Right now the temp is -14 F coldest day so far this winter. I am very new to figs and also would like to hear responses on this topic. Zone 5 will be a challenge but am willing to trial some inground with protection when they are big enough to try. Chad

Pino, How are your in ground figs doing so far? My understanding is that unless you dig a trench or build some form of protection most figs wont make it up there.

Chad, agree with you that zone 5a could be a challenge.   I don't know since I have always grown in Zone 6 but hopefully people in Zone 5 will comment.

IMO, once you have the fig well protected for the winter the outside temperature should not be the limiting factor. 
I think given a cold tolerant fig then matching the fig ripening requirements to the length of your growing season (given the amount of sun and heat you get) should do it.  Techniques to provide a protection from the wind and increased sun exposure will also help.  

Sas, my in ground figs are doing fine.  They had a bit of a set back 2013 and 2014 but produced nicely last year.  I am looking to expand beyond the mount etna type figs and Dalmatie for in ground growing.  
This past year I added Brooklyn White and Desert King in ground.  Next year have RDB ready to put in.

so far I have found one person growing in ground zone 5b no protection .. with types that mostly freeze to ground  but grow back enough to have ripe figs buy early fall .

I am in 5b . I grow in pots store in basement for a few months

Kathleen Black,  Black Jack, Lyndhurst White, Rhonde Bordeaux, Longue D' Aout, Osborne Prolific/Neverelle are supposed to be colder type varieties, most I believe will grow if they have died back. 2-3 year root development first. Those I have started are for that reason, 6b. Salem White and dark I am looking for are good candidates also. You will need protection. I was shown a grape type of method for growing by Mario. It may be a big plus for growing in New England. He is, and I will experiment with this method. Lateral growing, through training, to keep lower to the ground. Easier to cover and protect better. What you may come across is the amount of heat you get and if its enough for them to develop fully

Hi,
As you know I'm in Zone7.
I'm trialing :
- Brownturkey - the real one with lots of brebas and vine colored soft brebas.
- Dorée (french) aka Brunswick (3 trees)
- Longue d'aout -  strain mild grower / Baud? - label was quoting his book (1 tree)
- Longue d'aout - healthy grower (1 tree)
- Dalmatie ( 3 trees )
- ufti - unknown from the Italian gardener (7 trees).
The others were too young to produce anything ( Osborn prolific, Panache,Dauphine, Violette Dauphine, 4 unknown, my ufti seedling , madeleine des deux saisons).

Ranking for production goes like this :
- Dalmatie - especially my older tree
- Longue d'aout healthy
- ufti - reliable fruiter but not a big haul, and maincrop is a bit too late.
- BT - especially for the breba crop
- Longue d'aout mild
- Dorée

Ranking for taste goes like this:
- Longue d'aout healthy / ufti / Longue d'aout mild / Dalmatie
- Dorée / BT

In the future, I may get rid of Dorée . The figs tend to have a mild flavor (like in none, but just sweet) if any. The figs take for ever to ripen, here. They often ripen one half of the fruit faster than the other.
In the future, I may replace some uftis with the healthy longue d'aout. The harvest is huge in size and number of figs on hlda . Its honey meaty texture, and berry flavor and color is just what I want in a fig.
I already have 3 spots of Dalmatie (8 trees/trunks coming from dirt) - so I'm not planning on adding more for now (in pots planting, doesn't count ;) ). My Dalmatie has few brebas but has a bountiful maincrop that ripens by the first of September, with is really early for a Zone7.

You already know my protection technique : The 80l/20Gal trashcan around the trunk with some dirt inside the container (I can use plastic bags to mound the extra dirt around the feet too).
This year, the winter was mild until last week, so I just installed milder protections, like trashcans with no dirt inside.
Starting last weekend we are experiencing some -5°C/23°F at night - The trees should survive that except for the yearlings that might or not have some die-back.
I'll see come Spring. Yesterday, the water in the containers in the garden was frozen solid - and no way to break the ice crust.

Because my different strains of fig trees ripen at different times with some overlapping, they are so far all my favorites with a little preference to hlda, mlda,Dalmatie and ufti.
The only deceiving one for now is "Dorée". I'll let her some more years to prove me that I'm wrong though - hell, I gave money to buy this stuff !

