If you see the large branches in the middle photo I posted just above you, that 5"-6" trunk is probably 5 years or older. Certainly it could be killed if we get to -15F. We just do not know. It could be the hardy variety, it could be the micro-climate. The fence and the gravel mulch certainly help. We home growers can easily duplicate the same condition.
Certainly the less hardy variety can be just killed to ground at -5F, not the -15F. This is the difference. We can only tell if they grow in the exact same condition.
If given choice, I’ll certainly grow more hardy varieties than less hardy varieties.
I had some rooted cuttings of Strawberry Verte in pots on my covered deck. I thought I killed them all by leaving them in the elements during cold snaps we had this winter in the Nashville area. I brought them inside a week ago and they are already putting out new growth.
A: Can this fig type spring up and produce a crop even after ground dieback?
Based on my second year experience with CHFig… YES… I experienced that exact thing.
Unprotected first year wood died all they way back to the ground… and it came back strong that next year and tripled the fig production in the second year.
The only perhaps significant issue with that was it did not start sending up shoots until around May 1 when the entire top above ground died… there was a delay in initial growth that year…
But if in the late fall when your CHF goes dormant (for me normally early December)… you can just lop it off with some rather short stumps (which are easily protected)… and those short stumps will start sending up shoots early in April. You get a good month head start on Growth that way… compared to when they have to come back from the roots.
If you are in a shorter season location… that extra month of growth time… could make a big difference in your fall fig harvest.
The die-back of fig tree is not just the low temperature. Look at the photo of the small tree I mulched. Gusting wind is more lethal than cold probably.
Now look at this monster fig tree. It is probably a common Lattarula or Italian Honey. It is not even a “hardy” variety. Yet it has grown to a huge size in central NJ and not protected. I do not know how this was done. But it was done.
So there is certainly hope.
The central USA regions like OP’s Arkansas, or Kentucky etc may be more challenging due to the more extreme climate.
They do, but as a kid my great grandmother had some, and they would not ripen a crop if they had to re-sprout from the ground, they simply did not have enough time.
You could only get a ripe crop if you protected them. I think the hardier types mature a bit faster to alleviate that issue.
I have a Chicago Hardy fig here in the Philly suburbs (7a), planted in the spring of 2016. I never protect it. It had die back it’s very first winter in the ground, but has not had any die back since.
I also have two mystery figs, that came from cuttings from a mother fig in Bronxville, NY. I planted them in spring 2018, have never protected them, and they have never died back to the ground ever.
According to this, Philadelphia PA Lowest Temperature Each Year - Current Results, there were single-digit winter lows every year here from 2016 through 2019. It’s for Philly, and I’m about 2 miles outside Philly, so maybe I’m in a slightly warmer microclimate?
My figs are getting so big now that I have to learn how to prune them so I don’t need to use a ladder to harvest them.
Here in 6a I have only had luck with Florea, all Etna’s do as described above for me here. So here in 6a only Florea will sprout from roots and ripen figs in one season. Nothing else ever has for me. So I grow in containers. I got about 400 figs last year, so no complaints from me.
I was looking at my in-ground figs yesterday and I can tell there is going to be a lot of dieback from this winter. A lot of the wood is wrinkled, and once it is wrinkled it is a goner. In other words, we are in my usual pattern for my in-ground unprotected figs: once they start producing well we get a bad winter and I have to start all over.
If they do die back I might start covering them again… getting tired of no figs.
This seems to be a very common tale. Some region in Z6-Z7 has a couple of mild winters, and in-ground figs trees survive there. During summer, the trees grow well – figs grow very fast, after all – and people look at them and think, “Hey, figs are cold hardy here.” Or maybe, “That special variety is cold-hardy here.” So they plant some trees and maybe they do OK for a brief while. Then a normal Z6 winter of a colder-than-normal Z7-Z8 winter shows up and the trees are killed to the soil line. "Go Directly to Jail. Do NOT pass GO!’
Some people search for cold-hardy varieties, which seems generally futile because at most only a few degrees separate the best from the worst. Others plant dozens of trees unprotected, hoping some will survive and fruit. This results in general disappointment and occasional mass slaughter.
The best approach IMO is to plant only as many trees as you can stand to protect, then protect them well. And then supplement with potted trees, if necessary. Or only grow potted trees, assuming that you can store them in winter.
I’m sure we all have our own experience. I do not want to generalize here. But it is not good to make a strong statement of the hardiness of fig varieties do not matter.
Bob’s Reservoir fig is a good example. Itself is a relative hardy fig close to the common Mt. Etna. Sure his region is more coastal region that does not have the extreme fluctuation. And he uses any protection he can use. A lot of east coast fig growers use the same techniques and get very good results.
It is not uncommon to find some 10’ fig trees in someone’s backyard that still producing in zone 6. With the proper fig selection, good growing techniques, in-ground fig growing is still feasible. Certainly some large trees may still fail in an extreme polar vortex. But fig trees can bounce back very quickly from the large crown and intensive root system. It is very rare to get fig trees entirely killed, like some apple, persimmon and jujube trees.
I grow like 40+ fig trees in ground. What I can say is that, fig variety does matter. Gardening practice and winter protection matter too. It is more work to grow fig in ground. But there are a lot of advantages in doing so than growing figs in containers.
It looks like 11F was my low, but also several low teens. I don’t find the lowest low is the most important, it is the number of days with low temps and also wind.
There definitely are varieties with better cold adaptation. Violette de Bourdeaux is one that was particularly bad, it would die back more often than the others. Also some come back from dieback to fruit faster than others. Still for me it seems like long term I will need to cover them to get consistent fruiting.
I have around 30 figs in pots and last fall I only had the guts to put one in the ground, a Chicago Hardy, and so far here in STL we’ve gone down to around 6F a few hours. If it survived then several more are going in the ground for sure this year.
Although it is early, @eboone highly recommended I put VdB in a pot rather than in ground.
Since you may be starting from scratch on growth from the roots Scott, have you considered a ground level cordon system and mulching the main trunks each year instead of letting them grow upward? Based on Ed’s success a couple of blocks from my house, I plan to replicate his system. If it ain’t broke…
If I go back to covering I will use my old aluminum bubble wrap tents which I still have stored away somewhere. That system also was not broke, I just got too busy/lazy to put on the covers. The covers go to about 6’ high, if I encourage lower branching and multiple trunks I think that will work OK. I had single trunk figs when I last used the cover, that is not optimal as you have to prune off all the new growth to get the cover to fit. That is another reason I stopped using them.
@scottfsmith – I use a foil-covered bubble wrap too but only 4’ high. More recently, I glued/taped fiberglass batting to the inside to boost the R value. Wrapped around a sturdy wire frame, this cover slides on / off fairly easily if I prune the tree well. You’re right that I have to prune almost all new growth to get the cover to fit. But once a tree gets to a mature age (i.e., 3-4), I’m doing that anyway. For example, all my potted trees get pruned to basically the same size / shape every autumn.
