so, guys, a while back my bud glor n i were chatting. the subject of figs came up. [surprise !]

i mentioned that i had high hopes for inground figs, as figs are desert plants n seem to be living in a desert [drought].

with her usual tact she sneered n told me they are tropical plants . all ficus are.

i pointed out that figs couldn't interbreed with rubber plants like dogs n wolves do, they separated too long ago to be more than third cousins thru marriage.

she countered with the fact that she could grow figs right there in the deep south, but couldn't grow real desert plants in her backyard like cacti.

well, i got out the big guns. i pointed out that to be considered ''of an area'' plants or animals have to be able to breed there. the only places i've heard of that figs make baby figs thru bird poo are deserts. california, austrailia, middle east.

not sure what she said then as i was too busy patting myself on the back.

anyway, i was curious  as to what you folks thot. now i know you guys. lots of you think figs evolved in pots [hi, pete!]  i hope for some input from members with some shreds  of sanity, if such exist.

Neither but both:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climate

tony, i have no ideawhat that means.

Ficus sycamorus is the tree that you might be thinking about. It is cultivated in Egypt.  

It's my understanding that figs are most at home in a "Mediterranean Climate." A Mediterranean Climate happens to combine elements of both a desert climate and a tropical climate - "dry-summer subtropical" - which you and your friend went back and forth on.

Read through that Wikipedia entry on Mediterranean Climate and you can see that such a climate combines elements of desert and subtropical climates: "Under the Köppen climate classification, "dry-summer subtropical" climates (classified as Csa and Csb) are often referred to as "Mediterranean"."

And see the map there of where Mediterranean Climates are found, which include a number of the areas that you mentioned specifically.

Neither you nor your friend's views were most apt regarding ideal fig climate, I guess, but both views together rather closely describe a preferred fig climate: Mediterranean.

sas, i was thinking of wild figs in general. my friend in california gets volunteer fig trees from bird droppings. there are groves of wild figs that don't taste good near him.

tony, yeah map wise, mediteranian  includes both. still the areas i cite are actual deserts.

this discussion is a bit more serious than i had intended.

aha! thanks alan.

I grow figs on a mountain smack in the middle of Appalachia, so my mountain to you all's desert and tropics. My figs are mountain figs. Back to back nights at -9 degrees Fahrenheit this winter and the ones I cut back and mulched under are currently budding out. Desert? Tropics? Mediterranean? Not here. Mountain figs. And some of the other local figs are fair sized bushes and trees and don't get any mulch at all. Mount Etna and Brunswick cultivars by the looks of them. Not sure yet if any exposed limbs on my small trees came though undamaged. A few possibly did but will have to wait and see.

Uhh, Africa is one big continent, not all desert, lots of jungle too.

tony, what varieties survived -9? it drops below zero here on the high plains.

I could answer this better later in the season when more buds come out. And I could answer it much better next year after I've left more limbs exposed to air through winter. Currently, I don't know that I've lost any varieties that I cut back to within a few inches or a foot of the ground and them mulched under, using mostly unchopped fall leaves. (The problem there of course is who wants to chop off most of their fig tree or bush every year? Which is sort of like killing the patient to save it.) Herman2 has mentioned somewhere recently which of his fully exposed and much taller varieties came through a similar tough winter well.

It still seems to me that many of the Mount Etna figs seem to be the hardiest figs around. And I've been a little surprised at the end of this winter by the apparent hardiness of Celeste and Brunswick too.

If I had more resources and space, in this growing zone, I would be tempted to grow all figs in-ground horizontally one or two feet above the ground, in rows, then mulch those rows 2 or 3 feet deep, pushing back the mulch after winter to flank the figs through spring/summer/fall then prune and cover again. No tarp, no tying. (Maybe the unchopped fall leaves as mulch acted as a sort of tarp to the figs this past winter.) The only fig I put a big plastic tub over this winter, a rodent decided it made an excellent house and ate the bark off the base of the bush. The tree is coming back from the base, but no other bush sustained rodent bark damage which I merely mulched and did not house.

