If you do it right… they
should do decent.
I wonder if figs are like what they say about citrus trees… in that they won’t reach that Winter hardiness until the trunk hits year 5 or so… and gets girth to it/lignified/and a thicker layer of bark.
I am trying citrus here in-ground on the border of 7B/8A in Chesapeake, VA.
Even my Meyer Lemons (only rated to 25F when mature) are just fine after seeing actual temps down to 7F and wind chills below 0F this past Winter.
My baby figs are all still alive as well.
One big thing I noticed about what the main difference of a branch surviving or not is…
If they woke up during that false-Summer (several weeks in the mid to upper 80s) we had that was then followed by nights back down to 20F to 25F. Any tree that woke up… was killed back to the ground. That sap froze and destroyed them.
For instance… I had one branch of my Italian 258 wake up and it died. The other two branches were just fine except the tips.
My large mother in-ground Smith woke up aggressively and then was killed back to the ground. The one in the container stayed dormant and was just fine like nothing happened.
Same thing happened to my two LSU purple figs in large containers. One woke up and died back to the ground… the other does not think anything happened and has zero damage.
All of these
trees are direct copies of each other.
I aim to mulch that Smith deep this time since it woke up so easily.
Good luck! I can’t wait to be plucking some great figs off of them into the future.
Oh, and my citrus is all planted into a micro climate… and had extra protection on top. Though Yuzu Lemons are said to be good down to 0F to 5F