I mentioned last summer about the remains of an old fig tree I found at an empty house in our town. The stump is 8 in across, but someone cut it down. All that remained were some first year shoots. I took some cuttings, but so far none have rooted.

Anyway, since we had such a long cold winter this year I decided to stopped by and see if the bush survived. Not only is it already starting to bud, but there are lots of brebas on it! Some of the shoots with brebas are smaller than pencil sized, but they survived the winter, unprotected of course, and are already starting to produce.

A very cold hardy, breba producing green fig. I have got to start at least one of these! I don't know if it is too late in the spring, but I just took some more cuttings today and will try to root them.

Great find!  congrats!
if you have luck, spread the wealth!!

can you bring a bottle without the bottom and shove one of the 'whips' through the bottle (neck first- so it stands upside down) fill it with soil and leave it there.  then all you have to do is check for roots forming and cut it. you will have a tree for sure.


or

find who owns it, and don't want (since they cut it down) perhaps you have permission to remove the stump.... you dig large to collect good roots and will have tons of cuttings for us... (!)

As soon as I have time I am going to call the realtor so see if they will give me permission to start some airlayers. I think I could just weigh a few down with rocks and cover with soil. But, since the house is in the middle of a neighborhood I am afraid to do too much messing around the place lest someone call the cops on me. If I can do this, I will certainly share with others! 

Where's your ninja suit?

I've gotten too old and fat for my ninja suit. Now I use a 12 gauge ;-)

Daniel, ask permission to remove the stump , they don't care.... You'll end up with an amazing tee, ready to feed you with figs. after you get permission to dig it out, go to Home depot or U-Hall, and hire some illegals to dig the tree for you for 10-12 bucks /hr... with less then 100 bucks you'll have yourself an amazing tree.
also...pics, pics, pics.... we need to see PICTURES :)

Daniel, how cold was the winter low there this year?  You've got me wondering how much cold the overwintering breba buds can handle.

We had 0F, maybe -2F one night, and several other nights in single digits. I know this is nothing compared to what you folks suffered up north, but for the south that was a hard winter. Overall, probably the coldest winter in 30-40 years, maybe more.

2-3 feet square or I should say cube... length, width, depth.
 you know...Suzi (DesertDance) just did such a transplant, I'd get in touch with her if I were you. She'll give you personal expertise on it. She moved her old VdB.
As far as I am concerned about the timing, it's still ok, because in your are trees are still asleep, right?

Without a huge tree digger, you should dig a foot away from the stump and soon you find a good size root, follow it, removing the soil and loosening the root, if you get some 3 feet of roots you are fine, make sure to make a sharp root pruning. it helps it restart the rooting.  You should find at least 3 or 4 branches of roots... then the others you just prune them. 

At my tree, it is impossible to try to remove dirt with it, my soil is like gravel, you dig and it breaks... if yours is the same, have some buckets of water, soon you dig  enough, water pour water and it helps you find which way the roots go.   I just dug up my black madeira that i had grafted onto my tree's roots. it was interesting. I did not find lateral root for at least a foot from the graft, but found lots of arms and more ramifications. with water, I was able to get several thinner roots.

Best luck.

hey there Daniel, any updates on your newly found tree?

Aaron he typed -I will be out of town until April 13, so Sat. April 19 would be the soonest I could do it, assuming they will give me permission.

Aaron,

The owner of that property lives out of state, but I did talk to the realtor who is showing the house, he promised to get me the name of the family member who is caring for the yard. I hope to call them later in the month. I know it will be pushing it to transplant, but it is still very cool here so I think I will be OK, assuming they allow it. I'll let  you know when I know something.

I'm looking forward to seeing this become a reality for you Daniel...so exciting.

Good news, I just talked to the property owner and he gave me the go ahead to dig out the fig! I will be traveling all week, but I should have time next week to give it a try. The weather is staying cool here so the transplant shock should not be too bad.

I am going to take a 3-4' circle of roots, as deep as I can get  it. Then I am going to set it into an oversized hole with mulched manure and mycorrhizal fungi. I will post pictures when the big day comes.

yeay!  congrats on Permission!  Now the hard work...

Good for you, after digging it out you should cut some of the canopy for the less roots it will have
at its new like when a fig tree is root pruned well otherwise it can drop much of its new crop.

This i have experienced.

yeah and send them to us, LOL

Hi Genedaniels,
No root shoots? Or young stems coming directly from the dirt ?
If so, take those, as they are far easier to handle. I just removed 3 on my "Dalmatie". I could even take those with 2 small roots each .
So already better chances for making them a tree !

You should water the tree a lot afterwards - each day - , as she's setting the brebas, she's already awaken and needs water to sustain the growth of both stems and fruits.
Good luck !
By the way, wasn't you yard already full ? Or do you have a yard with space, but not planting more fig trees ?
How do you manage that ? Information needed for the figoolics group :)

As for space in my yard, I still have room for more fig trees - of course! Who needs grass when you can grow figs?!

Actually I do have lots of space, I just have to think carefully because one side of my yard stays quite wet in spring/fall. I have lots lots of berries and still plans for more berry beds so I have to think about how to best use the space on the high side and/or raised beds. But space for figs is a top priority. This big dig-out tree is going near the properly line on the high side of the yard where it can get full sun and room to grow.

Daniel, remember to document every step with before, during and afters with pictorial evidence. This will be your "The Story of A Big Old Fig Tree", don't mess it up :)

Well, my attempt to salvage the cold hardy fig almost became a fiasco.

I was preparing to dig it up, but as I cleared away all the debris from around the stump I could see, suddenly it became clear there was not one, but SEVERAL large old stumps clustered in there! This must have been a HUGE fig bush before they cut it down. It would take a backhoe to get that one. Forget that.

But as cleared around the area I found that years ago one of the limbs had naturally airlayered and was now a separate "bush" about one foot from the main one. I was able to dig that one up with about 5 gal worth of roots and it is now safely in my back yard. Also, in the process I found 3 small clumps of airlayered branches with nice roots. So those are now all safely in 3 gal pots.

This must be one seriously coldhardy fig. Even tiny branches, 1/4 diameter, survived this winter unprotected (lows close to 0F). In fact, several of these small branches have brebas on them. Its new growth is much further along than my figs that I protected this winter. Some is already 2 in long and our lows are still in the 30s some nights.

Also, I plan to keep a close eye on the mother bush. Until someone buys the house, I plan to pinch it and "maintain" it as if it were my own. The owners are in Florida, and he made it clear that he does not care, he just wants the house to sell. Until then I have an "off site" fig tree ;-) 

Congratulations!