Hi:

I'm trying to find out why my seven fig trees are not budding as of this date, May 19, 2014?   I look around my neighborhood and notice that none of the other fig growers are budding yet!   Please let me know if you all are having the same problem?    

I live in Staten island, New York, in Dongan Hills.

Thank you for your response.  

Tony from SI, NY

Sorry to hear it Tony.  We're not experiencing that here in central NY state.  Most of my trees have good growth... they're potted, were inside a garage for winter protection, and now have 4 or 5 leaves per growing tip.  They've been outside about a month.  One guy down the road left his tree out during a frost in April, and it lost all its leaves (but is coming back now).

Are your trees potted or in ground?  What sort of winter protection did they get?  Have they been exposed to a frost this spring?  Fingers crossed for you.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

Hi Mike:

No my fig trees are not potted.  The are 10 years old and planted outside in my back yard.  Normally this time of the year, last year, they were full of buds.  The winter was pretty cold, around single digits causing my house water pipes to freez.

Anthony-

None of the older, in-ground fig trees in The Bronx have any buds, nor leaves, showing.  Many of these trees have been around for decades.  In fact....most of the trees that I see look dry, dead, or severely damaged.  I lost many of my older and younger containerized trees from the freezing weather of the 2013-2014 Winter-to-Remember.  

Maybe these backyard trees, and yours, will re-sprout as the soil temp. heats up.  Hopefully, they might re-sprout from the roots if the tops are dead.

Many forum members, including me, are in shock from the loss of so many trees.

Good luck.
Frank

Tony,
My 2 in-ground plants (never been covered) have just stared to show some new growth at the base.  Still no sign of any activity up top. Hopefully it's just going to be a later than usual start.

Bill

is it possible the ground temp has not warmed up yet? temp down here has dipped to 47 this morning and yesterday was 68 high. that's with going over 90 last week. lot of other people growing veggies are saying that this yr, it's at least a month late. 

potted figs are having less of an issue since they are pampered.. with shuffle and what not, it's quicker than the in ground trees. 

The figs I have in ground in water locations died back to the ground but are sprouting back up, the ones that are in colder locations still have not sprouted but are green under the trunk, so a couple more weeks and I should have leaves I think.

I had a couple of trees come back real late last year.   Two of them waited till June to show buds.   And I was glad they did, because we had a freak freeze in late May.

This year our last freeze was at the end of February, and  all my trees budded and leafed out in April. 

So don't give up on them.

Dont worry , they probably need  to wake up.

BTW did you try to scratch the bark and check for green growth?

My protected, in-ground tree only recently sent up 2 shoots from the roots. Only 1 of the main trunks has a bud so far, and it was a section of trunk that was buried in mulch over winter. I'm still hopeful the tree needs more time to wake up.

Thank you all for your input!

What I did this evening was to cut back some of the dry branches.  As many of you suggested,
I will wait and see what happens, if anything, when the weather and soil gets warmer.


Boy, am I pissed off that this happened.

Regards,

I finally saw leaves sprouting from the base of one of the local in ground trees -- whew! What a relief!

My inground plants took a beating this winter. I cut back trees to 18" a few weeks ago. All are showing growth now. All the vintage trees I see in the neighborhood are still dormant.

We're going through the same thing in Bay Ridge.  I haven't seen even one fig tree that has budded, they are all bare.  I'm not going to panic until late June.

I lost quite a few potted trees in my garage. My Ginos, my Takoma V, my Battaglia Green and probably worst of all, my one big Atreano that I grew from a cutting last year. Also my negronne. Oh well maybe they re just playing dead.

Hi Tony. I'm SI too. I have two small fig trees that are just getting tiny leaves at the bottom. I have a large fig tree that I started from a cutting from the tree in my grandpArents yard. That tree looks terrible, no leaves, no buds. I was afraid that it had died. I am just going to wait and see and hope for the best. Good luck with your tree.

Tony, I have yet to see 1 fig tree in any of the 5 boroughs or long Island with any growth above six inches.  (Even a 70 year old tree).  The top is dead but most will sprout new shoots either from near the bottom or the roots.  Wait a few weeks and you will know where to prune down to.

Tony,
I would have to agree with Ed, most of the Upper branches (2" caliper and smaller) have been damaged or killed on most of the large in ground trees that I've seen. In the Bronx, 3" to 4" caliper trunks if not split open are usually alive with green cambium layers and many are starting to have bud break on the lower trunk sections. Since the trees are still semi dormant, and the smaller dead limbs are visible (rust colored bark and cambium), IMO, now would be a good time to plan the new pruned shape of the trees.

Hi Tonysiny,
How have been the temps the last three weeks at your location ? Still cold ?
Are the trees in a shady place ?
Are the roots of the trees in a shady place ?

Make sure the sun is able to shine on the roots to heat the dirt.
And water and fertilize the trees regularly. A watering can every two days ( in case of no rainy weather), and by end of June, if you see nothing ...
I lost 8 figtrees in February 2012 ... It hurts ! - Especially when you know that here at my location, figtrees only produce after three years of growth !
Since then, "good winter protection" is my motto !

Ulster:
Great advice - I'll wait a few more weeks for new growth on bottom trunks.  I will then prune downward and reshape direction of growth. 

Regards,

I just saw 2 in ground trees in Queens leafing out nicely. One is a large Brown Turkey near my house, owner wrapped it for winter, it is leafing out nicely and only seems to have die back on the top 25% of the canopy at most. Yesterday I saw a little fig tree in Jackson Heights leafed out, south facing, owner said he did not protect it at all. Shocking really. Owner said he bought it at Home Depot. Probably BT.

For all those who asked about training a fig tree into a bonsai.....maybe with all the drastic chopping and pruning being done to some badly damaged trees....try a bonsai.  Now is a perfect time to turn a tragedy into a happier story with a Japanese twist to the plot.  Most thick-trunked bonsai start off with a drastic trunk-chop, and subsequent training, wiring, and pinching back all the new growth.

Be brave.  Experiment.  Eat your figs with some chop-sticks.
                                                                                    

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Buds had recently started on my ~20 y.o. Brn. Turk. Fig, then shriveled and dried... I put in some Peroxide with Calcium where water had most saturated the soil, then applied a number of fertilizers layered out - in circles - out from where roots went under the earth... then did some pruning back of many of the least vital branches... will do more later... and looking for a fig mulch (may settle on some sand and some chopped up dried pine, cocoa, and pear / apple branches).  I've seen figs come back from worse winters (including those in 1993 - 1996).  rdconrad Hardiness Zone 6B Phila., PA.

Hi rdconrad,
Did you get frost lately, after the trees started budding ?

If not, I would cut those branches where the buds dry and treat them as cuttings (root them in sm or pot or...) as it might be a sign that the roots no longer feed them - the roots died but not some of the stems.
In 2012, I had that case in one of my trees. But luckily the bud was near the dirt ( still 3 centimeters above the dirt level). So I saw leaves, then roots coming from under the bud and I got half of the picture so it put some dirt against the new roots.
But I was not sure of what to do. Later on, I really understood that the trunk was dead in the dirt and that this portion of the trunk above the dirt was trying to survive by making leaves and roots.
On my tree, the roots had died and the trunk had died up to 3 cm above the dirt and after 10 cm above the dirt - leaving a portion of 7 cm of life on that tree.
I suspect that this tree, grown from those more cold hardy cells, will be more cold hardy ... Time will tell. She has one brebas curently :) and is for now a slower grower .