Any cold climate growers uncovering in-ground figs yet? Damage reports?

[Kelby]

Any cold climate growers uncovering in-ground figs yet? I uncovered one on Monday, Bari. It was mulched about 18-24" deep, all exposed wood died but everything below the mulch line looks great. I'll uncover my Sal's and RdB tomorrow if it's not too rainy or hopefully this weekend. Another couple nights in the upper 20's forecast, but I'm a rebel. Or reckless.

Temps this winter were a bit colder than normal. Several consecutive nights of low single digits to 0F, hit -1F for an hour or two. February had a long stretch of abnormally cold weather (highs in the 20s, lows in the singles).

I'll probably take the (dormant) potted figs outside next week. I don't plan to shuffle unless frost/freeze is coming.

[hoosierbanana]

I uncovered most about 10 days ago, then kicked some leaves back over the crowns when lows were back in the mid 20's. Saturday night is supposed to be under 25 so that has me a little worried. The top few feet were killed in November by low 20s so what is left should be fine though.

[jkuo]

I'm planning on uncovering mine this weekend (Sunday?). I keep putting off uncovering them since there always seems to be one more 20-something degree day in the forecast.

[GBIII]

Almost uncovered mine last weekend. Changed my mind at the last minute. Glad I did as so far this week we hit 18 and 22 for lows. If next week looks similar to what it does now, I'll be removing the winter protection this Sunday.

[figherder]

Uncovered my hardy chicago about 10 days ago. Still have some nights in the 20's a looks like maybe 3 more this week. So far no die back though. Even the small twigs sprouts seem to have made it this winter. last winter I didnt do any protection and thought I lost the tree. Didnt start back until June of this past year and no figs last year.
This winter we had some wind chills to -25 but the burlap bag and leaves seemed to have worked fine.

[Tonycm]

I uncovered 3 so far, Hardy Chicago, Black Triana and Celeste. Celeste looks to be completely dead from the ground up. I have hopes it will regrow. Black Triana looks good with some end die back. HC had some moldy branches and others look just ok with some die back. I wasn't really expecting to have anything alive from this winter. It got down to -15F at least 4 times and -20F once. I still have an RDB, Marseille Black and a local unknown from Kubota to uncover. Those I'll wait until next week.

[MichaelTucson]

Gonna be a few weeks (maybe 3 or 4) before the inground trees are exhumed.

[jkuo]

Just unwrapped my in ground unknowns. They had tip dieback. Looks like there's about 24 inches of surviving wood above ground.

[Kelby]

Just uncovered my RdB. All wood died back above the mulch line. Below the line the bark looks very weird. It is peeling off and there are some cracks, but the wood is green. But there are some swollen buds too. Hope it recovers.

[Rafaelissimmo]

Unwrapped my 3 in grounds today. Unknown Italian has almost no die back. Rdb and Malta Black 50% or more die back, and a mold condition probably caused by a few extra leaves left on the plant after wrapping, a foolish move on my part. Don't know how to improve aeration in a closed, wrapped environment, I am using pink fiberglass insulation surrounded by tarp.

[Coop]

I uncovered one of my Dominicks the other day. He was covered with a 55 gallon barrel after 1 trimmed him way down (lots of cuttings were distributed this year) with a couple of containers of moth balls inside. I am very happy with the way he looks

[Rafaelissimmo]

Were there any leaves or insulation in the barrel Coop?

[Kelby]

Uncovered everything else this morning, all seems alive. Pics are on my blog below, I don't feel like resizing all those pictures!

[AscPete]

Thanks for sharing those photos and info...

IMO, Limiting the quantity of branches (fruiting branches) will yield figs sooner (photo #2, BT). The initial # of branches for a bush form tree in colder zones should be only 3 - 4 in the early years for earlier fig production and establishing the base scaffold branches.

[Kelby]

Thanks Pete. It doesn't look like it but the BT were thinned a lot. I think they are TC plants and sucker like crazy. But they are getting replaced with Malta Black, I've decided. That is one good fig, there!

[WayneWKY]

Uncovered my in-ground figs today. One Sal's had most of the bark peeled off by some rodent. One was badly molded. Hardy Chicago looks dead above ground. Thought that they were well protected with straw, moth balls, mouse bait. I have backups of all and more in unheated storage that look great.

[AscPete]

Just uncovered one of the "shallow" buried in ground espalier to check for damage. This espalier was covered with 6" of Pine Shavings (Pine Bedding) with no water resistant covering. There is no visible damage on the entire 8' long dual cordon, it will be re buried due to colder forecasted temperatures. The 12" deep cordons are still frozen solid.

[Kelby]

They look good, I assume you had a lot of snow cover?

[AscPete]

Yes, 2 - 3 feet and the temperatures were cold enough that it stayed frozen until last week.