Chicago hardy fig zone 6 winter protection success!

I have a Chicago hardy fig that has been winter killed above ground and regrow every year. During the growing season of 2024, I tried training several branches to lay close to the ground. Afterthe leaves were gone, I weighted down the tips with rocks and buried the branches under a few inches of soil. I got below zero temperature twice the past winter, with the lowest of -7F/-22C. I unearthed the branches in spring to check and they were all alive. This year the fig bush is healthyand vigorous. The branches are now spread out evenly, as they no longer start from the crown any more. There are hundreds of fruitlets and they get plenty of time to ripe.

I am really happy with the result. This coming winter, I am going to protect the 2nd year horizontal cordons again so they will gain girth and be more resilient over the years.

Brilliant! This winter we had a blizzard to the tune of temps and weather not seen since 130 years ago. This spring and summer everything has been so slow and sleepy - it is interesting to me that this is normal for many gardeners! I am now* rather skeptical of weather and will forever be grateful for cabbages and Florida Broadleaf mustard greens and mache!

Where I grew up in southern Michigan, we had a neighbor who grew fig trees. I think he was Italian.  Every fall he would bury his fig trees in the ground!  He would dig a trench out to one side of the tree, cut through the roots on the opposite side till it was slightly loose, tie the branches together, and then tip the whole thing over sideways into the trench and bury it!  Come spring he'd dig it up, stand it up tied to a stake, and away it would grow!

I heard about that traditional Italian method too. The first people did it must be audacious or desperate!  

I checked near the center of the bush. I left some twigs buried and they send down adventitous roots. I yanked several of the branches out potted them up.  I got 10 more fig trees instantly.

Mae May, Do you think training them low and covering densely with straw or hay would have similar results? Or do you believe the success is specific to the soil?

I think preventing desiccation of the barks would be the key. Figs have very thin barks and pithy core. Soil holds moisture and heat so the skins won't dry out. But this year I am going to test another method which is bark coating. I will paint the trunks with lime and latex. Then wrap with straw and cardboard for extra protection.

How big is your fig?

Hi May. You are somewhere in Southern Illinois, I think. Surprised 'Chicago hardy ' figs need so much help. My niece is growing figs in N Illinois and getting some fruit.

I am in SW Missouri with an elevation of 1300-1400ft so my winter can be quite harsh. I used to blame on weather and genetics for winter kill but I started to wonder if my fruit trees weren't unleashing full potential because of the soil. I tested the idea out and so far had very positive results. Anyway, my fruit trees have healthier growth this season and I am expecting the cold hardiness should be improved as well. I have a second CH fig bush to be left unprotected for comparison. Some other varieties are developing breba fruits.  I don't want to risk the fruits and will protect those as best as I can.

I harvested over 150 figs from the two bigger bushes and a couple of other small plants had fruits unripe when first freeze hit. Hopefully those will grow stronger and faster to actually produce.  It is going down to teens /-10C this weekend so I made each fig a 6" deep soil mound to protect the crowns.

May,

I recommend that you also try "Hardy Hartford" fig. It's possibly even hardier than "Chicago". It also tastes better. I have 40 various figs and "Hartford" scores at the top for the flavor in my opinion. It is also very hardy for extreme heat. It survives the southwestern corner of my fig plot and also at the top of my frying pan orchard. It is also extremely productive, much more than "Chicago". It was still making new figs in November. The only other fig with such production level is "Florea" - even more cold hardy (grown commercially in Bulgaria and the Balkans)., but with not so great flavor as Hartford. I would recommend that you try both.

Thanks for the recommendations!  I only tried black mission figs from the store before and home grown figs are much better. I am really interested in adding more figs with different flavor profiles.

Do you have tips to speed up the ripening process? I lost 1/4 unripe figs when the freeze hit. I am hoping a fast regrow from protected crowns would get the fruits to set and ripen a few weeks early.

May Lotito wrote:Do you have tips to speed up the ripening process?

No tips. I have so much sun that I rely on nature in this regard. There will always be unripen fruits on the tree. I you have a large and productive fig with strong root system, that will be able to regrow after hard freeze it will produce a lot and the wasted unripen fruits will bother you less.

