I am growing 250+ varieties so I can test various fruiting qualities of figs. Around 300 potted trees varying sizes of 1-25 gallon. Three years ago I planted one Chicago hardy and a couple brown turkey in ground, they survived -25. Two years ago I added Celeste and applejack for varieties and had one dozen trees in ground. That winter they also survived -25F.
Last spring I decided to go all in and put as many doubles in ground as possible, ended up with close to 200 trees in ground. Unfortunately during our grain harvest I was too busy to properly mulch and we had an early freeze down to 17F while the trees were in active growth. This killed everything to soil level roughly, I’m hoping majority survive and have learned a tough lesson moving forward.
The last three years I’ve used varying degrees of protection:
Year one I used strictly leaves and buried trees to 2-3 feet deep, 100% survival but no fruit. They did have die back to a few inches below the mulch line.
Year two I used leaves and garden debris then covered with a bucket, then covered buckets with leaves. Zero dieback even the tips that were bright green survived a -25F winter with this level of protection. I did see Chicago hardy and brown turkey fruiting mid July but was too late for ripening.
Last fall, the early freeze killed my trees to 0-3 inches above soil, then used cornstalks to heavy mulch on some and a thin mulch on others for a test so I can save the root mass. I’ve found a couple that have completely died with zero mulch, all the trees with any mulch even 2 inches up to 2 feet have survived to the same point the early freeze killed them back to. Using cornstalks I experienced my first vole killings. A handful of trees have damage with bark stripped completely off and one even ate clean off below the soil level.
Moving forward we have our average last frost may 5th and last year trees were leafing out by may. Lessons learned in this environment, protect from voles and mulch in September so Mother Nature doesn’t kick you when you’re down lol.
I’ll be sharing all my findings on this page, another forum, facebook page, and also started a YouTube recently to share with the world how cold a fig can really handle. All my socials are OlsFarm and another forum or figbid I go by BOfig if anyone is there.
Anyway cheers to all with the upcoming spring, good luck to your growing seasons. Keep an eye out for hopefully a handful of fruit on my 200 cold survivors lol.