It has been a very disappointing fig year for me.  First, the winter of 10/11 got colder here than ever in my time.  I had fifteen below zero on the walls of my house.  Three of the potted figs in my garage did not make the winter, and a half dozen in the barn perished.

I have a Paradiso, a Celeste, a Hardy Chicago and a Pak Black in the ground, all were covered with plastic barrels and stuffed with leaves or hay.  Leaves proved to be better.  I had much dead wood to remove when I took off the barrels in the Spring.

Nevertheless, the in-ground figs grew well and have figs on them.  Only the H. C. has ripened any at this point. It was frozen back to the ground so it is living up to its name even though its figs are not very good. Of the four, the Pak Black seems to be the heaviest producer at this point. 

My potted figs act as though the weather has made them sick.  Despite all my care they put on few figs and the hot weather made them drop most.  It was impossible for me to keep them properly watered on days when the temps reached triple digits.  Some lost most of their leaves, retaining only top knots.  Others lost most of their leaves and sprouted branches along the bare stems. 

The toughest of them seem to be the Bayern Feige Violetta, the Texas Everbearing and s local tree I've taken cuttings from.  Another local, antecedents known to have survived in Tulsa for at least sixty years, has only one large fig on it, but the fig looks like a good one.  That tree may go in the ground.

How about the rest of you?  Did the excessive summer heat set you back?  Lose any figs last winter? 

Ox,

No losses last winter. But then my low was only 15F. Still, a cpl of my figs were killed to just above the ground. They have since come back even bigger and produced fruit.

Lost one fig, but that was really due to my letting that one get too dry in winter. It was under a table and I missed it with the watering can. I am having my most productive fig year. Don't think it is the weather, probably just that my trees are getting more mature. We had a very hot July and now the wettest August ever. I have had a few figs blow up on me but that is to be expected with this incredible volume of water, hurricane and all. 

Ox,

I posted yesterday about this years winter and subsequent heat.  All of my trees died back to the ground over winter.  Several did not come back this year.  I don't think it was so much how cold it got as much as it came the day after it was 80F so my trees were still in full leaf.  Also, we have wind all the time which cause the tress to dry easily (even when temps aren't below freezing). 

The heat/drought has prevented any substantial growth on most of my trees.  MBVS was the first to produce fruit, but they shriveled up. Stanford (not Sanford) from Fannick's Nursery and Verdal Loungue have fruit that seem to be holding on.  Armenian. Ta'cenc and Osbourne Prolific seem to be struggling most.

~james

James, we had some of the same weather.  Hot one day, very cold the next.  I could have managed that, but I was not able to do much about the fifteen below zero when I was out trying to get hay to cattle. 

I thought the "barrel" figs would be fine, but they suffered too.