It is sad, but trees don't always pay off...$1500 for figs trees...and not one fig!

General Fruit Growing
1

I spent +/- $700 just this year alone for 6 fig trees and am not done with the spending.

6 fig trees just under $285
6 deer cages, hardware, stainless and plastic ties $300
Chicken wire for small critters $40
Winter protection…still in progress. $75 so far.

Back when I started to grow fruit trees I experimented with figs. First year '08 I planted in-ground figs. Lots of fig trees appropriate for Z6. No winter protection, no cages, nothing. All died. Deer helped me out by cleaning things up by eating the fig branches to the ground during in the winter.

Next year '09 I planted about 7 or 8 figs in containers. I stored them in an unheated garden shed. All died. Non produced any figs.

Next year '10 tried again with pots and was going to store in the heated garage. I would have to go away on trips for a week or so. Water was sporadic. Tree’s leaves turned yellow from being too dry and dropped. If they had a fig on the tree, it burst from overwatering when I got back. Result = no figs. Just dumped them all.

So after '10 gave up with figs.

After I’ve been reading about figs here and online, I figured I give the figs another try. I planted 6 fig trees in-ground with the hope of growing them with winter protection. This year was the most productive of my fig efforts in the Rustbelt since '08. 1 of my 6 trees made about a dozen figs. They will not ripen before the frost, but at least it was something to look at!

The big issue this year was the small critters destroyed 3-1/2 of my 6 trees.

Olympia fig 9.17.25 (1)
Olympia fig 9.17.25 (1)1408×1408 459 KB

I guess I will be looking to try pots again next year to see if bigger containers help with water issues and I can overwinter in the heated garage. I’m old so don’t travel much now, if at all. So hopefully I can keep a more regular water schedule.

The in-ground figs probably would not do well here unless they are totally armored. Critters can get through the 2" x 4" welded wire fence. You need very fine mesh fencing for the first 2 feet up from the ground. And really the fencing should be buried so they can’t get under the fencing. Then all that fencing has to be removed every couple weeks to weed whack / clean up during growing season. It is just too much hassle. But this all takes for granted the fig trees will survive in the winter. No brick wall here for winter warmth and wind protection. Just protection I will have to devise on my own.

Anyway, the moral of the story is…you can spend a lot of $ on growing fruit trees and produce nothing for your efforts but heartache.

image
image1920×2882 1.29 MB

8 Likes
2

@Zone6

Absolutely true! It is very frustrating to learn what does best for us in our environment.

2 Likes
3

I tried growing figs a couple times, myself, here, and in a different state. For me they took a long time to get established. I thought they were dead in Virginia and they were just resting. Came back from the roots. Never really took off while I still lived there. Here they are slow growing, but I have been getting a decent harvest off the oldest tree (about 6 years) for two years now. I can say with certainty that I would not get a single fruit of any kind without a deer fence. I have a prowling feral cat that keeps most of the rodents down. I am feeding 5 (fixed them all) but he’s the only hunter.

You’re not that far north from where I used to live. My friends with figs and I all had winter die back so bringing them in the garage may be a good thing.

Or learn to like a more cold hardy fruit? I have finally decided I hate peaches, lol.

3 Likes
4

Figs in open sun get leaf issues here. Plant them on a wall or house? They grow superbly. Even the pre-1 year old rooted cutting fruit in their pots.

5

… is insufficient. I use 1" welded wire mesh (Fencerwire.com). It must be flush with below ground barriers that prevent tunneling. If you have problems with fruit beetles you’ll need to overlay the mesh with 1/4" metal screen.

2 Likes
6

I am at about $50 or so for a dozen or so fig trees… most all give me fruit… most all grown from cuttings. No need for deer fence they dont bother mine.

However the black mission figs from ALDI for about $3 a bag are way better than anything I can grow so… theres that.

image

Its supposed to be brutally cold this winter… so i may have to rely on ALDI.

4 Likes
7

Only $ I spent on fig trees was on H2O when they were getting established. The tree grew out of random free cuttings. Not even that now that they don’t need any supplemental water. I do pay an arm and a leg to live in California though. Sorry about your challenges.