For me, Kathleen's Black has not done well in-ground here.  After it suffers cold damage it puts on a lot of foliage but refuses to fruit.  This occurred 2 years in a row.  Adriatic JH and Ronde de Bordeaux have done well and, of course, Mt. Etna types.  I would also suggest Florea and Improved Celeste in the ground.

My best in ground fig tree so far is a Brown Turkey, or what some call English Brown Turkey. It produces lot's of breba's with excellent flavor. I don't understand why some people don't like Brown Turkey figs ....
There is one disadvantage to this tree: only the breba's ripen in my climate. But still this tree is worth every inch of space.

I have other fig trees, but they are still very young. Time will tell if they are better than my EBT.

 
  
 

Thanks Austin, I totally understand your decision to grow in containers in Zone 5b.  Growing in ground without protection zone 5 or 6 is a bit of wishful thinking.  There has been a few years that I was not able to cover my in ground figs and sure they survived by re-growing but only with a handful of figs.  But honestly with minimal protection aka (JDSfrance method or Mario's) is a bit of work effort but the rewards are a huge crop of figs.   So I have reserved myself to protect them rather than re-grow the figs every year...lol

Garlic_mike, thanks sounds like we have a similar strategy. 
My problem is I don't want to wait 3/4 years to find out that a fig won't produce adequately in ground and then have to pull it out.  I am hoping people share their experiences so the real fig varieties that grow and ripen in cold climates becomes clearer.  For example I tried Adriatic JH in ground but it didn't ripen till the end of October and the taste was bland compared this to the Adriatic JH I grew in container with figs that ripened in September and truly dynamite taste.  Adriatic JH although it is supposed to be cold hardy is scratched from my in ground list.

Jdsfrance, that is very valuable information you are sharing please keep us posted on the results.  The telling tale is the fig production, taste and quality.

Steve, thanks  Adriatic JH and Ronde de Bordeaux are great figs for your zone.  As I mentioned above Adriatic JH ripens a bit too late for zone 6 in ground.  But it is such a great fig that I may grow it with a season extender like a coldframe in spring and fall or leave it in container.

So far I have only grown my figs in pots. It get quite cold in Vermont, but I do know someone up here which experimented with Hardy Chicago. It died back to the ground but it did survive the winter (2015) but I don't know if it produced any figs. Has anyone had experience with Iranian Mountain Figs?

Steve - I am interested to hear how you protect your inground figs.  And how old is your KB that has not produced well?

Ed, I received my KB as a small plant during the summer of 2012.  I then planted it in the ground the Spring of 2013.  It looked great that season and put on tons of fruit.  It was out of synch with the season though and none of them had time to ripen (though they came close).  I was confident I would taste fruit the summer of 2014.  I gave it moderate protection in November of 2013 consisting fencing around the trunk filled with leaves and then a tarp around the wood higher up.  Then came the polar vortex winter and it nearly died to the ground even with the protection.  When it came back it exhibited fmv and has every since.  It never had showed any fmv symptoms prior to that.  It is pretty well isolated from other figs so I think that the cold damage caused the latent virus to become active (a bit like cold sores in humans).  It came back pretty vigorously though and I thinned it to four trunks.  I started pinch it in early June but all that happened is I got more branching.  It never put on any figs.  I protected it again for the 2014-15 winter which was also very cold.  This time a bit more of the trunk survived but it still lost most of its wood.  Once again it grew back well.  Even though it grew into a bush about 6 ft high and wide, and I pinched it as before, it literally only put on one solitary fig!  That fig ripened in early October and was actually pretty good.  So that's my KB story - one fig out of all those years of growing.  Given the bitter cold weather we are having now I am not confident it will do much better next year but every Spring brings with it new hope!

I have a 3 yr old RdB that I will be putting in ground this summer. I have trained it so far to have 4 scaffold branches that are anywhere from 2-5 inches off of the ground. It will be a step-over fig and pruned down to easily cover the main branches each fall. I think it should do well since it's first main crop ripens so early here with tons of time to spare. We will see.

