Here we are in mid February.  Aside from a cold snap in early December it was a mild winter here in the suburbs of Phoenix.  Several fig trees are starting to break dormancy in my yard.  But several others are not.  From my experience growing figs it appears that the less cold hardy varieties break dormancy first in the spring.  The most cold hardy varieties are the last to break dormancy.  The cold hardy varieties seem to wait until threat of a late frost has past before they start to wake up.  That is probably in large part why they are more cold hardy.  Here are the results so far this year.


FIGS ACTIVELY BREAKING DORMANCY

BLACK MISSION
Planted last year in the spring.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.
 

CONADRIA
Planted last year in the fall.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.
 

LSU PURPLE
Planted in the spring of 2011.  The fruit is poor to pretty good.  The fruit is medium in size.  Very productive.  Very vigorous.
 

SCOTTS BLACK
Planted last year in the spring.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.  It suffered frost damage in early December but seems to be bouncing back just fine.
 

VIOLETTE DE BORDEAUX
Planted in the spring of 2011.  The fruit is ok to excellent.  The fruit is small to medium.  Very productive.  Good grower.
 


FIGS ACTIVELY BREAKING DORMANCY, BUT RECENTLY PLANTED FROM CONTAINERS
These figs were recently planted from containers.  They are breaking dormancy, but it may just be because they were in containers and therefore were more likely to wake up early.

187-25
Planted this spring.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.
 

GEORGIA WHITE HYBRID
Planted this spring.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.
 


FIGS THAT APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN KILLED BACK BY DECEMBER FROST
These figs look desiccated, and were probably killed back to their roots by the frost in December.  Both had just recently been planted from containers a few weeks before the frost hit.  Both were still actively growing at the time of the frost.  I still have high hopes for these varieties.

FLANDERS
Planted last year in the fall.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.
 

HAVASU
Planted last year in the fall.  I have not tasted the fruit yet.
 


FIGS THAT HAVE NOT BROKEN DORMANCY YET
These are the varieties that appear to be most cold hardy in my yard.

BARNISOTTE
Planted in the spring of 2011.  The fruit is good to excellent.  The fruit is large.  Not that productive.  Not that vigorous.
 

BLACK MADEIRA
Planted in the spring of 2011.  The fruit is ok to excellent.  The fruit is medium to large.  Productive.  Not that vigorous.
 

DESERT KING
The larger tree was planted in the spring of 2011 and has produced fruit.  The smaller tree was planted last fall and has not produced fruit yet.  The breba crop is good to very good.  The breba crop is large in size.  The main crop usually drops, tastes poor when it does ripen, and is smaller in size.  Very productive for brebas.  Vigorous.
  


HARDY CHICAGO
Planted in the spring of 2011.  The fruit is good to excellent.  The fruit is small to medium.  Average productivity.  Average vigor.
 

JOE'S JERSEY
An unknown tree from Clifton, NJ.  Similar to Hardy Chicago.  My best all around tree.  The larger tree was planted in the spring of 2011.  The 6 smaller trees were planted last year in the spring.  All 7 trees have produced fruit.  The fruit is good to excellent.  The fruit is small to medium.  Very productive.  Good vigor.
       

Nice pics and a nice report.

Mike

Thanks for posting this, the pictures are great and so is all the info, your trees look great

Yes, thanks for posting the tour of your backyard.  How far apart are the figs planted?  For the ones planted in 2011 have you extensively pruned them to keep them at the size they are at?

Thanks for the comments guys.

Rewton I did not plant all the trees the same exact distance from each other.  The closest ones were planted about 5 feet apart.  But now with suckers that have come up it seems like they are closer than 5 feet.  I've had to prune to maintain some room between them.  I pruned the larger ones back pretty good in December.  I don't like to let them touch each other (don't want to spread FMV or other problems) so I usually have to summer prune as well.  I'm really happy with the setup I have.  My main goal is FIG PRODUCTION.  This setup does well for that purpose on this property, and I still have open space in the center of the yard.

You're developing a pretty awesome backyard fig orchard, looks great. 

I agree!  Hardy Chicago, Marseilles Vs, and Desert King have not broken bud, but the rest have.  Hardy waits!

Suzi

Thanks GreenFin.

Suzi those cold hardy figs are pretty tough.  And surprisingly they do really well in the desert.

thanks joe. very interesting info. i'm dieing to taste your joe's jersey.

they haven't produced roots yet, but i'm still hoping.

Thanks Susie.  I hope they root for you.

Joe...

Is it your observation that the late-to-break-dormancy fig varieties still produce and ripen main-crop figs on/around schedule, or, are they set back as far as onset of producing figs?


