Noss,
Thanks.
So far all the large trees in The Bronx that I've posted about are all alive. There are buds currently swelling (emerging) on the lower portions of most of the large trunks.
There has not been any losses as yet... I've pruned back the trees (6) to train them in the Bush form similar to the attached picture of another Unknown Fig tree that was pruned by its owner to an easily maintained shape.

Pete that looks like approximately 90% of the tree's total mass has been pruned away. I am glad these trees survived, but it still counts as a disaster to me.

Because of this thread I've been driving around Queens trying to find an in ground fig tree that has survived this past winter. So far I have been unable to locate a single in ground fig tree that has broken bud. Luckily I was able to keep my potted figs sheltered from the worst of the winter weather and most of them have broken dormancy and are doing well.

Datesnfigs my lone in ground has broken buds on half the branches, but it was wrapped. I have yet to see an unprotected Queens tree break bud either.

Fig trees can grow back from the roots even after you think they are dead.  That's what happened to two of my young fig trees that got top killed by a December frost.  All my other fig trees starting waking up in mid February.  The two that were top killed did not start growing again from the soil until mid April.  That's two additional months.  For those of you in the NYC area I wouldn't lose hope until July.

Rough winter here in northern VA. Good to commiserate here. I'm still watching and waiting, had a number of new and old plants in ground this season. The little ones I covered up so far seemed to look a tad better than the big ones I left uncovered. Still waiting to see what happened...

The spring has been not warm at all. last night was 50. I think it may be still too cool to properly break the dormancy after a long winter.

there is a fig tree in a community garden on my block. it is protected by 2 buildings but i see no leaf buds yet.

Hi ascpete,
If you still have the sticks and have some place, put some in the dirt... You might get surprises !
Your goal was to reshape the tree, but still heart breaking to see such a huge pruning .
I would have done some airlayering before doing the pruning. You could have ended with at least some 6 nice fruiting trees.

If it was my tree I would later remove some of the sticks coming from the dirt . IMO, left like that, the new bush will be too dense . So you would still have the airlayering option ahead .
Unless the tree is completely lost, which happened to me on 6 inground fig trees in February 2012 - We hit -25°c at night that winter .

     I have been riding around the last several days to locations in my area of existing, inground fig trees...so far I have not seen any trees that have survived the winter without severe structural damage, or total loss...as stated in a previous post, I have lost seven inground trees on my own property, and another one at my father-in-laws house several miles away...I have been living on this current property for 28 yrs. and have never before seen a damaging winter like this one.

I'm in zone 6 and we had it as bad as you folks did.  My 20 year old in ground HC started budding out a week after I fertilized it.  On a whim I added extra mulch to the bush last November.  Now I see that the only parts that survived were the parts under the new mulch.  If I were tending to the trees I'd fertilize when the high temps will stay over 70 and next fall mulch a lot.  Letting them grow as a bush will provide a lot more nodes to recover from so I think that's a good idea, too.

Life!!

(71st Street near Northern Boulevard).

Wow, rough winter. Mine was bad but yours was so much worse. Hope the recovery is looking a little better every day.

Up here zone 6a way my two in-ground (in the field) 19yr old black Italian U. are breaking bud/leafing out and most branches seemed to have survived this brutal winter seemingly better than past winters.  Can't explain that other than I took a little more care last year in covering.   Used lots of leaves, straw and mulch around the base.

However my in-ground dalmatie is winter killed dead to about 2' above ground but is now breaking bud vigorously below that.  Don't know if I will get figs from the dalmatie this year. 

My figs over wintered in the barn have yet to break dormancy although they don't look dead.  I saw many days the temperature in the barn at 12F during the winter on the wall near the figs.  The figs had some covering but no source of heat.  Next year I will put in thermostatically controlled source of heat.

My figs stored in the passively heated sun room are doing fine.  Brought them out to my improvised temp greenhouse and they have leafed out and are packed with brebas and are growing vigorously. 

Does anyone know how figs behave are affected at these low temperatures? 

To me it looks like the colder and longer the cold the deeper their sleep.  To some point then of course they die. 
I suspect that winters also do some permanent damage to the figs and at some point the trunk fails.  I grow my figs as bushes so each plant may have 10-12 trunks and every year I cut off the ones that look weak or damaged.
 

Here is an in ground tree at 148 Street and 12th Avenue in Whitestone, Brown Turkey, was protected by the owner this winter, this is the first tree I have seen so fully leafed out here in Queens.

Very nice looking fig tree Rafael.  You must be having some great weather or the owner did a super job of winter protection!  The tree is likely very cold hardy given this winter.

He wrapped it in a carpet with a rubber trash can on top Pino.

must have looked funny with the can on top but what the heck it worked great!

Just today, as I was driving by, I saw a skinny, pathetic excuse of a fig tree growing right up against the brick wall of a house in Throggs Neck, Bronx NY.  It had a few small leaves poking out from the skeletal branches.

The drastic hacking, and butchering, on most of the in grounds here in this area, has begun.  These, once beautiful trees, have been pruned back and reduced to just a few gaunt stems, sticking up out of the lawns and gardens.  But still, no leaves are to be seen.

Frank

I plants hundreds of tree in ground last September, they are all less than 1 yr old about 1 ft tall. I only add about 6" mulch in November to protect root. Most of the top was eaten by deer during the winter. I thought they are dead because they look bone dry.
But when I remove the mulch, more than 50% of them are sprouting. My yard is wide open, -20C for a couple weeks. These small trees only in gorund for about 1 month before winter came, their roots are shallow for sure, yet they survived. I don't think the cold kill them, but the strong wind dehydrated them. the portion that protected by mulch is hydrated.
I will do a few test at the end of grow season. I'll store cutting in -80C freezer in ice. I believe as long as the cutting is hydrated, it will be fine.
picture is the sign of life of the tree I mentioned.    

Hello Jimmy-

Nice to read that you have managed to keep all those younger, in-ground trees alive and that they are now starting to sprout some new leaves, and stems.

I have no direct evidence, but I also think that dehydration has caused most of the damage and terrible die-back.  The strong, freezing winds really destroyed too many trees over the last winter.  Maybe it's possible that the frozen ground around the roots did not allow any moisture to get into the semi-dormant root systems (in certain climate areas) and caused the above-ground wood to desiccate, and die back.  I could be wrong.  I just know the frozen ground/containers and freezing bitter winds, were not a good thing for fig trees.  The results are now too obvious.

Thanks for sharing.  Good luck with the new fig season.


Frank

Wow, sorry to see this level of carnage. Puts my Gk Yellow 'woes' into perspective. Hope at least some of you are pleasantly surprised later in the season.

It may not be the complete solution for the severest winters, but I repeat again - have none of you ever heard of 'fleece'? Works a treat over here, but then again, doubt if it would have helped much in the kinda conditions you had recently. Still worth trying tho, especially on containerized trees. And multiple layers might offer just enough protection to ensure survival. 

Interesting link on covering in ground figs


http://www.newenglandvfc.org/2013_conference/powerpoints2013/Greenhouse%20Grown%20Figs.pdf

I'm starting to see some life in some trees in my neighborhood ! I hope I see in mine too.

A lot of trees are going to turn into bushes this year