Looks like this topic hasn’t been created yet, I’ll go ahead and do so rather than adding to older threads.
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Another loss today.
One of the two remaining stems on LSU Scott’s Black started wilting and shows the tell tale ambrosia beetle frass. I removed the entire stem, cutting it at the ground. I’d already removed a stem a few weeks ago for the same reason on this fig and removed a number of others on my remaining in ground trees.
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It’s been a really bad year for ambrosia beetles, something I’ve seen people mention on OurFigs as well. For me I think it was the unusual amount of cold damage that triggered it, though perhaps the right spring weather for them has also contributed.
So far, between winter-kill and ambrosia beetles, the majority of my in ground figs have lost all above-ground growth. The only ones with no significant damage or beetle attacks have been Alma and Chicago Hardy.
Chicago Hardy is unsurprising, since it’s a hardy fig, but I didn’t expect Alma to be more cold hardy than most. Sample size of 1, so nothing conclusive, but it seems like Alma has better cold resistance than normal which isn’t what I’d expect given the palmata heritage.
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And I thought Z8 would be a dream for figs.
I started buying figs to pot in Dec ‘25 through Feb ‘26 to learn how to overwinter them. I potted them up and put them out when Spring hit. I have to shuffle when temps dip. In 2 days, I will have to shuffle again. Hopefully the last shuffle until November.
Everything in reach has to be fenced in, in the Rustbelt. Deer’s will eat them. Deer are like goats here…they eat anything.
I have some more in the backyard in pots. I will have to bring to the front to shuffle. I wanted to take them all out back. The weather looked good, but then it changed for the worse. Glad I didn’t jump the gun.
I grew up with figs and ate them for decades when I lived in L.A. My family had a Kadota and a Black Mission fig.
I want a greenhouse, but don’t have the land for it. An old gal down the street gave her kid and his family $3/4 million for the kid’s college. She is not rich, she just worked hard, invested and does not have anything to do with her $…she has no interests. I thought, too bad she is not interested in growing figs. You could buy some land and a nice greenhouse for a fraction of that $.
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My 3 in-ground figs died on top, even with protection. It was a -8F winter. I burried under leaves and 2 black plastic tubs.
As of 4.28.26 they have not shown any life from underground either. It was the first year I tried them and they were pretty big figs. But bigness didn’t help them survive. 1 Brown Turkey and 2 VdB’s. were protected. The 2 Chi Hardy and 1 Olympian in-ground got eaten up my small animals down to the ground. So I did not bother to protect them.
I’m all potted figs now, so giving that my best shot.
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Depends on which zone 8 haha
But yes, it’s certainly much more feasible to have figs in ground here in eastern NC than in colder zones on the east coast, and in some hotter zones like Florida (RKN…). I’m actually borderline 8a/8b as the map shows 8b beginning a few miles from my house. But I’m on a north slope and I’m in a bit of a frost pocket which has stung me a few times.
From what I’ve seen, once they get two or three years of growth, figs around here are pretty much good to go and will survive our winters above-ground. The trick is getting them through those first two or three winters, or five or six winters since a good cold one will reset the progress. Poorly-established figs are likely to simply get killed outright their first winter–especially if they’ve fruited. My experience with most figs is that a good summer of first-year growth will mean that they’ll probably survive an average winter (but will lose most or all above-ground growth), and then the growth the following year or the year after that will be what survives long term.
About half my in-ground figs had 6+ ft of good growth that was well-lignified, and some, like this LSU Scott’s Black, had wood from the previous year survive above ground. But this was a bad winter. Not as bad as yours, but my yard got down to 8-10 F, and we had a very long cold spell mostly below freezing for two weeks.
But even so, I had a decent number of figs with surviving above-ground growth.
Then the beetles killed almost all of it.
I lost most or all above ground stems on LSU Purple, LSU Scott’s Black, LSU Tiger, VdB, Olympian, and Ischia Green. I’ll still get figs from them, except Ischia Green I expect since that one has refused to fruit for me for three years now, but the figs will be delayed and of course the harvest smaller. I had a number of brebas too, but a late cold-snap and then the beetles destroyed the brebas save for a single one on Olympian.