3 Likes
8

I feel like your post is kind of misleading. Or maybe you’re trying to be inflammatory?

I agree with

And it’s fun (and sometimes frustrating) to try things and see if they work… but it’s like OP spent as much as they could and didn’t actually try.

Zone 6 is really marginal for outdoor figs, your tree is very young, you took bad care of some trees, you spent a lot for things, and your critter protection is insufficient.

Re: Zone

I don’t know that there’s really fig trees appropriate for zone 6, outdoors, no winter protection. Just because a nursery says so, doesn’t mean it’s true.

And you didn’t even try to protect them from deer eating them. I’d have no plants without deer cages around everything.

@TNHunter grows figs in 7b and has to protect them. He has a very informative post: How TNHunter protects fig tree about his protection for the tree.

My brother is in 7b (MD) and has a fig tree planted against the side of his house. It doesn’t get winter protection. He gets figs from it. However, every few years, it’s especially cold and the tree dies back to the roots.

I have gotten figs from an outdoor tree now in zone 6b but I had to protect it the way @TNHunter does. This was year 4 and the first time I’ve gotten a fig (read: one fig). Though I know I’m zone pushing, I do plan to keep trying. I think as the tree matures, It will do better. It will have a more robust store of energy for the spring - I’ve already seen improvement over four years.

Re: Age/Cost/Size
I have a 3 year old fig tree with branches which are about the same size as yours. However, I bought 4 of them for 7 dollars each as tiny plugs 3" tall. People don’t have to get a big expensive tree from a big nursery.

I see you can get a 12" tree from nourse for 13 dollars right now. And I know @Bigmike1116 is selling figs (for pickup in MD) for 20 dollars each. Figs are also at a lot of local plant sales.

Growing figs in pots
Lots of people do this successfully. But you have to actually take care of them. why bother spending the money if you’re not going to take care of them?

Fencing
Looks like rabbit? maybe? got your tree. But your fencing doesn’t even touch the ground. If I was a rabbit I’d walk right in there and eat the tasty thing too. Of all the things though, fencing, posts and poles is what I spend the most on.

Finally, winter protection: What have you spent 75 dollars on?!! I didn’t have straw or heaters or anything. I left my cage around the tree, put extra wire staked around the tree to prevent critters from coming in and chewing, and filled it with leaves. The first two years I used woodchips, but I don’t have enough of them for the size now.

I had to refill it a couple times as the leaves mashed down at first, but leaves are pretty easy to come by.

On the tree I wanted to protect most, I wrapped some leftover insulation around it as well. Now, I also want to try the thing where you bend them down.

6 Likes
9

I’m a zone warmer, but experienced a lot of the same problems. Deer eating them to winter die back. For several years all I got were figs that wouldn’t ripen before the cold. After 5-6 years they settled in and I finally started getting crops. I still get die back, but not to the ground anymore, and usually get some bit of crop. Some years better than others.

1 Like
10

I’ve got figs in big pots currently, they need a lot off attention in pots. Nit enough water leaves turn yellow and drop, too.much water leaves develop black dots then turn yellow and drop. Its really hard to get the amount of water right. It would seem to me they would do better in the ground. But then again being in zone 7a I would need to provide protection like How TNHunter does (see link above). For now they are potted tussue cultures with many banches. I plan on overwintering them in the tack room of the barn, with heater set to about 35F. I may or may not plant them in the ground next spring.

11

that’s insane. why were they so much?
some of the cuttings from off the beaten path are between 5-7 bucks each. I gave a bunch away for free to friends and coworkers this past spring.

Are they nursery tissue cultures? Tissue cultures take forever to produce good fruit and nurseries have them way overpriced

I grow mine in 10 gallon tall grow bags. the roots are more shallow though so in the tall grow bags they have a tendency to lean over as they get taller (mine are around 5-6 feet tall) next year I might try 8 gallon standard height grow bags.