Frank

It would be interesting to compare this experience regionally.

I am a few miles away from Joe.   Here are a list of mine that broke dormancy and have leaves:  187-25, Panache, Mary Lane Seedless,  LSU Purple, LSU Gold, Troiano Calabrese, Deanna, Salce, and Col de Dame Blanc.
 
The rest have buds breaking except for the ones severely pruned or root pruned.   

Never went into dormancy: Excel, Black Provence (aka pseudo-BI).  

Joe: The Joe Jersey cuttings are looking good.  All rooted and I put some outside in semi-protected area when it was cold so will see if they survived.  Got a lot of great new ones this year.   Mid 80's today and only getting hotter.  

Hey Frank.  In previous years the cold hardy figs that break dormancy later are usually a few weeks behind to start ripening figs.  Down here the season is so long it doesn't matter too much.  Last year the Desert King breba crop started in mid May.  The early figs started their main crop in early June.  The hardier figs started their main crop in mid to late June.  Most of the main crop trees were producing good quality figs into mid November.

Dale that would be interesting to know.  Have you noticed anything like this?

Hey Figfinatic.  Did you recognize a couple of the figs in the photos?  The 187-25 and the smaller DK are the ones you gave me.  Sounds like you have a nice collection going there.  Are your trees in containers?  I had another DK in a container that I started as an air layer for someone.  It was starting to break dormancy even though the two in the ground were not.  I think we are going to have a good year for figs.  They might even start ripening a couple of weeks early with this early start to spring.  I'm glad those cuttings rooted for you.

Hi Frozenjoe,
Nice report and super nice backyard .
If you leave the suckers to the trees, the harvest will be delayed of one to three weeks.

I kept my big tree "unknown from the Italian" with 4 stems - it is more than enough - if more, then they shade each other - just my 2 cents.
If you remove the suckers with some roots, you'll have new trees right away which is very convenient - you no longer need to pay for new trees :) .
My big one had 8 stems, and so I removed 4 in the fall of year 2012 - and they are now 4 trees - plus the bush with 4 stems still .
Results for the 4 young trees: In 2013, one tree produced 4 brebas "only", and the 3 others produced main crop figs only -30 in total for the 3.
Those are so far the fastest "cuttings" I've ever had or have seen - especially the one that produced brebas .
Did I mention that they were 1m30 in height and 2 centimeter thick at ground level. I had to pull my saw to get them out of their bush .
Now, I keep removing the suckers ... And 3 are currently in pots - for testing in house wintering of trees for providing backups for some more softy strains.

JDS thanks for the info.  I like my trees to grow in bush form so I leave the suckers.  The bush form helps to shade the branches and roots, which I think is beneficial here in the summer when the temps are over 100 degrees Fahrenheit everyday for a few months. Suckers are a good way to propagate new trees.  I've dug up suckers before to start new plants.  By the way, do you know that in the past there has been debate about whether or not trees started from suckers are inferior to trees started from cuttings?  Ray Givan in "The New Fig Booklet" wrote, "You can use the suckers to propagate additional plants, but remember that plants from suckers tend to produce suckers prolifically and may be shy fruit producers" (pg. 9 in the third paragraph).  I haven't heard this discussed in a long time, but some people besides Ray have also expressed this before.  Something to think about.

wel, joe if you have started trees from suckers, how did they turn out?

They've turned out fine.  I haven't had a problem.  Just saying what I've heard before.

you got fruit? i'd like to remove suckers  despite your good reasons for leaving them. i just want pretty trees.

most of mine are breaking bud. but older trees are still thinking. i pruned them hard in dec. among the ones going into 2 nd yr, Pastiliere is most acitive. they are putting on the leaves. i would have thought HdA would wake up also withh name indicating early, but no where close to Pastiliere.

Susie yeah they produced fruit.  But Ray Givan knows his stuff and has propagated a lot more figs than I have, so there might be something to it.

Pete are your in ground figs starting to wake up?  Isn't there still a chance of frost where you live?

joe,

i keep all mine in containers. so my trees wake up earlier than ones in ground.

I have a Vista Mission that is showing small leaves and the DiRedo from Jon that thinks it is still living in San Diego putting out good sized leaves.

Pete that makes sense.  There are certainly some benefits to growing in containers.  I went the route of fewer trees but in ground so they get more size.  Containers are great when you have a large collection.

Joe,

I haven't taken notice.  This year I keep some in my garage and some at my mother's. Those here are all fine, but some at Mom's show definite signs of freezer burn. That makes me think that storage hot spots and cold spots might influence bud break.I wonder what else would influence bud break.