hey guys. i wanna try planting some trees inground, just for fun. i'll do that in this or following springs.
thing is, i don't know what the best age is to put them in the ground. how big should they be? how old should they be?

i'll keep them in pots til you tell me they are at the best age to go inground. i don't wanna lose my trees. winters can go below zero, so at what age will they have the best chance?

I'd say at least 3 or 4 years old gives them the best chance.  You can also put them inground and start out by doing various winter protection strategies until they get some age to them.  If your winters get below zero degrees F, then you'll need some kind of protection strategy for them in any case.  As they get older and stronger, you may be able to reduce the intensity of winter protection.  Search on "winter protection" and similar terms... there is lots of info on this site about various winter protection techniques.  Keeping them out of wind seems to be most important, and near a heat sink of some kind is also an easy passive idea.  But down to zero F means you'll probably need more than those two things, at least until the tree is older.  Pick a variety that's known for cold hardiness.  

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a 

thanks, mike. i can wait til they  are that old, but of course, the bigger they get, the harder winter protection will be. i was thinking of making wire net cylinders  n filling them with pine bark mulch, but i can only go so high with that.

I did something like that (your idea of making cylinders and filling with insulation of sorts).  Don't use mulch that will be too moist (the bark of the tree will rot on the warmer days when the sun heats it up).  In my opinion, keeping cold dry wind off of the tree is the most important thing, so some kind of wind-proof wrapping is a good idea (whether around your cylinders or right around the tree).  As for height... there's always pruning.  If you can choose a spot that is sheltered from wind and near something that holds heat.  E.g. close to the sunny south side of a southern exposed stone wall, with some kind of wind block to the west (or wherever your prevailing winter winds come from) would be a good choice.  As for size... well, you can prune them.  And once they're old enough to get tall, if the wind blocks are tall enough that'd help.  Of course, if you let them get too tall it gets hard to pick any figs from the top anyway.  :-)

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

mike, i'm building a 6'high wooden fence around a small garden area [21'x 32'] to provide wind protection. i kinda want the prettiness factor of big trees.

by the way, nice to meetcha. i'm from western new york. got tired of moving tons n tons of snow.

 

Hey Suzie............the best time the plant a fig tree was 20 years ago,second best time is now............lol

gotcha, brian

LOL, Brian.  I wish I had planted all of mine 20 years ago so I'd be getting tons of good figs from mature trees now.  =)  

Nice to meet you too, Susie.  Western NY, eh?  I grew up in Hamburg (right in the snow belt).  But now I live about 3 hours east of there.

Mike 

i'm a snow belt girl. about  30 miles south of buffalo.  i miss wny.