Did your fig tree survive the winter?

[Anonymous]

I have 4, 2 planted outside in a sunny area and 2 I brought into the garage over the winter. The 2 I brought inside have green leaf buds but the 2 outside have no signs of buds. My 2 outdoor fig trees do have green under their skin when you scratch them. Neighbors' fig trees also not budding.

I am hoping they will start to show life in next few weeks or by mid May I will have to cut them to the ground. :"(

[Anonymous]

My fig tree shows no sign of budding, and a lot of branches look dead. I'll give it a couple weeks but I'm not real hopeful. Just planted it last year.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but they are planted next to a south-facing brick wall.

[Anonymous]

Yes, mine have started to bud this week.

Keep in mind, that these trees tend to bud late after a colder winter. If you aren't sure, pick a branch and scrape a small bit of bark off. If you see green, it is alive.

[Anonymous]

Give the outdoor ones some time, if they’re green underneath they’re probably fine.

For the indoor ones, figs are very sensitive, so be sure to reintroduce them to the outdoors gradually.

[Anonymous]

I think my digs are dead every year, and every year they come back. In very very cold years they have been killed down to the roots, but come back. That has happened twice in ten years. Give it until mid May before you give up hope.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. My two outdoor fig trees are dead and almost dead. I've cut them down to a stump. The one that has survived was about 8 feet tall and now has several shoots emerging at the base of the old trunk. The other one shows now sign of new shoots but the root system seems alive.

Both of the fig trees passed the scratch test (green underneath bark) until a couple weeks ago when both showed little evidence of life and most branches were snapping off (not bending as before). Lesson is that it may take a while for the winter damage to truly kill the fig tree.

[Anonymous]

This is the third time in less than 10 years that our figs have been winter-killed.

Prior to that year when had the first "polar vortex", when they died back the first time, we'd NEVER had a die back in the preceding 22 years. Not once.

That first polar vortex winter, our trees were almost 20 feet tall and almost as big around. Massive figs that had been growing steadily ever since we planted them in 1987. Then the polar vortex, and they died back all the way to the ground.

They cane back, then two years later another hard winter killed them.

Now, they're killed again from this past winter.


People can talk all the nonsense they want about global warming, but I know for certain that our winters are colder now lately than they've been in a very, very long time.

I guess global warming means everything gets colder.

[Anonymous]

Figs are a warm weather tree.

[Anonymous]

Our fig tree is in a large pot, which we brought into the garage for the winter. We took it back out a few weeks ago and are already seeing a few nubs.

[Anonymous]

Mine are slowly sprouting from the roots. All the top branches seem to be dead. I see plenty of other figs in the neighborhood leafing out nicely so I guess it also depends on the variety.

[Anonymous]

Mine is looking good but it’s in a sheltered location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think my digs are dead every year, and every year they come back. In very very cold years they have been killed down to the roots, but come back. That has happened twice in ten years. Give it until mid May before you give up hope.

Same here, all the branches died down to the root, but the buds always come up from the ground yearly.

[Anonymous]

No and I took it inside my house this year. Maybe it will grow from the root? The branches are dead though. I was so sad about it that DH just got me a new one for mother's day. I had babied that poor fig tree.

[Anonymous]

Mine is looking really good, actually. But like a PP, it is planted against the south-facing brick, which likely protected it.