@scottfsmith has this variety fruited yet, I see its listed as disease resistant on OGW what’s been your observation.
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It seemed perfectly fine. Most peaches in my orchard are fine, I don’t have many disease issues on peaches. It’s the bugs that make growing peaches hard for me.
I didn’t get many fruit samples on it, but it seemed like a perfectly good peach. The root died and I didn’t replace it.
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Have you ever seen them espalier the figs really close to the ground so that you can basically throw row cover or tarp over the mains after you prune off the new uprights at the end of the season.
I’m in zone 8 but im considering switching to this. When i cover with woodchips it protects some of the top of the tree, but the rolly pollys eat so much of it.
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I am getting 300-400 figs yearly from my one in ground CH Fig here in TN. I have been z7a for some time… just recently changed to z7b.
Once dormant … I cut mine back to stumps 12-18" long and protect 5 or 6 of those over winter.
I dont try to protect a whole lot of wood.
Off each stump in the spring… i let 2 shoots rise… and most of those will reach 10 11 12 ft long by fall.
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Here in zone 8a (just changed from 7b) my in ground Chicago Hardy has been very frustrating. Every year it comes out of dormancy during the first early spring warm up, and the new growth and new figs are killed by the next frost. It re-grows vigorously, and I always get some ripe fruit, but almost all of the figs are immature in the fall when we get our first cold weather. Any suggestions? All of my figs are subject to this happening, but Chicago Hardy suffers the most as it takes forever to reset and mature figs after losing its first crop.
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@haldog
Is your CH mulched? I read that un-mulched figs warm up faster in Spring from direct sun on soil. If this is the case, you might try mulching to delay sprouting. I haven’t had this problem here on E. Shore Md.
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@haldog … i have not had that problem here.
My CHF is planted on a mound that i initally added lots of compost to… and add more compost and composted wood chips to each spring.
I keep it covered until mid March and then pull of the top layer of protection… leaving the bottom part in place.
That way those stumps i protected over winter… can start getting some sun on the buds… and start to push up shoots…
But if we get another hard frost… i can simply cover it again for a night or two if needed.
By mid April or a bit later… I normally have some nice shoots started up and our danger of frost is normally over.
I have not had any early spring frost damage to my CHF yet… but i keep it setup so that if needed… i can cover it up again… until frost danger is over.
With short stumps… that is not that diffucult to do. If you were keeping 5 6 7 ft of wood over winter… that could be much more difficult.
Note… when I can successfully protect those short stumps over winter… i normally have some pretty nice shoots growing off them by the end of April. I start getting ripe figs early to mid August.
If I dont successfully protect them over winter… i have shoots that come up from the roots and they are normally about a month later… and my figs start ripening about a month later than usual.
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It comes down to winter protection and short season varieties with figs when in marginal zones. New map places me at Zone 7a but we have Zone 6b temps last few winters. I’m deep in a valley.
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@Dom … impressive fig protection efforts there.
I would not go that far myself but am impressed with what you have done.
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This is how i protect my short stumps.
Hay bales, dry pine bark mulch, tarp… i do have chickenwire wraps around the stump bottoms to discourage rodents.
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This man likes figs
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@Dom What are the PVC tubes for in your setup?
That is some great looking protection you have setup.
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@zendog they just provide some needed venting. They have a fine mesh hardware cloth barrier at the openings to prevent rodents from getting in.
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Thank you @TNHunter, @Dom, and @hambone for the feedback and protection suggestions. I will certainly prune them back to short stumps as suggested, and mulch heavily. I’m not willing to do all the work to build structures, but I admire the efforts and creativity of those who do. FWIW, LSU gold suffered the least this past year, which I thought was unusual considering its origin as a deep south fig.
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Nice job
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