The weather so far this spring has really been tough. We had a stretch of days in the 90s a few weeks ago with really strong sun that resulted in some sunburn of plants. These were growing well inside, and were hardened-off when put outside but were not ready for that kind of exposure. So far the leaves have not fallen and the sunburn was limited to less than half of the leaves but I thought folks might been interested in seeing the pictures to help in diagnosing future problems (you can see sunburn of both leaves and petioles in the pics). We also had some very rainy weather with little sun and some very cold nights. Monday we had frost and even though I covered every plant with sheets and plastic, some still experienced some damage from the cold. A few had leaves "curl" from the cold exposure and I have lost the breba growing on my Celeste and White Marseilles. Good thing figs are tough and they will recover I am sure.

Ciao Steve,  They still look very very healthy. They will be fine.  Good of you to post these pictures so some folks can see what these symptoms look like and can diagnose and understand what causes them.  Very good.
Buona fortuna!  Ciao

Steve,
yes its been an up and down spring. Poor tree's mine have not experienced the sunburn as its just been a cool spring here so plants are slow for me this year. Last few days have been warm in 80s now back to 70s for a week they say which is normal and beats the 60s thats for sure. Our rain has tapered off as of late.
What you post sure will help lots of folks not familar with sunburned leaves im sure!

I have the same crispied leaves from our 101F day in late April. 101F and 10% humidity and tender new leaves are not a good combo. They do pick up right where they left off, however. 

Jon - Bad thing about sunburn is it doesn't show up until a day or two later ... you can easily get fooled when you don't see wilting from the heat and think everything is fine. I'm glad I'm not the only one who cooked some figs ;)

Maggie, thanks ... I think they will pull through fine.

TMC - You would think they can take the heat but not when they are so little (actually young). I think if they were in the ground, where the roots stay cooler, they could take more top heat. But in pots soil heats up fast and can cause wilting. It also takes a lot longer than you would think to harden-off the young ones. I mulch them to help keep in the moisture (plus I think it looks nicer. It also helps when you water so you don't create "holes" in the soil or wash any away (keeps the deck cleaner too). As far as the thumbnails go, it just happens (I think the html setting might do the trick). I use the "manage attachments" feature to post pics.

My fig trees this Spring have ran the gauntlet also starting with  a Hardy Chicago severely pruned by a large fir tree felled by a tornado.  After that, a heavy rain carried debris into the downspout plugging it and overflowing the gutters and washed out about 1/3 of the newly transplanted plants.  2 days ago, my dogs played tag in a group of 40 or so gallon pots of fig plants, and found out their new hobby was rolling pots full of figs.  i had to re pot 3.  Yesterday I went to our store to check progress on the contractor re-roofing our building and found out he could do a better job of spraying foam on my Sals fig tree that was just setting main crop figs.  Whats next?

Sirlampsalot,

Ok now I don't feel so bad about some damaged leaves, you are having a worse spring than me :o)

It will get better I am sure, sorry you figs got banged around so muck. I didn't know growing figs was a full-contact sport!

Best of Luck

Tough spring indeed.
I just found that the low tonight is forecast for 0 degree C (32F) for our area. I am not sure if I should be worried about the newly planted tomatoes, cayenne hot peppers or the labour of love newly rooted fig plants that are out in the open and it is past midnight so tempted to take a chance hoping proximity of the buildings will help a bit. The gusty winds had already taken away some of the leaves from this winter rooted fig plants.

How did everything survive ottawan?  If it was me, I would have been outside covering everything up.  You can buy these mixing cups at lowes to shield your young tomato and Peppers and little figs.  I had to buy a big tarp and cover my entire garden a good week and half ago because of frost. If I didn't, all my seedling tomatoes and peppers would have been killed. I also did several gardens for family members who are a distance away, I was unable to cover their gardensa  and their sons were too lazy to help their mom cover it and Poof !!!!  Everything was gone. My Aunt lost everything that night. I brought all the figs in to.  Its better to be safe than sorry. Next time try to cover everything up.  We work way too hard at our hobbies and gardening interests to loose it within an hour or two of dawn!!!  Ciao Buona fortuna.

