I am in Kentucky, the Zone 6a part.  About 25 years ago I purchased two Brown Turkey figs.  They have been planted in the ground and survived with little care or attention and no winter protection.  Of course, I've never really had a fig crop either.  The have almost always frozen back to the ground, but regenerated each spring to put out new green growth.  The plants have grown somewhat in the form of a hydrangia bush with lots of straight stems and leaves.  I have kept them as I just liked the foliage and assumed that I was too far north to have success with a fig.

This past winter was more like a Zone 5a winter.  Many plants of all types were killed with the polar vortex weather pattern that persisted for weeks.  Reading here I can understand that many of you lost a lot of your trees, even with your efforts to protect them.  I thought mine was gone.  It is growing in an area about 10 ft long by 4 fr wide.  I have vinca growing there as a ground cover and it was only protected by a few inches of fallen oak leaves, no applied mulch.  When it was time for the green shoots to appear, nothing happened.  A month passed and still nothing. 

Certain that it was frozen out, I started searching for fig information and found this forum.  Initially I had hoped to find something more cold hardy.  Then I spent a couple of weeks just reading about what everyone was doing with their trees and how they had tried to protect them. I realized that people in Brooklyn and Chicago were getting fig crops from their inground figs.  I had never imagined that is was practically possible.

The good news now is that my Brown Turkey has begun to put out shoots and is comming back from ground level.  Looking closely at it, it seems that there are about 10 clumps of roots which are living and sending up the stem spikes which now have four of five leaves.  Each of those clumps has multiple stems comming up from the ground.  This began about two weeks ago and they are now about 12" tall.  It is beginning to have that hydrangia habit again but still young enough that I can nip them off, if I should.

Now for the questions and your possible evaluation and help. 

I believe I should dig out and reduce the number of these clumps to two.  I have friends who would like to try a fig tree and they could possibly use the removed clumps to start a tree.

I can apply a 1" layer of compost and then some mulch over that.  I have never given it any special fertilizer treatment or attention.  It seems that I should have always been supplying much more water to the plants, maybe every three days or so.  Any advice on what that should be?  Soil is high clay content but with higher organic matter from years of leaf mulch.

Should I reduce the number of stems in the two clumps to leave one, or two, or three?  And what is the best advice on a method to cause the branching?  I have seen the comments on pinching.  I really don't think I'm in a situation where I can have a large tree with real pruning.  It should be possible for me to provide some winter protection in comming years.  Oak leaves are very plentiful.

It would just be great if you here could help me have my first crop this year.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Charley,
Welcome to the forum community.
Pictures would be helpful, but some general recommendations should apply.

A soil test would help to determine pH and available soil nutrients, especially since oak leaves make the soil acidic and Figs seem to prefer neutral to alkaline soils with a high Calcium content.

Thinning out the number of fruiting branches and pinching growing tips then rubbing out new vegetative buds will usually stimulate fig production. Two to three scaffold branches off each main stem is the recommended practice, but it also depends on your available space.

Also your "Brown Turkey" may not be as named and may be a cultivar that doesn't fruit when regrown from soil line in a short season, like Celeste.
Good Luck.

Definitely fertilize it and water it.  One of the most experienced guys on the forum says to grow only 3 stems per tree for best fruit production.  I haven't tried that and I'll find out this year if I should have  :)

I'm surprised you've never had a crop in 25 years. 

If that is the case, what do you think will be different this year, especially given the extremely harsh winter?

I could see where you take measures to protect it this coming winter and you get a crop next year, if mother nature cooperates. 

Personally, I would dig them out and replant some other proven varieties. Like Pete said, what you have may not even really be Brown Turkeys. You may as well have a tree that you like the look of which also gives you delicous fruit. There are readily available fig trees that are inexpensive, more cold hardy, more productive(than yours), and better tasting than BT. IMO, the top fig on the list would be Hardy Chicago.

If you keep them, reduce to 3-5 stems so the ones you keep will be stronger. But it sounds like these are spread over two spots, so I would remove one and plant a Hardy Chicago. Mine froze to almost the ground last winter but it is up and running with 2-3 dozen figs on the new growth. And best of all, you will LOVE the taste of this fig.

