In December of 2013 we suffered a hard frost for several nights in a row.  It was a very rare occurrence for this area.  Two of my young fig trees were still green and tender when the frost hit.  Both of them were killed to the ground.  In February all the other fig trees started waking up again, but there were no signs of life from those two trees.  I was pretty sure that both of them were dead.

But a few weeks ago both of them started to send up buds from the soil!  It looks like they are alive and well.  It just took them two more months to wake up compared to all the other figs!

The two figs are:

Havasu
 

Flanders
 

I have high hopes for both of these trees.  Both of them came highly recommended to me by knowledgeable experienced fig growers.  I'm looking forward to seeing how they do in my yard.

great stuff, joe. good luck.

um, i thot that grass growing so close to the trees wasn't a good thing?

Thanks Susie.  You know the first couple of years that I lived in AZ I battled with the bermuda grass.  I tried to pull up every bit that grew near the trees.  It just about drove me crazy.  Then last year in the spring I broke my hand.  I couldn't do anything about the bermuda grass for about 4 months.  By then it was already late summer.  Bermuda grass was growing in thick stands around most of my trees.  But the funny thing was... the trees all looked greener and happier than ever.  I think the grass serves as a green mulch.  The soil under the bermuda is always dark and moist.  Now I leave it because it does no harm and the trees are happy.

good to know, joe. i really like first hand knowledge.

Good job! I bet they'll shoot up really fast since they should already have strong root systems.

This is something to bear in mind when grafting fig trees--if the graft union is above the soil line, a freeze could leave you with only what may (or may not) sprout from below ground; i.e., not what you wanted. I usually find grafting to be easier than rooting cuttings, but once the graft is established and thriving, I air layer it off the "surrogate mom" and plant it on its own.

That's good to know Ken. I've never grafted before, but I may have to give it a try one day.

I used to be pretty enthused about it, but now I'm less-so. I don't know from actual observation, but I'm guessing grafting has the potential to spread FMV or other problems among your figs. Without thinking about it, I did quite a bit of grafting onto one tree that had severe FMV, and although I don't see signs of it yet in the grafts (now air layered), I wonder if it will show up at some point.

almost certainly, ken.

FMV is like allergies.  "We" aka "they," all have it!  It's not a deal killer!  The leaves might look a little ugly, but the figs will be delish!!  Good luck with your survival figs.  I will say, I eliminated FMV by frying in the hot sun (in a pot) the roots of a fig.  It had one leaf for 3 years until Jon told me I was frying the roots.  It was FMV free until some workers with spray cans killed it. 

YOU CAN'T WIN!
Suzi

The more I learn about FMV, the less I think I know. Initially I was pretty confident it wouldn't make much difference, but after a few years I've noticed that my figs with heavy symptoms haven't performed very well. Even when some showed an occasional good growth spurt or seemed to "snap out of it" later in the season, I haven't been impressed with longer-term growth or production. Some of my plants seem pretty much symptom-free; I don't know whether they have it and are just resistant, or if they don't have it at all. Some, like Black Madeira and Green Ischia have heavy symptoms but I choose to keep them anyway, hoping they'll improve with age. Others, such as Kadota and Celeste, I discarded and replaced. I'm not concerned enough about it to even consider trying to eradicate it from my yard, but increasingly I've added varieties (or individual plants) that show few if any symptoms.

You discarded Kadota?  The best fig on the earth?  What were you thinking?  This fig has huge delicious yellow, spotted with brown, figs... (my climate is just a tich better than yours), but the Kadota is a huge producer and a soldier!  I spotted a ripe Kodata today, and it came to me easy.  I cut it in half to share, but there was no sharing.  That fig was so rich, seedless, and delish, JD never had a chance!

Suzi

That's what I had always heard, too, so it was one of my original choices from UCD (DFIC0066) back in 2010. It produced figs for three years, but not one of them was worth eating. I don't know if it was simply a bad strain, or a result of the FMV, or what--but it certainly didn't earn its keep. I pulled it out this spring to make room for an Ischia Black cutting my nephew gave me.

Frozen Joe, are you on a flood irrigated lot ? I know parts of Phoenix have flood irrigation.

I enjoy watching your fig review videos. Hopefully Havasu and Flanders will do well and get their own reviews this fall.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around FMV.  I see it on several of my trees.  The only tree that I have that seems to be badly affected by it is Barnisotte.  The others that show it don't seem to be affected by it much at all.  For some reason some trees are really messed up by FMV, but maybe those trees would have been messed up anyway?  I'm starting to think that all trees have it, but they don't all show it.  I've noticed it come and go on some trees.  My Black Madeira looks super healthy this year.  You would never think that it has FMV.  But in previous years it was showing in the leaves.

Bada I wish I was on an irrigated lot.  That is the best setup for growing fruit trees.  My trees are on drip.  I run the irrigation once a week.  I also water manually with a hose halfway through the week.

I recently posted in another gardening forum about a tree that is growing slowly.  The first comment that someone wrote was that there is too much grass around it.  I keep hearing about this.  Apparently grasses and weeds can put out chemicals that suppress the growth of other plants.  But from my experience so far the grass does not affect the trees in my yard.  Like Alan says maybe it has something to do with my soil.  I can only speak to what I am seeing in my yard.  Perhaps in a different soil or climate the grass would be much more harmful.

Hi FrozenJoe,
Did you do something for the tree ?
If not try this ( don't scream ) : Take a one liter milk bottle - half fat normal milk - and spread it all around the dirt around the tree - 75 centimeters circle .
And of course give some fertilizer to the tree .

jds, what does milk do? it sounds interesting.

i think it's clear that fmv saps a tree of vigor. my tissue culture HC is 15 months  old, but has a bigger caliper than my 3 year old trees.

milk protein mixed for 9% protein content will encapsulate viruses and de activate them, never heard of soil drench, always for workers and tools to dip between plants to to prevent spread though.

Very interesting.  I never heard of that milk trick before.  I will pour some milk around the Barnisotte tree and see what happens. 

Hi susiegz,
Milk does to the plants the same it does for us. It gives micronutrients, calcium ...
You over there are known for those huge pumpkin ... And give me your 2 cents ... What is the trick ? ... It is milk ...
Last year I had a problem with tomatoes growing and exposing a black stain at the bottom - fruit not edible and rotting completely next.
I found it was a lack of calcium in the dirt ... And so the quick fix is milk ... Tomato strain "Andine cornue" is known for that problem .

thanks jds. i'll try that.

by the way, i had that same black bottom on tomatoes. after research, i used the same lime i use for figs and it fixed the problem quickly, so there must be the same

elements in lime and milk. still, i often have milk that's going bad and i like using it for plants instead of dumping it.

i think my soil is too alkaline to use lime, so milk should be much  better for my figs that have just gone into the ground.

so, great idea.