Italiangirl
Thanks, everything survived. Actually measured temperature in the open at the airport was 1 deg C (approx 34F). Not moving the plants was less because of laziness but some knowledge that the forecast here was for the airport in the open area and the suburban and urban areas have a degree or two difference being above the airport open fields temperature. However, I agree that caution is much better for the new fig plants.

Ciao Ottawan,  Please in no way was I calling YOU lazy, I understand that and hope you believe me, I was going on about my lazy cousins, who if the boys would have just moved a square inch, their mother ( My Aunt ) would not have lost all of the wonderful Tomato and pepper plants like she did. She is older and just needs a little help sometimes.  Its funny, when our parents and grandparents were younger, they helped their older family members in just about everything,  these days its different.  Sometimes the excuse " they have their own things to do " bothers me because they did too, but still made the time.  This was a terrible tragedy for my Aunt's garden.  All the vegetables were grown from special seed sent to us from our relatives back home in Italy.  Now she will start all over again, and probably not get these special varieties as she will probably buy from a local nursery.  Mine were the same, from these seeds, but I am glad mine survived because of covering. I will share my bounty with her. 

Maggie,
I agree with you. When I was a kid, I just helped without a second thought - well, ok, sometimes it was demanded, but I did it without too much complaining. I see it in my kids, that they must be told a thousand times and rarely do things of their own accord. Times have changed. I'm sorry for your Aunt's misfortune. I am sure your garden will produce enough great vegetables to share with her and others - that's the best part of gardening.

Ottawan, I'm glad you made it through that close call OK.

Maggie
I did not think you were meaning that. It was me who was not sure if it was some laziness or the knowledge of temperature differences between the forecast and actual temp in my garden that made me decide that they will survive (which they did).
I agree that if one's seedlings from special seeds don't make it for some reason then one has to think of the next year with all that winter in between. That is a terrible feeling for a gardener. The same is true for the fruit trees if they don't bloom or the bloom is lost to frost.
One reason I like figs now is because I store the dormant plants in a cold storage and so I do not have to worry about the winter kills of buds or plants. However, I do need help with pots at both ends of the growing season and the kids are no help here either. But probably some ripe figs will make up for it.

Thanks for posting this Steve.  This happened to my young figs yesterday.  We had rainy and cooler weather for a few weeks and the temperature has shot up over the last few days with full sun.  Glad to know they will recover just fine.  Is there anything I can do to help harden them off?  Currently, I've moved them to a shady area so they aren't exposed to direct sun.

Just ease them into the sun and keep them in the shade when it's really intense. It took a good 2 weeks to get my plants used to the sun and with the poor weather the past few weeks, I'm not convinced they are fully hardened. I'm glad I could help.

Tom,
Cool summers may not effect fig embryo production as much as it would effect the fig ripening and specially in the areas with shorter summers in the Northern areas. Figs need sun and its heat for ripening (the more the better).

Today, here in NJ, it was, and still is a "soup-day", weather-wise!
It has been like that almost for months.

Very good for my lawn grass - specially for the over-seeding I did.

Not so good for figs; good for reducing need for watering; bad for
producing less heat units.

Also, this very kind of weather is what makes my Brunswicks rot
very badly while RIPENING (later) in the summer.

Humid and hot last couple days , today 86 sunny, last couple days rain and more rain. Illinois was clobbered as they closed expressways further north of chicago, train derailment, power lines down etc etc.
Then we recieved our share further south, here is picture of a few trees on rocks usually water does not build there unless we get a 2 or more inches of rain and 1 or 2 days later it goes away. I cannot complain we needed the rain , and now the fig plants are getting much needed heat finally 80s for another week in long term forcast. Oh i was able to nip a few ends of the branches on the unknown italian as they needed it the others not yet.That tree better give me more than 1 ripe fruit and be good tasting this year or . ..... .... .. ....

Steve, how do you recize your pictures to make thumbnails, i use photobucket but i have hard time.

Steve,
please disregard that last message, my daughter showed me how to use the thumbnail thing.