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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Wrapping Figs

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  • From: Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Wrapping Figs
  • Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 15:15:49 -0500

Around here, where winters reliably drop to minus 10 or below, fig roots often survive winter, depending on the depth of mulch. The problem is that new sprouts on varieties that bear fruit on current season's wood do not necessarily have enough time to ripen fruit. My Chicago Hardy, on the south side of my brick house, died to the ground and grew almost 10 feet high by season's end without ripening even one fig. One year I put a fence around it, filled it with wood shavings, and capped it with plastic; for some reason, it still died back, to within a couple of feet of the ground. Still no ripe fruit.

So getting roots to survive winter isn't that difficult. What is important in harvesting ripe figs is how far back the stems die and how long (and hot) a season new shoots have to grow.

Lee Reich, PhD

Books by Lee Reich:
A Northeast Gardener's Year
The Pruning Book
Weedless Gardening
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Landscaping with Fruit






On Dec 8, 2010, at 2:53 PM, Richard Moyer wrote:

Michele,
Chicago Hardy is notable because it bears on one year wood, and is a
vigorous grower.  So can freeze to the ground every year and as long
as the roots are well insulated, can regrow and bear fruit same year,
on current growth.  Most other figs don't have this habit.  In the
southern Appalachian highlands of NE TN, we've fruited it for about 15
years, fruit every year, planted in the ground and never moved inside.
Survived through multiple winters below zero, coldest -14F.

Wrapping did not work for me, as in the spring it would break dormancy
in the wrapping and then freeze, or above ground buds would dessicate,
and we'd have live limbs with mostly dead leaf and fruit buds.  Per
the cover shot on Organic Gardening, we buried it one winter in a
trench, put a door on it, and resurrected it on Easter.  But depending
on when Easter falls, we still got freeze.  I finally came to the
conclusion that with fruit every year on new wood, even when the plant
freezes to the ground, why bother covering?

In partial shade, but in a heat sink near driveway and house, we get
first ripe fruit ranging from early Aug to early Sept, then fruit
continues to ripen til hard frost.  Again, tree in partial shade, and
in NE TN we rarely have high temps in the lower 90s, mostly the upper
80s.  So you should have enough heat in you area of Ohio to ripen
fruit.  Oiling helps bring them in, but that's another topic that has
been written up in Pomona and on this list archives.

Fig naming is notoriously confused and sloppy, so make sure you have
the genuine Chicago Hardy, or at least a fig that sets fruit on one
year wood.  Ours came from Fred Born, who received the original
material from Italians while he lived in Chicago.  I've shared that
material with Hidden Springs and Edible Landscaping nurseries.

The 'Everbearing' figs I grew up with do not bear on one year wood,
but there are a number figs with that name out there.  Fellow
Nafexers Ray Givan and AJ Bullard have written in pomona about their
fig experiences, and here is Rays info online:
http://www.raysfiginfo.com/

BTW, I have a Fig from Long Island? by way of Ray, named 'Sal's Fig',
that has wood quite a bit more cold hardy than Chicago Hardy.  Ray may
know who sells it, but it's main trunk is several years old, surviving
single digits beside a large fir tree and along the driveway.  I don't
have a recording temp probe at the tree, just know that it is not
killed to the ground when Chicago Hardy is year after year.

In summary, I would leave your Hardy Chicago planted in place, mulch
it very well, and not worry about wrapping it.  If you've not had too
much weather below 10F, you can take cuttings from limbs and root
those now, or keep in refrig and root in the spring.  Roots very
easily.  Then have an extra to put in and some to share.

Richard Moyer
Out to enjoy the sun in my new hoophouse; eating Lee Sharp's 7F
kumquats and considering starting one in the greenhouse.


On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 10:15 AM, Michele Stanton <6ducks@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Scott,

How are you wrapping your fig?

I have a Chicago Hardy fig which I planted out this summer?it?s getting too
big to keeping lugging back and forth.? An arboretum about 30 minutes south
of me has figs on the south side of a building that are protected by straw
bales, which works, but? I would love to try something less bulky to protect
it with.



Michele in SW Ohio zone 6a

From: mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] wrapping fig
Message-ID:
      <AANLkTimtuCwd=mAAZ31mUV8tCFSFdrROtRSgAXXY3udm@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Michele, you might also want to consider putting Everbearing in, which
according to what others have said is root hardy to zone 6, dies back
to the ground in the winter but bears fruit on the first year's
growth. Kinda a fig shrub.  I tried it here in zone 4 but I could keep
the ground warm enough ...

~mIEKAL
Michele,
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