Freeze, fig, and single trunk

Yes for some plants, particularly if you train them to a tree form. It also depends on the rootstock if the tree is grafted.

But for fig plant, I just do not think it matters a great if you bury the crown two inches deeper or not. Particularly for the multi trunk form.

I’m seen some trees buried deep. Then the deep plant materials decay over time. I’ve also seen shallow crown grow deeper into the ground. To the end, they all form a healthy crown at the soil depth they like.

I think what you said may matter at the beginning of the planting.

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if never seen this. Do you have a picture of this?

Of course the roots go deeper than the buried trunk. But if never seen the trunk grow deeper. The trunk forms buds and generally is thicker and has another structure than the roots that grow from it.

If you plant deep in very wet soil, the extra buried trunk might decay. But in sandy soil, and even clay if dug up figs that easily went 1+ foot deep trunk wise. with an alive trunk. And i think having 12" of trunk below ground protected from frost makes a huge difference than for example 2". If those 2" freeze to death, the tree has to create buds on roots (and those roots are no longer connected to a central point)

While if 2-4 inches freeze on the 12" length, there are already latent buds and connected roots and more stored resources to grow from again.

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Your theory of deeper trunk suckers more just does not hold.

As I said before, some varieties of figs tend to sucker more than the other varieties. But most fig plants like to sucker than other plants, save for the jujubes.

If you observe fig growth closely, you’ll see fig can send out new buds, new stem or new suckers at any place of the crown area, or any stem area. It does not need to be at leaf nodes or particular surface. So a 2" trunk buried in the soil can send as many as the 12" trunk you buried in ground. The lateral runners or suckers would become underground stems and new runners grow from them. Thick crown is formed this way. This is how fig plants send out runners or suckers.

Most of the 12" trunk you buried in ground may stay inactive. It is only near the surface that it has active growth. It is hard to say the depth of active growth, depending on soil and watering. The inactive trunk may just decay since fig is a shallow rooted plant.

Bury depth certainly matters at planting. If you plant a top heavy tree with shallow depth, it is not stable. This is why we normally plant fig trees when they are still young, or during dormant season. Also, fig is very adaptable and won’t die if you bury the trees a little deeper. But there is not much benefit burring trees too deep.

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Here is how I plant my fig tree.

All roots are buried. All top growth is exposed to get the max sun exposure. I’ll retain about 8 strong branches for plant this size. Pretty much replace the old branches which were cut.

For new first year plants, I normally plant them 1" to 2" deeper. So it is more stable to support the top growth. After the plant grows root and can support itself, there is no further concern about planting depth.

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I’m not talking about increasing suckering. But having more of the trunk buried deeper. Since more trunk is buried deeper, more of the underground trunk is protected from hard frost. And this imo increases it’s ability to grow back after dying back above ground.

If the trunk to which all roots are connected is only buried 2" deep, and due to a hard frost it dies till 3 " below ground. You only have unconnected roots left of your fig tree.

If your trunk was buried 10" deep, you’d still have 7" of alive buried trunk connecting the majority of roots.

Which case would you expect to come back faster or more reliably?

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What you said is not true. Even if you bury the tree 20" deep, the section buried really deep won’t do a thing, but rot over time. No active growth that deep.

Fig is even more of a shallow rooted plant. Most of the roots are several inches below the soil line, no matter how deep you bury the trunk. It does not matter.

Other than the extensive root system, fig has a very solid crown. Roots and crown can withstand very cold weather with little damage. When the plant experience any cold damage, the energy stored in crown and roots would re-generate new plant growth.

Since there is no energy and active living cells at deep depth, the trunk section there won’t do a thing. That section is more dead than alive. If the top 6" crown is dead, the plant is dead.

WELL, I retract my statement that a SINGLE trunk won’t come back from the roots after a HARD freeze. My single-trunk panache FINALLY sprouted from the roots. It was the LAST fig to sprout.

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A buried section of trunk won’t rot, at least not after 5 years. I dug up a reject this spring and it had a solid bit of wood with roots a foot down. My soil is clay and holds plenty of water too.

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i have the same experiance. Also with clay soil and similair depth.

I’m curious how it will work in sandy soil. But i assume you can even go deeper there.

And i know branching low and burring the tree in sand is a method that is used by some fig growers. Some even grow them in trenches they fill in winter.

About 18 years ago, my neighbor went out and bought two fig plants from local nursery. He planted on in the front year and one in his backyard. Neighbor tried to wrap the fig trees, but not successful. So he gave up on both plants and let them grow on their own.

Fast forward to now. The fig in the front yard has thrived. It formed a huge thicket and a huge crown. The crown area is like 4’-5’ in diameter. It dies back to maybe 2’ to the ground every year. It comes back and grows to some 2" thick huge branches to 8’ tall. But the figlets are too late to ripen. He does not prune at all.

The fig in the backyard does much worse due to lack of sun exposure. The crown was broken and the plant was broken into many small pieces. But those small plants still grow back every year.

I’m sure both fig plants were buried at the same depth at planting, not too low and too deep. But over the many year, the burial depth really does not matter. The huge crown in front yard could be 2’ deep, even deeper. On its own course, the plant can grow to the best shape on its own, to its own natural form. Also I do not think there is any tap root below the huge crown. Fig does not grow that way. The huge crown is indestructible.

I’ve seen some folks say the same way as you stated to bury the plant deeper. Fig is very adaptable. But the fig plant still needs to grow new roots near the surface. This slows it down.

Burying fig plants deeper in sandy soil is certainly makes sense due to the soil structure. Folks in hot places in Arizona also grown fig plants in shallow trenches to catch the moisture, as I know of.