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["Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>]

Bev,
Those sound like miracle trees to me!!!   Can you stick some of the cut offs 
in the ground and see it they sprout????  It is great to hear that they are 
so hardy.  Do you like the flavor?  
My mothers name was Jeannette Elizabeth and she shortened it to Jeanne Beth 
for me.  It is pronounced like the common spelling Jean.
Jeanne
tnhillwoman
North East TN zone 6
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: EarthNSky 
  To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org 
  Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 5:10 PM
  Subject: Re: [Homestead] Fig Trees


  Jeanne,
  Quick question for you, unrelated to the topic, but this is in my head
  now.  Do you pronounce your name Jean or Jeanie or Jian or Je Ann?
  I've known you for years and it always messes with my head when I think
  about you...lol..I hear myself speaking as I type and it messes me up. :)
  Anyway, I have 3 large fig trees behind my house...hill with southern
  exposure but protected by adjacent close ridge 100 feet away.  That
  means it gets almost zero sun in winter and it is kind of in a low area
  on my property.  We are zone 7A, closer to 7B than 6, but we do hit zero
    every couple of years-it is not that unusual. The low this year has
  been 4 degrees, and we have had multipe nights in single digits.   My
  figs are well established 40+ year old trees from Ison Nursery.  I have
  no idea of what variety they are, but my guess is either Brown Turkey or
  Celeste.  I doubt they are anything fancy, and I'd bet money that they
  are Celeste based on leaf shape alone.   They grow on a slope and are
  rather hard to pick, so about every 3 years, I saw them back down to the
  ground with a chainsaw.  I try to keep them more like bushes for easier
  picking than the 15 ft trees they quickly become.  I don't think it is
  possible to kill them.  They have fruited every year, even when other
  fruits were frosted out.  They will often fruit multiple times a year.
  I don't know what information you have been given, but old fig varieties
  are really hardy.  Your zone is 0 to -5, and I think my trees would
  survive -20, I kid you not-they are that vigorous.  It is on my list of
  things to do to ascertain definitively what variety it is.  Nowadays,
  there is enough leaf and fruit information online that I should be able
  to do it.  They are delicious, productive, and worry free.  If I did not
  cut them to the ground, I'm convinced they would grow to 25 feet tall.
  When we first moved here, they had been severely neglected and were
  taller than the house.

  Bev


  Lynda wrote:
  > Do you have a space where you can protect it during the winter?  I
  > don't really garden by zones cause our zone makes no sense.  We are
  > supposedly 7B and since we routinely get continuous days before 10
  > degrees, go figure how they came up with 7B.
  > 
  > At anyrate, we have a Dwarf Black figs in wine barrels.  DH built
  > them a mini-green house that goes over them come winter and I wrap
  > the barrel well and mulch like crazy.
  > 
  > The silly things are already leaving out this year and we just had
  > snow (some is still on the ground) last week.  We'll keep them in
  > their greenhouse at night until mid-June and we put them back on
  > starting in September since we get frosts that early some years and
  > we rarely get frost warnings.
  > 
  > Lynda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeanne Driese"
  > <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>
  > 
  >> I am searching for a fig tree variety that will survive outdoors
  >> here in NE TN


  --
  EarthNSky Farm NW Georgia
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