Cold Hardy

[Jigfig]

OK... this is the first time I've heard of feeding before winter affecting cold tolerance. What's that all about? Because I'll feed the heck out of them with whatever will do that!

I can’t think of what they are at the moment but certain nutrients and I believe micros affect lignification and cold hardiness to a degree. That’s what I’ve read anyways, if I come across it I’ll share.

 

[betdempster]

I'm not saying I read it all but if you do a search for what plant nutrients increase cold hardiness you get some research articles on potassium and calcium. One that mentioned " potash and I don't know what that even is. And some articles on importance of foliar feeding to help with cold resistance. Some of the articles are more general and about vegetables but there were one specific to figs

 

[SugarKnollFarms]

My personal opinion is this.... And consider that I grow all my figs in a pretty cool climate. The term, "hardy" means very little to me. It cant. All my trees get the exact same protection and are treated the same way. I don't even know that one variety can tolerate say, -5 and another maybe -10. I just keep them above a certain threshold.

What does matter to me a lot... is how productive is a tree and how many days does it take to ripen its figs. No matter how cold your climate, you can probably figure out a way to protect your trees from extreme cold. What will be a lot more difficult is ensuring that you have enough days that are sunny and warm enough to wake the trees up... get them squeezing out figs and being able to ripen them in a shorter season.

It doesn't matter if your tree can handle -50 if it can't ripen a crop where you live.

My $0.02

I would definitely second this, I think the only people who should really be very concerned about cold hardiness is someone who is growing in a zone 8 or so. Around zone 8, you should be able to grow Figs outside in-ground with no protection, but it’s going to be close, and a once per decade, polar vortex might kill your trees to the ground. Even in that scenario though, your trees almost certainly will come back from the roots. I agree with the idea of just figuring out a way to protect your Figs from the cold. And if you do this, you almost certainly are going to make it effective enough to keep any inappropriate from freezing.

 

[snarfing]

My personal opinion is this.... And consider that I grow all my figs in a pretty cool climate. The term, "hardy" means very little to me. It cant. All my trees get the exact same protection and are treated the same way. I don't even know that one variety can tolerate say, -5 and another maybe -10. I just keep them above a certain threshold.

What does matter to me a lot... is how productive is a tree and how many days does it take to ripen its figs. No matter how cold your climate, you can probably figure out a way to protect your trees from extreme cold. What will be a lot more difficult is ensuring that you have enough days that are sunny and warm enough to wake the trees up... get them squeezing out figs and being able to ripen them in a shorter season.

It doesn't matter if your tree can handle -50 if it can't ripen a crop where you live.

My $0.02

agree totally. WM#1 may be cold hardy but apparently it rarely ripens around me. way too late season

 

[TorontoJoe]

agree totally. WM#1 may be cold hardy but apparently it rarely ripens around me. way too late season

I ripen WM#1 here, but admittedly I do try to give it a head start. Angelito has been more productive for me personally. Both excellent figs

 

[grasshopper]

My personal opinion is this.... And consider that I grow all my figs in a pretty cool climate. The term, "hardy" means very little to me. It cant. All my trees get the exact same protection and are treated the same way. I don't even know that one variety can tolerate say, -5 and another maybe -10. I just keep them above a certain threshold.

What does matter to me a lot... is how productive is a tree and how many days does it take to ripen its figs. No matter how cold your climate, you can probably figure out a way to protect your trees from extreme cold. What will be a lot more difficult is ensuring that you have enough days that are sunny and warm enough to wake the trees up... get them squeezing out figs and being able to ripen them in a shorter season.

It doesn't matter if your tree can handle -50 if it can't ripen a crop where you live.

My $0.02

Cold protection and productivity are a bit related. e.g. If the tree is severely damaged in winter due to a lack of protection, it would have to spend more energy to regrow all the limbs in the following seasons. New limbs are not as efficient in producing fruits than the ones off established scaffolds. That takes away some of its potential to grow more fruits and fruit early for you.

There are a few approaches to tackle this:

1. Get a "cold hardy" variety so you can do less or zero protection. If damage occurs, then the "cold hardy" variety should regenerate fast enough to produce in the following season.

2. Do some protection and hope the weather is not cold enough to do serious damage.

3. Go all the way with everything you have on protection. Some do that on the less hardy ones. Some do that regardless of the variety.