If you store them in the winter I’ve read that an unheated space is best. mine are stored in my unheated garage over the winter. eventually I plan to put them in ground one they get super strong (a few years in their grow bags). in my unheated garage it got down into the low 20s several times. no plant or stem death.

they don’t need a big pot to produce fruit. several of the cuttings I rooted this year produced fruit. If you want an early cultivar that is very cold tolerant, get Florea. it is the earliest one I have. Teramo is also very early

this Atreano in an 8 inch pot that I rooted from a cutting this past spring gave me a tasty fig last past week

image
image
image

4 Likes
12

@benthegirl

The post wasn’t meant that way. I mean if you offerred me any hope of growing something cool i buy it. I’m a sucker for anything i might be able to grow. I have grown oranges, pomelo, pomegranite, figs etc. Anything ridiculous i try to grow it. I’m addicted to novelties and they never work out for me.

2 Likes
13

Question from someone who doesn’t grow or know anything about figs: I have glanced here and there at the fig talks and things like this where many people talk about winter die back. There are quite a few fig trees around my city/suburban neighborhood (7b) that range from 6-15’ tall and wide and they seem to leaf out huge and all have figs on them every year. No one is protecting or caring much for any of them. I’m going to put money on them all being a variety that’s readily available at general nursery/big box store and there’s no sign the owners are plant people. (imagine a neighborhood house with sod lawn, boxwoods, invasive maple or dogwood and random fig tree) How is this possible? Is it that figs are just more resilient/cold hardy once older?

1 Like
14

To some extent, older fig trees are hardier than young newly established trees. This is a combination of genetics and environment.

There are about half a dozen fig varieties that routinely make a crop up to some parts of zone 5b. North of there and you are in full on protection mode for figs.

Chicago Hardy is one that is worth propagating because it can generally either overwinter or regrow from roots and make a crop.

I don’t understand the prices some people are paying for fig trees. I think $10 is pretty steep for a cutting yet I bought several for that price.

1 Like
15

I’ve had the best luck with quickly getting figs going by keeping them in a pot the first year and watering and fertilizing well (I like using a foliar feeder at that stage since it’s easier to keep pumping them without as much risk of fertilizer burn from dumping too much on the soil). Pots get some protection over winter because even here in zone 8 they’ll have bad winter die back at that size. Once the spring flush is done and the ground has warmed up, they to in ground. They’ll pout for a while but eventually take off again, hopefully enough to get your some good caliper before winter. Done right, you could have five foot plus sized trees by their first winter in ground. Pruned back and protected, should be possibly to get them through the winters from then on.

You don’t need much above ground wood, even just a foot of living wood above ground will greatly speed up the regrowth and fruiting since coming up from the roots can take months whereas buds above ground will pop out in a few weeks of warm weather.

Keep figs in the strongest sun you’ve got, well draining soil or media, and during warm weather, fertilize and water them to their heart’s content, at least the first year or two.

I second the Chicago Hardy recommendation. LSU Scott’s Black has been a good performer for me and extremely productive with good to great figs. Celeste is a standby for a reason, very reliable and very early. Not a fan of Brown Turkey despite hot common it is. Atreano was mentioned already, it’s been my best fig for keeping in a pot. All of these varieties should be very cheap.

2 Likes
16

I totally hear that. My response was sort of confusing, but I meant that the OP seemed like they weren’t even trying to protect the fig trees!

3 Likes
17

I am pretty sure you live in the same county as my brother does! (I wrote about his fig tree above)

Once his fig tree was in the ground for a few years it developed those big long (6’-15’) shoots. The smaller branches, ends of shoots, and leaves die off every winter. Then, every couple of winters, it is too cold and all the big shoots die. When the giant shoots all die back, It’s a little slower to restart but by the end of summer they’re back to being 6’-15’ and that year it doesn’t produce so well.

I think the larger figs that are more established have stored enough energy in its root system that it is able to regrow after dying back in winter and you probably just notice how huge it is (because they seem to do that from nothing every year). @TNHunter cuts his back to some sticks a few feet long for winter, but by the end of summer the shoots are enormous.

3 Likes
18

The title with GD fig is not appropriate.

19

I see no problem with GOSH DARN figs

1 Like
20

You’re zone is too cold for good figs. Ugh.

1 Like