Was this last winter an especially bad one for in-ground figs on the east coast?

I'm in central NJ.  As I drove around last summer I discovered many fig trees, some that were very large and that had seemingly been doing very well for a long time.  Now that most of the in-ground trees have leafed out and started to grow, I notice that many of them have had a lot of die off.  Some of the bigger bushes seem to have died back about 2/3 of their length.  With others it seems to be different - one branch will be dead while another right next to it is leafing out to its full length.  These trees were unprotected.  However, it looks like some trees that were wrapped also didn't do very well...

I've only been a fig nut for about a year, so I haven't been paying attention and don't have enough of a history to know one way or the other.

What went wrong for these trees?

Jim

Is it possible that limbs dying on a tree right next to a healthy limb has something to do with cicadas?  My friend in Virginia has noticed this on her Celeste and other fruit trees after the cicada outbreak.  Of course, you may be right that it is weather related but cicadas were my first thought.

Sounds fairly normal.  They go through cycles for me. If the winter has several days of below 20s, then I expect to have a fair amount of die back.  For in ground trees sometimes the loss of a particular branch is not just cell freeze of that branch but can also be damage for the corresponding root or roots. Some roots stay up near the surface due to rocks  or moisture seeking and get damaged in the winter either due to freeze or rodents.

It was a Winter where ,10F was for nights in a row,so some cultivars got partly damaged,some ,not.
My Marseilles black VS,is in perfect shape and did not loose one inch from the 7 trunks it had.
Yet, I cut down three trunks ,myself this Spring so the Sun will penetrate better,and ripe fruits sooner,and also to limit the fruits quantity,and increase the quality.

I guess it was one of those winters that separates the very hardy varieties from the mostly hardy varieties...
Is it safe to say that anything that survived unscathed would fall into the "very hardy" category?

Herman, next time you radically prune your MBVS give me a heads up and I'll come down and raid your trash can! ;-)

Jim

Jim,
This winter was not especially cold, but it was windy (severe wind chill). My observations of several large in ground trees in  NYC was that the trees that were more protected from cold winds were earlier to leaf out and had less damage than trees that were more exposed. I observed the same condition with my potted figs, The plants that were more exposed to cold winds before being stored under cover had severe die back compared to those that were more sheltered.

spring frosts are also an issue.