I'm new to figs. I have done a lot of research and it appears here in lower Michigan Florea and Danny's Delight are the best choices. I found the forea fig to be rather boring and bland. it may get better with age. I will use it for dried fig jam for now. Danny's Delight is a found fig, and it was found in Michigan so seems an obvious choice. My florea will be 2nd leaf this spring, so I'll grow it a container one more year. I will also take cuttings for a backup in containers and plant out in the spring of 2017. I just want a fig tree in the landscape. Everybody is going to ask "What the hell is that!?" I like to have unusual plants in my landscaping, edible too. I have ornamental elderberries and other plants already in the landscape. I'm adding a weeping Santa Rosa plum this year too (for great fruit and ornamental reasons). I have a Satsuma plum already and also pluots. I have peaches and tart and sweet cherries too.
I'm growing many other figs in containers. Thanks all for the suggestions on what to try. I will at least grow many in pots. As any fig here has to be somewhat hardy. I ordered Danny's Delight this year, so will have to wait till 2018 for plant out. Almost Eden has 6 left for 16 bucks each.

Drew Sounds like Florea and Danny's delight are great candidates.   Do you know if Danny's delight is a Mt. Etna type fig?  Thanks

Calvin your plan for RDB sounds promising!  Thanks

Ed you are in Zone 6 are you growing any figs in ground?  Thanks

Becky, Hardy Chicago and the whole family of mt. etna type figs are a sure winner in cold climates! Thanks for the post.

TIMO that EBT looks very nice!  What zone are you in? thanks

By the way I am going to keep the original post updated with the reported recommendations. 
I know there has been many discussions on cold hardy figs before but it is interesting to see what people's actual findings are and that is the focus of this discussion.

Thanks, I think EBT is a much underrated fig. I tasted 7 different figs last year and EBT was the best.

I’m in zone 8, but I don’t think that a zone 8 in Europe and a zone 8 in North America are the same. Our winters are mild, temperatures rarely drop below -12°C. But our summers are cool, nothing like summers in Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia (also zone 8).
Mature in ground fig trees here don’t need much winter protection most of the years (but some years they can die back to the ground if unprotected). For us the most important issue is to choose figs that have a large breba crop or an early main crop. Late figs don’t ripen well in our cool summers. Although I’m thinking of trying also 1 or 2 late crop figs.

I think this table is a great idea. Most of my trees are still young, but I can already recommend Ronde de Bordeaux. Nine months after rooting I could harvest some ripe fruits. The taste was ok, but I’m sure it will improve with age.

I tried once in Zone 5a, planting in spring time a 2-year old Hardy Chicago in ground that grew nicely until fall. In the fall, I filled a 3 ft diameter column of maple leaves around it (in a wiremesh cage) with the trunk in the centre and covered to that top at 3+ft. The top was covered with burlap. It was a real zone 5a winter that year (unlike this year).
The plant never woke up in the spring or summer eve from the ground. Then I felt at ease with the pots.

Valle Calda is the hardiest fig that I have here in upstate ny,a very good tasting fig for my zone.Ciao,
Giuseppe

Giuseppe, that's interesting about Valle Calda being so cold hardy.  A couple years ago, after the bitterly cold 2013-14 winter,  I visited Gene Hosey's old orchard.  The figs that weren't already dead had suffered a lot of cold damage - many were coming back from suckers at the base but all the old wood was dead.  However, one fig (called Madina) had way less cold damage than all the others and had lost only perhaps 20% of its top growth.  I took cuttings and have a small plant now. Gene got Madina from Sergio Carlini who lives in the Genova/Genoa area of Italy.  From what I understand, Valle Calda also comes from this same area.  Madina, like Valle Calda, is a dark fig with leaves having long fingers.  So I am wondering if there is a close relationship between Madina and Valle Calda.  I am hoping to get fruit from the Madina for the first time next season.  I'll try to post a photo of the leaves soon.

Steve,
my Valle Calda was also send it to me by Professor Sergio Carlini.Madina and V.C.could be the same fig, and yes my Valle Calda is a dark fig and has long fingers like leaves.Ciao,
Giuseppe

Giuseppe, thanks for the suggestion.  Upstate Ny is Zone 6 correct Are you growing Valle Calda in ground?  Do you have any photos of Valle Calda fruit and leaves? 
It has also been mentioned that Valle Calda, Nero600M, Valle Negra and now Madina could be the same fig? 

Thanks Akram.  Growing in Ottawa must be a real challenge in ground.  Containers sound lke a good option.
I would think leaves as insulation would not cut it.  Unless they were packed together and decomposing and that would lead to other issues.  Maybe dirt or compost would have a better chance or some source of heat once the fig is fully protected from the bitter winter up there.

Here some info on Valle Calda:
http://www.planetfig.com/cultivars/fcveng8595.html

Thanks for the link Steve.  Sounds like a nice fig for me to try!