My oldest tree to date and my only in ground as of now is finally breaking bud. Anybody else have any late starters. This tree is an unknown Italian variety. A very good tasting black fig. As you can see I need to do some severe pruning this fall.
Sorry for the blurry pics.

My only inground (unknown) has yet to break bud , but may not as it was hit with 3ft of salt water last fall. A pot grown Black Jack has just started to break bud this week..

My in grounds leafed out in early may, and are getting full sized leaves and 3-6 inches of growth already. It was a slow spring here too, but I would think everything that was healthy/ not winter damaged would be leafed out now in most zone 6 spots.

Art- Was your tree protected during the winter? How did you protect it?
I have a Hardy Chicago planted on the south side of my metal building similar to yours.
I'm hoping at some point I can do minimal or no protection for the winter, but it is still young and I bend it to the ground and cover it with carpet.

art, what sort of three is that? looks like the branches are curving down and up. i see few of my trees doing that, but all mine are in the containers. 

Paul, Actually I had it in a 50 gal pot. It was with all of my other potted figs, inside my insulated garage. I planted it in ground early spring and wrapped it when I needed. There is no die back. Maybe it was shocked from the move to in ground.

Pete, they are bent because it was too tall to fit under my garage door. I had it in a pot. I need to try and bend them back. It won't look like that in the fall anyways. It's getting a severe pruning. It's an unknown Italian variety. Black in color.

50 gallons! That sounds very heavy. Smart decision putting it in the ground vs lugging that thing back and forth.

No doubt. I actually used my tractor loader to move it around. What a pain that was.

Judging by what I have been reading here, and in other threads, more than a few fig growers, including me, have been surprised by how late the dormancy periods have extended.  Some of us, have lost established trees to the unusual weather.  I think one of my best, heirloom, trees has died.  I had it since 2007.  Boo-Hoo.

This whole "thing" of growing figs for pleasure, is a big crap-shoot!  Nature trumps out best efforts, or, so it seems.  It's disheartening to see an older tree shrivel, or worse, struggle along...the season is too short for these kind of setbacks.

Hope all goes well for our trees.  Good luck.


Frank

Art...I had a Panachee this year that didn't want to break dormancy...it was a little more than a month behind all the other trees in my yard...I thought at first that there was a problem with the tree, but either the Panachee is a late starter(this is my first Panachee), or it was due to the unseasonably cold and damp spring that we just experienced...either way, it has broken dormancy and is now all leafed out and looking very happy.