 

[Figjake]

A lot of something being “cold hard” is lignification. It takes time to build up a decent trunk thickness and bark layer. Even then, still gotta protect is overwinter depending on where you live.

 

[Bofig]

This was a funny thread to read. Here at -25F everything dies, unless covered by mulch. So to me there’s cold hardy = survives in ground with protection(all figs no matter the variety), early fruit set(very few known so far), quick ripening(many of the short season figs).

For a fig to grow and ripen here which they do after winter kill for me in zone 4b, they need to possess all three qualities. There is a tradeoff though, these will not be spectacular like a wm#1 is, or any perfectly ripened Adriatic in the hot sun. However basics like Fignomenal or yellow Lebanese, these fruited and ripened and had much higher brix compared to the potted counter part.

In ground here is not easy if you are not willing to put in the effort. It requires regular mulch maintenance, constant pruning, and a watchful eye on the forecast. Many of these are almost non issues in a potted tree or zones 7-11.

 

[pjmac]

OK... this is the first time I've heard of feeding before winter affecting cold tolerance. What's that all about? Because I'll feed the heck out of them with whatever will do that!

I follow things i do for other plants, i dont know all the fig stuff but i fertilize very much longer than most i see in the fig world. I was getting green growth late in the season and was worried by what everyone said, however i didnt let them get below 15degrees in a greenhouse coldframe. Im now waking up the longer season stuff and even my green growth is waking back up without being lignified at all. It doesnt make sense to me to stop fertilizing....the trees in ground dont stop getting fertilized by the rain and dirt so i dont stop fertilizing til its almost down to temps to start dormancy. They will eat it if they want if they dont they wont, and i look at it like this if i get late green growth and it dies then it didnt matter anyway

 

[pjmac]

This was a funny thread to read. Here at -25F everything dies, unless covered by mulch. So to me there’s cold hardy = survives in ground with protection(all figs no matter the variety), early fruit set(very few known so far), quick ripening(many of the short season figs).

For a fig to grow and ripen here which they do after winter kill for me in zone 4b, they need to possess all three qualities. There is a tradeoff though, these will not be spectacular like a wm#1 is, or any perfectly ripened Adriatic in the hot sun. However basics like Fignomenal or yellow Lebanese, these fruited and ripened and had much higher brix compared to the potted counter part.

In ground here is not easy if you are not willing to put in the effort. It requires regular mulch maintenance, constant pruning, and a watchful eye on the forecast. Many of these are almost non issues in a potted tree or zones 7-11.

Man you have to be in one of the worst zones for figs . I thought me and toronto joe had it rough. Then i saw youre in 4/5. Oooofffff

 

[grasshopper]

This was a funny thread to read. Here at -25F everything dies, unless covered by mulch. So to me there’s cold hardy = survives in ground with protection(all figs no matter the variety), early fruit set(very few known so far), quick ripening(many of the short season figs).

For a fig to grow and ripen here which they do after winter kill for me in zone 4b, they need to possess all three qualities. There is a tradeoff though, these will not be spectacular like a wm#1 is, or any perfectly ripened Adriatic in the hot sun. However basics like Fignomenal or yellow Lebanese, these fruited and ripened and had much higher brix compared to the potted counter part.

In ground here is not easy if you are not willing to put in the effort. It requires regular mulch maintenance, constant pruning, and a watchful eye on the forecast. Many of these are almost non issues in a potted tree or zones 7-11.

There is another option - put the inground trees under a warmed tunnel/hood/greenhouse. But the number of trees under heated roofs also depends on your resources and willingness to make that effort.

If the retiree from Nebraska can grow citrus in zone 4, I am sure it can handle a few fig trees too.

 

[Figjake]

This was a funny thread to read. Here at -25F everything dies, unless covered by mulch. So to me there’s cold hardy = survives in ground with protection(all figs no matter the variety), early fruit set(very few known so far), quick ripening(many of the short season figs).

For a fig to grow and ripen here which they do after winter kill for me in zone 4b, they need to possess all three qualities. There is a tradeoff though, these will not be spectacular like a wm#1 is, or any perfectly ripened Adriatic in the hot sun. However basics like Fignomenal or yellow Lebanese, these fruited and ripened and had much higher brix compared to the potted counter part.