I expect and hope that well positioned Mount Etna cultivars at least several feet tall and several years old will come through most winters here with minimal damage.

As I posted elsewhere: ongoing tentative compilation of Mount Etna or Mount Etna type figs, below. I don't remotely have all of these cultivars but these are the types that I would expect to be the mainstays in this cold growing zone. Frost last night deadened a few early spring fig leaves here.

Malta Black, Takoma Violet, Dark Portuguese, Marseilles Black, Sal's EL/GS, Salem Dark, Black Bethlehem, Gino's, Unknown #11, Jersey Fig, Martini, Don Fortissi Black, Hardy Chicago, Keddie, English Brown Turkey, Hardy Pittsburgh, Macool?, Rosetta?, Owensboro?, Hardy Cleveland?, Hardy Hartford, GM #11 (Sicilian Dark), Abba, Ginoso? Roundhill? ...

(update: Herman2, who has much more experience with figs than I do, notes: Malta Black,and English Brown Turkey are not MT Etna Type! Malta B,has three lobes leaves,and English BT,has large redish fruits when ripe,and different leaves. Also English BT needs longer Summer to ripe. Malta Black is a better tasting fig compared to all others,and the only common with the others is that is early ripening.)

this is the first year i'll have figs inground. of course that includes my HC. they look pretty happy out there.

i couldn't ever cut them back as severely as you.

by the way tony, if it gets down to -9 there, by  definition that's not zone 6b. that's 5b.

I hope not to keep cutting many of the figs down nearly so much, or even at all eventually. Am trying to slowly get their roots accustomed to the ground and dug in. This year I hope to have a good number of bushes where I cut back little or not at all. Will see how they do. Better each year, I hope. Would rather go this way than bother with pots so much, raising in pots for years before sticking in ground.

Growing zone is tricky and a bit deceiving probably. Officially this is zone 6b, though very close to 6a and not far from 5b. However, I know zone 5 having grown up in it. Here in 6b, despite hitting lows below zero, even well below zero a couple times, these were short term spikes. In fact, I think there were very few days this winter where the high temperature did not get above 10 degrees or even into the teens. Growing up in zone 5 low temps would go below zero and stay there for days and the high temps might not climb into the teens for weeks. Spikes are hard on leaves, but that's spring and fall. In winter I think it's the duration that matters not the spikes, though the spikes give some sense of things. Its cold over duration that kills wood and even roots, I think, and this area registers much more a 6b, or 6a at least, than a zone 5. Of course, with climate change, everything could get stood on end.

I think the answer is that figs seem to be very adaptable, and finding the right variety makes all the difference.

You can grow an in ground Mission in California, but not in the Northeast and so forth.

yeah, all my named figs are rated zone 6 the unknowns mostly have been collected in harsh areas.
i also created a micro climate that oughta up that zone by eliminating wind

i disagree about the zone stuff. it drops below zero only every few years. that was enow to earn us a 6a rating.

Agreed that micro climates are very important in any locale.

I actually don't have a technical opinion about what zone I'm in or even about what zone I was raised in, having never technically studied it. From long direct experience in both zones though, I can report that this 6b formerly 6a zone is significantly warmer and for longer, and significantly less cold and for shorter, than the 5b formerly 5a zone I first knew. That's the difference between the Allegheny Plateau of northern PA and the Monongahela River valley surrounds of northcentral WV. 

i grew up in 5a, western new york. actually it's nicer there because you get lots of snow n rain. plus, you get actual top soil. worms don't seem to live here, things don't rot in the soil.

Sun, though, all across New Mexico all year long, no? I lived in northwestern New Mexico for a year and was very impressed by the near constant brightness. I would think that a well regulated greenhouse or solarium could do wonders there.

there's so much sun people are happy to see cloudy days.

i've thot of a green house but i can't see a way to regulate heat. at 4000' the sun is a killer. plus last summer, it hit 109.
anything in a greenhouse would cook.

when i moved here before this hateful drought i thot heat would be nice. i was wrong.

on hot summer days, the sun feels like death.

oh pooh, alan that's no help.