How long do figs tree live?
A neighbour of mine has one huge tree that is at least 70 years old.
I think they live a lot longer than that. Especially if looked after.
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I’m pretty sure ficus carica lives to be pretty old. At least around 500 years. Here’s one from the year 1737. Common Fig close to church The Assumption in Tsarevo, Burgas, Bulgaria
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They will live for hundreds of years - but not in zone 6.
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We had a fig tree on our property that got into its 120s or early 130s (planted in the late 1800s) before it unexpectedly fell over and died 5 years ago, rootball and everything. The trunk was over 2.5 feet in diameter and leaned far out at a sharp angle (you could easily walk up it like a ramp). The tree had been perfectly healthy up and produced well up until it fell; it probably could have lived another 500 years if it weren’t for that.
Shows that in zone 9a-b around Santa Rosa CA figs can outlast your grandchildren. I’d imagine that zone 6a-b cuts a bit off their life expectancy though.
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Just echoing everyone else. Hundreds of years
Thomas Jefferson planted his in the late 1700s in Monticello… im guessing it was Z6 back then? Not sure how many are still alive now or how long they lived… curious though.
Regardless he had a good time with them.
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Hey…that is the old forum where I started back in '07.But they had a different name. What was it Garden Web? Can’t remember. I gave up on them long ago after they went to Houzz.
How did Jefferson get his figs to grow?
Mine die to the ground or die altogether. Tried 6 or 7 varieties. Had high hopes for Chicago Hardy…but nothing. I’m in Z6a.
My grandma brought a fig tree from North Andover, MA in the 1940’s to L.A. where they moved. It grew all the time I lived there, until 2011 when their house was sold and the new owner cut it down. I never thought a thing about it. Took it for granted. Never thought to ask how they grew it successfully in MA. It was the green / white fig. God, I loved it! I thought it was pretty long lived from the 1940’s, but I can see that is nothing for figs.