In ground here is not easy if you are not willing to put in the effort. It requires regular mulch maintenance, constant pruning, and a watchful eye on the forecast. Many of these are almost non issues in a potted tree or zones 7-11.

No -25 here but we got -10 the other night . Zone 7a my arse .

 

[grasshopper]

No -25 here but we got -10 the other night . Zone 7a my arse .

The hardiness zone is just an average guideline. We live with the real weather, which is often out of the norm. So, it is easy to overlook for those live in the warmer zone like 7 or 8 or even 9 to think winter protection is just for Northern growers. Unless you have seen how much damage a zone 7-9 cold can do to the trees(including killing them all the way for good), you would think these people are overconcerned with the cold.

 

[pjmac]

No -25 here but we got -10 the other night . Zone 7a my arse .

Is that feels like temp? Or real temp?.
If your pushing -10 real temp youre pushing 6b for sure

 

[Bofig]

Here we are labeled zone 5a now but I have lived in same area my entire life. Winters range from -20F to -26F real temps, sometimes the feels like ranges -40 to -60s but this year is a mild winter with a low so far of only -16F real temps. Greenhouses and hoop houses would still need heated to support potted figs and I’m not about the spending for that plus I have over 300 potted trees and I planted maybe 200-250 in ground trees summer of 2024, still have around 125-150 alive. First winter was a learning curve with early frost and rodent damage through winter.

 

[grasshopper]

Here we are labeled zone 5a now but I have lived in same area my entire life. Winters range from -20F to -26F real temps, sometimes the feels like ranges -40 to -60s but this year is a mild winter with a low so far of only -16F real temps. Greenhouses and hoop houses would still need heated to support potted figs and I’m not about the spending for that plus I have over 300 potted trees and I planted maybe 200-250 in ground trees summer of 2024, still have around 125-150 alive. First winter was a learning curve with early frost and rodent damage through winter.

On another thread, we were discussing how to warm the trees. One option is to use geothermal and solar. Investment and a bit of work upfront but minimal expenses going forward. For geothermal, you need to figure out how much to dig down before getting a warm enough soil temperature to help warm up the greenhouse. I was just watching a guy's video doing it in Alberta, zone 3. He has an interesting design storing the heat in a "sand" battery (layer of insulated sand) under the greenhouse, in addition to solar heated water pipes. Another guy just buried some perforated pipes under 4 ft and cycles warm air into the greenhouse. Between sunlight and the warm geothermal air, he managed to grow things all throughout the year without the need to turn on backup heat.

USDA updated the zones couple years back. They do that every 10 years I believe.

 

[Bofig]

On another thread, we were discussing how to warm the trees. One option is to use geothermal and solar. Investment and a bit of work upfront but minimal expenses going forward. For geothermal, you need to figure out how much to dig down before getting a warm enough soil temperature to help warm up the greenhouse. I was just watching a guy's video doing it in Alberta, zone 3. He has an interesting design storing the heat in a "sand" battery (layer of insulated sand) under the greenhouse, in addition to solar heated water pipes. Another guy just buried some perforated pipes under 4 ft and cycles warm air into the greenhouse. Between sunlight and the warm geothermal air, he managed to grow things all throughout the year without the need to turn on backup heat.

USDA updated the zones couple years back. They do that every 10 years I believe.

This all takes lots of money which I don’t have once the kids graduate I’ll be spending their inheritance recklessly lol

 

[grasshopper]

This all takes lots of money which I don’t have once the kids graduate I’ll be spending their inheritance recklessly lol

Make sure you tell them that. But by then, you may not have the energy to dig holes, which is the hardest part of the project. Perforated pipes are relatively cheap compared to the greenhouse.

 

[Bofig]

Make sure you tell them that. But by then, you may not have the energy to dig holes, which is the hardest part of the project. Perforated pipes are relatively cheap compared to the greenhouse.

You can always force the kids or grandkids to do the labor if it comes to that. I’m in my 30s still so I hope I still have a ways to go lol. If I can’t and no one wants to help, looks like I’m buying a machine to do it

 

[Figgerlickinggood]

You can always force the kids or grandkids to do the labor if it comes to that. I’m in my 30s still so I hope I still have a ways to go lol. If I can’t and no one wants to help, looks like I’m buying a machine to do it

I completely agree. After all it’s the secret of all parents, to make us do the chores they don’t like doing. maybe I’ll teach my son how to cook and do laundry.