Living in zone 6 illinois i am always on the look out for cold hardy figs and fruit in general to grow unprotected in my yard. when i got into figs about 5 to 6 years ago i really didnt know much about them or that there where so many. in my quest to find true cold hardy figs i spent many hours on the net and forums of alot of diff gardening sites. guess what i found nothing other than this guy saying this one is good here or that one is good there.  so i sat out on a mission not only to find the cold hardy figs but to also promote the cold hardy figs (people who live around me dont know what a fig is). so the only way i could do this was to plant diff knds of figs and sit back and wait to see what happends.

in the years past my hardy chicago was my prize tree, never dieing back and producing great crops. this all changed with last winters polar vortex. the tree was compleatly top killed to the ground and didnt resprout until mid aug. i was kinda disapointed.

every one of my in ground tree was top killed, every one of my potted trees sadly did not make it. some in ground did not make it at all. here is a list of the trees i lost.

VdB (potted in unheated greenhouse)
albique patete (potted in unheated greenhouse)
connies light (potted in unheated greenhouse)
purple havasue unknown (potted in unheated greenhouse)
black bethlehem (in ground)
osborne proliffic (in ground)

now enough with the sadness of loss.

the first ripe fig i got this year was  lattarola in its second year it was very good.

i guess to sum it all up the ones that came back after the harsh winter and still gave a great crop of fruit are listed in order from most productive in terms of ripeing fruit.

connies dark was loaded with figs and gave me a good 2 dozen large ripe ones.

MvsB much the sme as connies really loaded with fruit but was smaller than connies and riped a little later on.

Latarola this tree really surprised me only 2 foot tall in its second year and still this little multi branched/ truck guy gave me the first figs of the season and ended up giving about 2 dozen.

brown turkey this tree gave me about 10 very large fruits.

Adriatic this tree bumped up with growth like crazy and was loaded with figs but only a handful got ripe.

blue Celeste to my surprize this guy gave me ripe fruit and about a dozen fruits with more than 10 combined foot of growth.

Sal's G this guy was my fav fig last year. he grew back but gave only one ripe fruit before frost came. 

Hardy chicago not one ripe fig this year from two trees.

RdB alot of growth and loaded with figs but none riped before frost.

all these trees where grown unprotected in ground.

this winter to be tested are;

nordland
Violetta Bayerfeinge
lsu hollier

the nero 600 and condria had to be babied a little bit so they didnt go in ground. they will are indoors under grow lights until spring .


I hope this info can help those living in cooler zones find a fig that can work for them. i will keep looking and posting my findings.

pictured here from left to right is MvsB, Connies Dark, and Brown turkey.
   

Thanks for the information, lots of us looking for cold hardy figs

Thank you for this helpful information. Is there a reason you do not protect your in ground figs? Or put a heater in the greenhouse? I realize protecting is a pain in the neck but it prevents heartache later...

To find the cold Hardy figs, will be protecting a few this winter. The potted figs I list where in the greenhouse . I am working on making the greenhouse a year round operation.

Hi garden_whisperer,
You've lost the osborn ! I just planted one this year. I'll figure out how it fairs here.
I'll put some winter protection on mine - see my post on winterprotections - the 80 liters trashcan method . Did you protect yours ?

Did you pinch at all to hasten fruit set?

There is more good info here, if I may self promote: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/cold-hardy-fig-list-by-flavor-7034227?pid=1283905421#post1283905421

Nah I didn't pinch, trying to find hue cold Hardy figs that require nothing extra to get a crop. Now as a said I will be protecting a few and pinching next spring and summer. To see what figs need little or no care in cooler zones

Very nice work, Dave.  I have property in Z5a, NY state.  Trials like this really help me out as I hope to have figs growing on the property one day.  Starting next year with a few varieties.

You bring us hope.