in ground CH has produced many figs with some ripening now. .


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What do you do to winter yours over? I was thinking of building a large glass box and heaping wood chips up to the height of the fig on all sides. So far nothing I’ve done has kept the top alive through winter. I could see how a breba crop would be nice to have! If I buried it completely in wood chips how thick should I make them and how long should I wait?

Bob,
Nice to have those figs already rooted. I need those type, too, based on my high failing rate :grimacing:

Just went out to check my in-ground CH. It’s looked very healthy with dark green leaves and more new shoots. But it must enjoy freedom in the soil as the figs look the same they were a month ago. No sign of ripening. We have had record heat for many days on and off for a coupke of months now. I know I still have time.

I will try to look for early ripening types for my next fig varieties.

Clark,
Can you buy a couple of those treated plywood and build a box with hinges and fill it with wood chips for easy removal in early Spring. I think at 4 to 5 feet will be tall enough and you can always trim the top down to fit each Winter.

Tony

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Tony,
That sounds good. I can definitely build that. Sometimes it gets pretty cold here as your aware. You grow some amazing fruit in zone 5 which is no small task.

Check these links out guys:

Figloo
update
conversion to GH for a head start

I have never really tried any complicated protection methods, but if you are serious and willing to build something I would try to mimic that as much as you can.

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I tried to do this with two of them, but was only partially successful. There was still a lot of die-back. Maybe without the woodchips, the roots would have died? On the 3rd I used woodchips around the base, then sprayed the rest with StopWilt, which didn’t appear to have any effect.

A friend from work has an Italian father who wraps his figs every winter. Dry leaves inside tarps, I think he said. Maybe I’ll go out and collect some of those paper bags of leaves that people put by the road. After I got rid of all my trees (other than fruit trees, which tend to be smaller), I stopped generating many leaves each fall.

Yeah, that also impressed me about the figs- the in-ground ones are looking pretty healthy. Seems like a lot of the stuff that isn’t hardy enough can be very clean and even decorative (figs, persimmons, pomegranates, etc). Probably because the pests for them aren’t in our area either.

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I should have clarified. Mine went into the ground this spring. I’ve never actually overwintered an in-ground fig. Last winter my CH spent the winter in a pot in my garage. No going back now. I really dislike caring for potted plants so I’ve tried to get as much stuff in the ground as I can. Right now I only have 4 potted figs and a potted Mulberry. The mulberry will get planted this fall and the figs can have one more winter in the garage. Then next year they are on their own.

I’ll be looking for ideas on protecting mine this winter but I’m leaning on the side of not over-doing it and letting nature take it’s course. I’ll probably wrap it in burlap and leaves but I’m not going to build some huge elaborate structure. If the figs don’t thrive or survive I’ll replace them with something more appropriate.

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I, too, will only use a simple method I used on my persimmon, a 30 gal paper leave bag (cut off bottom as a cylinder), stuffed with dry leaves and wrapped with burlap. If it makes it, good. If not, that’s OK. I have another CH in pot as a sub…

Bob - except for fruit trees, one medium maple and a Golden Rain trees, there is no other tree in my property. Unfortunately, I can fill twenty plus 30 gal bags each year with leaves from my neighbors’ trees :angry:

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As a second year fig grower I was surprised to see figs on the Brunswick I rooted last year. Then I was thrilled to see 18 on one fig I rooted this year! I’m getting figs on almost all of my new ones. It’s a pleasant surprise!

This one is supposed to be Black Madeira but I don’t think the leaves look right. It has 18 little figs on it. I’m hoping some get ripe.I got it from ebay and if the figs taste good I don’t care because it grows so well!

This is what my Brunswick figs look like on my second year trees. These probably have the best shot of getting ripe. I have never tasted a fig so I’m hoping.

This is a newly rooted Violette De Bordeaux with three figs!

This is my tallest Chicago Hardy Rooted this year It has two figlets on the top, and my shorter plant has four!

Heres all but four of my newly rooted figs.

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This is my in ground Hardy Chicago. My leaves look a little different than yours

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They do, I’m going to check my other Chicago Hardy too. The one in the picture above I got from figaholics. The other one I bought already rooted as tiny plug. Maybe these figs are to young to grow the regular leaves yet? I noticed my biggest one in the first picture has been changing leaf patterns as it grows. The only other thing I can think of is that it could of got mixed up with Verte. I ordered two Verte, two Panache, two VDB, and two CH. It might be mixed up with VDB? The VDB leaves look like yours.

I’ll be pestering you for a small scion come fall :sunglasses:

I have a local Dark Bordeaux type but it is very late, however it does produce a small Breba crop when i can protect enough wood over winter.

My CH looks more like Johnny’s than yours Annie. Not that it means anything.

My other CH looks just like yours. Makes me wonder. My tall one is starting to grow leaves a little bit more like yours but the lobes don’t cut as deep in. It will be interesting to see what the fig looks like. It’s just a figlet so that probably wont happen this year.

I checked with my friend about what his father does (we’d spoken in passing about it a few years ago) and he confirmed that he’ll use a tarp with leaves. Sometimes they are 10+ feet tall, which seemed pretty big. Maybe I can have him get a picture this winter. I also asked if he could get me a few cuttings from whichever one his father thinks is best. Do they need to be dormant, or will live cuttings root too?

The whole thing is about 6" tall, so I think it needs to be next fall. They seem to grow pretty fast and the Alma and Hardy Chicago are big enough now that I can send out wood.

no worries I can wait, living in Brooklyn, figure this one has to be winner if it is indeed early to boot.

Thanks again