Still, could have been worse, and each year gets a bit better and I’ve more varieties in pots that will be going in ground this year. At some point, all my in-ground figs, even Smith I hope, should be big enough to shrug off winter damage. I’m looking forward to that.
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That is why I bought $$ older figs to try in-ground. They were very lignified and thick. Nothing like you buy in the box store. But as I said, their bigness didn’t help them survive. I’d rather go with pots anyway. Sooner or later, we will have a crazy cold winter, and they will die even if they could survive -8. It has been down to -20 here before. And I can grow lots more figs in pots that the 6 figs I had space for in-ground.
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I imagine in your zone in-ground figs would struggle to ripen in time as well. My potted figs wake up so much earlier and go into their spring flush much faster than my in-ground figs.
figured i was in the clear for the rest of the season but temps were updated yesterday to drop below 40f to mid 30s and now i may have bring them in. most are only at the little green bud stage but there are a few that have small leaves at this point:
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I feel your pain, that was us earlier this month.
Gotta love having a week in the 80s and 90s and then a dip down to 35 F. Very nearly had a late frost from that one which would have killed all the new growth on the figs and would have meant a near or complete loss on persimmons, mulberries, citrus, and possibly blueberries, in addition to the complete loss on plums and the more exposed of my persimmons from the frost we did get at the end of March.
We only just got our first rain in several weeks, it’s been the driest April in decades. Tough spring so far.
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I built a shed last summer, so I was hoping to use it to winter figs. It would free up space in an attached garage and shorten transporting down a slope to a back patio. Things didnt work out well though. The three test subjects of figs in the shed died. Two were 2 years-old in 15 gallon pots and 1 one-year old in a 5 gallon pot. The figs in the unheated attached garage suffered no damage. 2 in-ground died to the soil surface but that was no surprise.
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they died because of the cold? how much warmer is the unheated attached garage?
That ambrosia beetle damage is brutal, especially after already losing stems to winter kill. The combination of cold stress weakening the wood and then beetles moving in seems to be a pattern a lot of people are seeing this year. Hope the remaining stems on the LSU Scott’s Black pull through.
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Yes, the cold took the 3 in the shed out. The unheated garage rarely gets below freezing. I have bottles of water in the garage that never froze. I think the lowest temperature was around -1F this winter with about 4 days in a row around that 0F temperature.
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is it an attached garage? surprised it stays so warm
Last year my figs started to wake up in my heated garage, then they got frost damaged when I put them outside in April. I don’t want to go to the effort of doing the shuffle with nine 15-gallon pots so I tried a different strategy this year. Kept my garage set at 40 degrees so they wouldn’t wake up, and put them outside really early - while it was still getting down into the low 20s at night, not cold enough to kill them but cold enough to hopefully knock back the bud mites and wake them up slowly and at the right time with the weather. So far it appears to be working. They are late again - barely putting on leaves now - but look happy and have lots of brebas already.
Desert King with the most brebas, as it should:
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no protection, just south facing, a few handfuls of pine straw on the base in the fall. ch and florea are waking and putting on figlets in the ground
the greenhouse figs are of course wide awake and fully beginning to form figs, new growth and leaves.
nights will be well above frost now so the majority of them are out hardening off, the only shuffle is from shade of the house into full light all this week.
that’s florea with the figlets. it starts early.
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All this forcing me to do serious winter protection of in ground figs here or get out of fig growing. May ask friend with front end loader to bury my figs in 2 feet mulch Jan and Feb. Then big job in March to do something with all that mulch.
Michael at Edible Landscape buries in 2 feet mulch but only for “the coldest month.” Well- how on earth do you know the coldest month ahead of time???
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I get a chipdrop in November and then pin down the branches and mulch a few feet in December and don’t dig them out until march
I haven’t had any cold damage loss. If there’s a lot of rain then I have to remove the mulch in march because you can start to get mold damage as the temps come up in march.
The method works and feels easier for me..this year I did have ambrosia beetles which was a setback..
Keep figgin
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Thanks. Did you spray poison for Ambrosia Beetles or just saw under them?