Perhaps someone here has some experience with this, and advice to share...
Iām in Zone 6b, and am trying to care for an approx. seven year old Chicago Hardy fig at a local community garden. Iāve only observed it for the past two years. So far, it has been unprotected in the winter, and died back to the ground each year. The vegetative re-growth has been extremely vigorous, a circle/crown of unbranched canes shoots up 10-12 feet. It doesnāt produce fruit. In trying to figure out why, and how to correct that problem and get some delicious figgy goodness, I found lots of conflicting information online- fruiting on current season growth vs. previous year growth... Finding out now itās complicated with figs! With their multiple crops and whatnot...
Iāve read about other people having the same problem (no fruit) but also a couple reports of the first year re-growth fruiting but not ripening by first frost.
At this point, my best guess is that each year, the energy our fig has stored in the roots is all going to vegetative growth each spring, and could have been redirected to fruit by pinching the terminal leaf bud of each cane after it grows to about half its usual height?
Yesterday, in preparation for single digit F temperature, we did some winter protection to try to keep at least part of the canes alive, hopefully giving them a head start on veg growth for spring. Iāve learned that with figs, though, longer periods of not-so-extreme cold and wind are worse than short extreme drops in temperature, and noticed yesterday that the tops of the tall canes already appear dessicated.
Iām torn now between pruning the canes back to encourage new growth at comfortable harvest-level (assuming having a head start on growth will help it fruit) and just letting the winter prune them... What iām thinking is that if I prune them myself, the cuts may be injurious, but it would be easier to fully cover and protect the remaining stems.
Any help/ideas would be greatly appreciated.