Topics

Anyone's figs still sleeping?

I pulled all of my trees out of the greenhouse about 3 weeks ago while they were in the greenhouse most of them  were growing like crazy leaves, limbs, figs, a few of them did not break bud though the tips are nice and green no die back there just not doing anything, ever since I took them out they completely stopped growing , I am in zone 6B Connecticut the temperatures have been all over the place 70's to 80's during the days and some nights got down to 42 I'm  just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same thing? This is the first time I have ever experienced this. 

If I was you, I will take, as insurance, a cutting or two from each of those that show live buds but not opening until this time in June in case they never green-up.
I had many fig trees (some 18 of them) that looked good (live) when brought out from garage in late-April early-may. Fifteen of these dried and died. So I took cuttings from the remaining three. One of these three is slowly greening up but the other two are don't look good. However, the cuttings of the three plants are doing well and rooting.

I can attribute many reasons for the death of these plants such as 'needed root pruning', bringing out too early from storage and hit by freezing temps but the main reason was the stress due to prolonged period of extreme cold over the past winter when day-night temps were between -20C and -29C sometimes for weeks and temperature in the heated garage sometimes dropped below freezing.

Heres some pictures of the trees that I am talking about the leaves that you see developed in the greenhouse since I have taken them out they have stopped growing 
The ones against the building that I cut down I'm 99% sure died due to the extreme heat coming thru the window that they were up against in the greenhouse this year I will have to put a shade cloth over that window 
1.JPG  2.JPG  3.JPG  4.JPG  5.JPG 


Dave,

Taking some cuttings might not be a bad idea, but don't give up hope yet. I'm in Zone 6B too and I had 2 trees look exactly like that until a few days ago when I spotted some new buds.  

Dave - Late last year the remaining inventory of fig trees from one of the Big Box stores went on a super sale.  I made a great deal and bought 50 or so of their leftover trees.  After some badly needed root pruning, all were up-potted to 3 gal pots.  They were very healthy going into dormancy last year.  When coming out of storage this year all of them looked like they made it.  After a few weeks out of storage, only half of them started leafing out and those are doing really well right now.  The others are alive but dormant with zero activity.  None of them have die back and the branches are still soft and flexible, some with buds.  Last week, 2 out of the dormant batch woke up and are leafing out nicely.  

Going into winter storage all of the pots were neatly piled on top of one another.  Over 100 trees of various sizes were overwintered in the shed and they all made it through just fine.  The only thing that I can figure is the bottom pots were colder and the roots were damaged enough to keep them dormant but not enough to kill them.  Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of which pots were on the bottom when taking them out this spring.

  • Avatar / Picture
  • Dave
  • · Edited

I did an inventory today made 2 lists, one that I don't have high hopes for and the other that I still have hope for , taking cuttings is a good idea but the ones that are in the most trouble just keep dying back fortunately there's nothing to hard to replace if anyone has an extra unknown Gloria or Carini Sicily from Figgyfrank would like to sell or trade please let me know. 

May come back tips are still green
Unknown Croatia 
unknown Shippan
JH Adriatic
Italian Honey
Panache

No green tips ain't looking too good
Gillette
Gloria
Chicago Hardy
Black Maderia
Unknown Warren st
Strawberry Verte
Carini Sicily Figgyfrank

So what did I learn from this winters are getting worst in CT and I need to insulate "styrofoam" the greenhouse and put shade cloth over the windows because the heat coming through the glass is just as bad as the cold 

Reply Cancel
Subscribe Share Cancel