My VdB is not that cold hardy. It was a potted tree kept in a garage. My garage can get down to 10-20 F. It died to the soil line and re-sprouted.
These days I keep my potted VdB in the unfinished basement instead.
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Hi Richard,
You have a beautiful looking VdB there. Congrats.
I just bought a VdB today (Dave Wilson - in a sleeve) but it looks very twiggy and is about 3ft tall. The width of the trunk is about a pencil or pencil and a half thick and seems way thinner than I’d expect for a fig. The Flanders fig they also had in stock was the same height but much thicker.
I plan to grow this in a 30gal pot.
I was wondering if I should go ahead and cut it to 18in when planting it? Also - near the root, there seem to be multiple tiny shoots about to emerge - which would make this multi trunk if I let them go. Based on the thread above, I think it’s clear I need to keep rubbing those out and make the tree focus on the single trunk.
I feel like I know I need to cut it to 18in but I think I’m thinking in my head if it’s even worth trying to get this super thin trunk to grow or if I should order a new one from FourWindsGrowers and hope I get a better and thicker (stronger) tree.
In either case, should I expect/hope for fruit set this year?
I’m in Irvine (Zone 10).
Thanks!
The branches will thicken as the tree grows. If you’ve got a twiggy cutting you might worry about it drying out and/or rotting before it roots, but once it’s got roots and leaves…it’ll probably be fine.
Figs usually have multiple stem forms unless you keep removing new branches growing from the base. You probably don’t have to worry about it freezing in zone 10, so you can grow a permanent trunk out of a single branch if you’d like or let it be more shrubby.
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Thank you! I will do that. Appreciate the advice.
@Richard looks like there are a few variants of VDB going around, I got one from fourwinds in SOCAL, how to tell if it’s the VDB or not.
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Friends here in former 7B now 8A Maryland have a VdB in ground against garage wall with South exposure. But I fear a severe winter will take it out. We’re right smack on the edge of doable/not doable for in ground VdB IMO. RdB is more winter hardy, some say not by much though.
it is vdb nothing to worry about
This Spring I took cuttings of this plant. Many were distributed to members here, and some I rooted for inclusion in our repository of potted fig cultivars.
Today I removed the tree to make room for a Black Sea Jujube I purchased a few years ago. After cutting it to ground level, I drilled 3/8" holes adjacent to the cambium layer – ensuring that I did not drill through any overhangs. I then placed straight Alligare Triclopyr 4 in each of the holes, using a 2" enamel paint brush the keep the herbicide from dribbling down the side and ending up in the soil.
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So …. An update.
I planted the VdB I was asking about in a 15 gal pot in mid-2024. It now has multiple shoots and a good number of branches.
However, weirdly enough, it didn’t have a single fruit for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025.
I got it from FourWindsGrowers. Wondering if they sent me a non fruiting type of fig or something?
All of my other figs - even 1 foot cuttings rooted in a tiny pot - had figs on them.
It’s super weird! Would appreciate any advice anyone has.
Did you plant it in the ground? If so when.
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No it’s been in its pot. The pot is on mud so maybe the roots are already in the ground via the holes at the bottom of the pot.
That could be, our fig trees that are in the ground in the two wettest spots on the property they either have little to no production, or their figs abort. They are planted in areas that are always at least a little wet, no matter how dry it is in the rest of the property.
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Oh!! Do figs not like wet feet? That might really be it. That area is suite wet due to run off from a bigger patch that’s watered deeply.
maybe I just need to move it?
I would try doing that, yes fig trees don’t care for wet feet, some hate it way more than others. I have learned this the hard way.
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Thank you!!! Will report back in a few months on how it went.
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You are welcome
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