North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

I hope you'll hear from other zone 6 fig growers.  The coldest I have direct
experience with is zone 7.  My fig, planted next to the house on the west
side, grew as a bush, and survived zero Fahrenheit (that thermometer was
between the house and fig bush) with no deep snow cover or other protection.
I hear from zone 6 growers that their figs are root hardy, and will regrow
and fruit every season.  In zones 6 and 7 I would expect the plant to grow
as a bush, which I found convenient for harvest.  Some growers bend the
trees to the ground to cover them, or allow them to be completely covered by
winter snow; some build wire cages around their plants and fill them with
leaf litter as insulation.  Some use Christmas lights and Reemay or other
cloth. Some have good success just planting on the south side of the house
with no further protection. 
I have also read of people having success as long as there was reliable
snow, but losing their fig's roots in freezing ground where there was no
snow cover.  
I tend to think of zone 5 as impossible for figs in the ground, but zone 6
as reasonable depending on one's specific conditions, at least for bushy
plants rising from the ground each spring, or mildly-damaged but recovering
bushes that don't die back.

~ Stephen