Hi May,

I would be interested in knowing how your fig trees are doing this year. We had especially cold sub zero temperatures for a couple of weeks in a stretch here in Wisconsin. I bent by fig branches to the ground like you. My idea being I won’t bury it but get it as close to ground as possible. I got a few temperature sensors and they looked promising at ground level under mulch even on the oldest days.

Mine do look like they survived but I can only be sure in April or May when they start growing here.

Good luck with your fig trees! 150 figs sound amazing though. I will be ecstatic if mine produces 50 each!

Rachna

Hi Rachana, I've heard if successful stories of protecting figs with heavy mulching and tarp wrapping. Wish you have a bounty crop this year! Even keeping just a few inches above ground would make a big difference. The dormant buds will grow back quickly while restarting from the crown delays the development by weeks. Here is the fig bush after the erratic winter and recent crazy temperature roller coaster: going from 75F to 15 back to 90 in a week. Bigger branches actually die back above the mound of dirt. I am expecting that over time with the branches getting thicker they will be hardier too.

That temperature swing sounds brutal, 75 to 15 and back to 90 in a week. Good to see the soil mounding kept the crowns going though. Did the bark coating with lime and latex you mentioned earlier make any difference on the upper branches or did they still die back regardless?

Hi Joao, I didn't paint. I figured just let some weaker twigs thin out so it won't be too bushy. I added some ag lime and gypsum to increase soil calcium level, as the best figs are grown in calcareous Mediterranean soil. I scattered some wood ash around as well. Hopefully the wood will be stronger and more resistant to cold stress. The fig bush woke up early and started putting out lots of figlets. The thickest 3yr old branch is now over one inch in diameter.  I meant to remove some of the smaller twigs but they all started looking similar and suddenly exploded in growth.

I'm not sure if it was this thread but somewhere on the Permies forum I got the idea to also lay branches of my Chicago Hardy Fig on the ground.  You have to steal a great idea when you find it!  

It's this fig's second winter.  It came back from the roots the first winter even though it was heavily mulched.  This winter I just weighed the easily bent branches down with rocks then covered them with leaves and wood chips.

Some branches definitely budded out above the ground this spring although not all the branches I attempted to cover were covered well enough and so some didn't make it.  Anyways, 3 days ago I got our first fig which my daughter promptly consumed.  I didn't keep records to know when we started getting fruit last year, but I'm almost certain it was later than now!

Also the thing is a monster this year! Since it's right in front of my house I think I'm going to have to trim some of the branches back just so they don't get over the gutters. There is a chance that I can't take responsibility because we did have a somewhat mild winter. We never got below zero fahrenheit, although we did have those crazy temperature swings in the spring.

Here are a few more pictures in case you guys aren't tired of looking at figs.  The first one was right after it started leaving out in the spring and the other two are right now.

Hi Anna, your fig looks very healthy and robust. Ripe fig in July? That is very early. Are you in a warmer pocket of Kansas? I have the impression Kansas is cold and even we in the Ozarks gets below -10F in winter. If you have more room in front of the house, train the younger branches towards that direction because in the coming years the fig will grow bigger and bigger.

I've been planning for some hardy figs here in zone 7a, and have been reading the "Fig Boss" recommendations about winter protection here in my area (https://www.figboss.com/post/fig-tree-hardy). He does something similar with bending to the ground and covering/wrapping, apparently with a lot of success!

Hey May I don't think we're that much warmer? We just got lucky this year and didn't get as cold as people around us. We did get that sudden swing down to I think it was 14 Fahrenheit in April. That was pretty brutal.

And sorry my second picture has drunken sailor energy. I thought I'd gotten the whole fig in frame. Let's try again.

This is awesome, team, thanks for the killer info. I've been researching figs based only upon some advanced breeding work and most of that would be scion stock I'd have to graft myself.

That's wonderful, but these techniques hold great promise.

I'm interested in pushing the limits via mass seedlings, but I need viable stock to run the game from. So, using these techniques should help with that.

This is a "down the road" project, but it's important to put the pieces into the machine when you find 'em.

Thanks again, this is a powerful bit of condensed knowledge in this thread.