Introducing myself to this great forum- Here in my location in solid zone 5 Maine I am going to get into figs.   It's an act of optimism, I know, but I'll be growing containerized figs which I plan to plant in-ground in drilled buckets during the growing season and bring in during our harsh winters.   At least until our sunroom it built.   Any recommendations of varieties for short season and container culture are welcome!   I'm looking forward to adding figs to the variety of fruit I already grow.

Welcome Jesse, You should be fine off with your plan. I'd start off with Hardy Chicago. It's easy to find and should give you ripe figs in Maine.

Welcome from So California!  I will have to agree with Kubota1.  HC seems to be very cold hardy!

Suzi

Welcome Jesse!  You are now here on THE site for fig fun.  Bob Harper has a nice list of plants he's tested in a cold corner of CT.  Hopefully he'll chime in, but do a search on this site and you'll see his writings on this.  Driveway Farmer (Kerry Sullivan) has great experiences from growing figs in zone 5 NH.  I love that there are other crazy Mainers on here....makes me more normal, right!

See you at the swap.

Nice to see another northern New England fig grower on here.
One of top figs on my list is Ronde de Bordeaux , but there are so many figs that can do well here that is hard to choose.
If you ever get over to the Coast of Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay , I know they intend to be adding 30 varieties of figs to their kitchen garden area this Spring. May be worth seeing how the various ones perform ,they have some excellent varieties and RDB is one of them .
Singing Nettle Farm in Maine just got a 3 year SARE grant to trial Ronde de Bordeaux , Gino's Black , Marseilles Black VS and Sal's GS in a high tunnel. 
Careful fig growing can be addictive !

Thanks for the warm welcomes.  I'm looking forward to learning from those who have had successful fig harvests in this challenging climate.   I met Bill and Lauren of Singing Nettle Farm last weekend- they gave a 'permaculture orchard' presentation at a scion swap and seed exchange I attended.  That's an interesting project they're getting underway.    They didn't talk about figs though, and it wasn't on my radar- oh well.  
On our hillside, we had -15 F and plenty of northernly winds for sustained periods this past winter; 120 frost-free days-maybe- seems like this would limit figs to container-grown and overwintered in the basement @ 45 F.   

Welcome!  I would recommend Celeste and Desert King.

Welcome to forum Ronde is a good choice.

Welcome, Jesse!  Sounds like you have some interesting plans.  Good luck - lots of great advice and generosity here!  Glad you have joined us!

Welcome!  Think of Florea, Nordland and Marseilles Black VS as well as the ones already mentioned.

welcome, pour yourself a pint and let us know all about yourself. 

I was in Portland Maine last year for a conference. I would go back there and that area for vacation.

Welcome Jesse,

As Martin said it is nice to see another Mainer on the forum. I am going to be doing some experimenting of my own this summer. I will be planting several fig trees outside this year to see how the winter. I will be covering them although I'm not sure what method I will use yet. I live in Scarborough. I talked with ODonnells Nursery today and they will be selling Black Mission figs this year. They will only have a limited supply. Last summer whole foods was selling Celeste and Brown Turkey fig plants. I know a few people in Maine that have figs in there houses. Some have them planted outside. They all allow them to die back in the winter and do not protect them. Look forward to hearing from you again.

Optimism is good!  Welcome to the forum, lots of us new folks appear to be in good hands.


Marie

Welcome to the forum Jesse

Norhayati

Welcome to the forum. For Cold climates,

Nordland would be my top choice for taste if you can find it. If not, then

Violet de Bordeaux (Negronne) (Petite Negris) would be my top choice for both taste and productivity in pots.

Hi zone5figger,
and welcome.
Here when asked for cold hardiness, nurseries recommend to try Brownturkey, Pastilliere and "ronde de Bordeaux".
This year, my BT is full of brebas popping out. It will be her first year since she goes 3 years old as an in ground tree.
As for Nordland - supposed to be the same as "Longue d'aout" , mine has been struggling for 4 years ... not producing much. This year, I couldn't spot any brebas on her as for now ...
I've been trialing "Dalmatie" ... I'm still not impressed by that strain... Perhaps she'll do better this year ...

I'd have to agree that Nordland is not nearly as productive as a Violet de Bordeaux for example. But the few Nordland figs I had, were more memorable for some reason.

Varietal selection for me is being determined by following factors:
-Short season, able to ripen here where the frost-free season lasts from June 1st- September 30th.
-Adapted to life in a container.
-Hardiness.
-Flavor(of course!)

Great to see that others have been testing fig culture this far north- thanks for being fig pioneers, and sharing your experiences!   Sounds like a trip to Maine Coastal Botanic Gardens is in my future; I'll be looking for their fig plantings.
I grow a wide variety of fruits here, and run a 'micro-nursery' operation, grafting mostly apples and pears.   I've received a couple batches of fig cuttings from a swap and a generous forum member- Celeste and MBVS- waiting on these to show some roots- I hope they didn't get frozen in transit because it's been wicked cold up heah(that's the Mainah lingo).

Welcome Jesse!

Calvin, 
Thanks for the bump!   It is a fact that this forum and it's members have been kind to me.   I've put in my time researching varieties and growing techniques that will hopefully work for my challenging location; so much good information to be found, thanks to the folks documenting their experiences.   I've also been the beneficiary a some very nice cutting distributions, either purchased at 'give away' prices, traded, or outright gifted, now I have to tell myself, "Enough!" 
Harvey's propagating method is working out very well, and has been very little work.  I could have potted them up and walked away for 3 weeks- of course I was checking more often for any little sign of life- and now that they are leafing out I need to water weekly or so.   A friend said, "It's addicting watching them take and grow"- too true, I'm enjoying watching the various leaf shapes of the different varieties develop.  I know it is still a long road for my rooted cuttings until my last frost date of May 30th, but we northerners have a few tricks up out sleeves...
If my success rate growing these starts continues, I'm going to be happy to 'share back' with my extras come springtime!  I actually pre-gifted one to my sister for x-mas, so these better make it.
My fig collection enjoyed a great boost this past autumn, when an inquiry at the Botanical Garden led to the acquisition of a half dozen 2-3 year fig plants that Kerry(drivewayfarmer) had donated previously.   The staff had too much on their plate to overwinter them, so they were up for grabs!!!  Only a couple came with IDs, but knowing Kerry as the source, the varieties must be good ones for my location, and the age of them makes me quite hopeful for some tastes in 2015.

Linda, 
Welcome to you too!

You are right, Kerry doesn't grow junk, he grows the good ones and is a very generous person.

Generous for sure!  He's also achieving 'fig-pioneer' status as a grower and propagator in northern New England.  There's a few F4F members whose entire posting history I've browsed- drivewayfarmer, Herman2, mnedelcu, robertharper, leon_edmund, acpete, etc- these guys have laid some great groundwork for fig cultivation in the north with varietal descriptions, cultivation techniques, tantalizing photos....I sincerely thank you.

I practice integrated pest management, with the help of a few friends: 

Ladybug guarding Kathleen's Black...watchout, aphids!

-Hey, I just found my avatar!