I did have a soil test this spring on the lawn in that area.  No samples were taken to directly evaluate that 4' X 10' area though.  The pH was 6.1 with no glaring nutrient deficiencies.  Organic matter was 5.5% as a result of mulch mowing all grass and oak leaves.  The idea that oaks cause acidic soils in not quite right.  Almost all organic matter will cause an initial acidic environment.  However after the microbes finish breaking it down in a few months it tends to become more neutral.  The 6.1 is pretty good for growing grass but seems not ideal for figs.  The soil drainage is generally poor, however the fig is on a higher spot so is not harmed by pooling.

The only fertilization or watering it got was a result of applications to the lawn.  A couple of years ago I got back into lawn improvement so everything got more fertilizer and water.  Not enough to be adequate for the fig but better.  Winters of 2011 and 2012 were a bit warmer.  Those are the only times I recall getting leaves from any previous year brown wood.  A couple of surviving stems got to about 2' in diameter.  Last summer I did have a few figs, a first.  They seemed to drop before they matured and were fairly small.

I believe the reason for no crop in other years was that I allowed the fig to grow as much vegitation as possible, with little to no fertilization or attention to watering.  A great deal of summer growth for the roots to try to support and sustain with little nutrients and water available during the summer fruiting season.

Is it OK to try to dig, seperate and remove some of the excess plants.  If I somewhat hack them apart, saving roots, can those removed plants be successfuly transplanted.  And, if they can, is there a good method for not breaking off the somewaht delicate growth on those parts?

Many figs naturally grow in arid climates and still produce a crop without any watering. Some of the most respected fig gurus here feed their in-ground fig trees nothing but compost/mulch in the fall. An old tree like yours has such an extensive root system that gathering moisture and nutrients should not be much of an issue. You have what you have, and shouldn't have to do much to get at least some figs every year, maybe some winter protection would help..but still, IMO your trees genetics are the problem. Oh well, millions of people enjoy nice looking trees and bushes, you could always use all those leaves for tea.

One important factor I forgot to mention is sunlight.  The whole yard is shaded in some part or another all day.  The fig gets full sunlight for about two hours in the morning and three hours in the later afternoon.  Overall, probably more than 1/2 shade, although it is not a dense shade.  Still less than half day of full direct sunlight.

Charley, here are my thoughts:

1. Your soil and moisture levels are fine.  You do not need to worry about fertilization or watering.  Probably don't need to water it at all unless several weeks/months of no rain or you see visible signs of significant leaf droop.  By now it has grown a very extensive and deep root system and will get whatever it needs when it needs it. 
2. It may or may not be a brown turkey.  You've got to wonder why it's dropping fruit though.  I have not heard of brown turkey doing that extensively.  Maybe another variety that drops fruit more? 
3. That is barely enough sunlight to produce a significant crop, particularly in your climate.  In northern Florida, my sister grows a couple trees that are partially shaded most of the day, but she has a long season and temperatures are warm.  In your climate, I would want it to be in full sun all day if possible.  Half the day at a minimum.  Direct sun -> photosynthesis -> energy/sugar production -> fruit production. 
4. If you have a sunnier spot buy a hardy fig tree and plant it there.  Then you've got a better chance of having figs next year. 
5. Feel free to hack away at what's there.  It's very likely that whatever remains will continue growing. 
6. That is plenty of organic matter in the soil, and the pH is OK too, although on the lower end of what would be ideal.  If you do anything to the soil make sure it does not lower the pH further though, since low 6's is on the lower end of what a fig tree prefers.

Yes, sun is pretty important for any fruit bearing tree. Sals G or Sals El(same tree) would be the one you are referring to. It's supposed to be VERY similar to Hardy Chicago with a teensy weensy bit more cold hardiness, you wouldn't go wrong either way. The only reason I suggested HC is that there are number of online nurseries that you could order a 2-3 yr old tree from today and your total bill will be well under $50 with shipping, I'm not sure you could find a Sal's G  for the same price as simply.

Good luck, welcome to the forum.

Hi Charley,
Welcome to the forum.
Well, what do you want ? A fruiting tree or a decorative tree ? The effort is not the same especially in Zone7 !

In your climate, if you want fruits, you must protect the tree in the winter . But ok the choice is yours .
some reading for you: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/winter-protection-6910093?pid=1282877020#post1282877020
In pic4, the figtree is in an eighty liters trashcan with 50% dirt and 50% compost for drainage issues with my clay dirt with the other eighty liters over to protect .
If you have another spot in the garden, you could try to do that ...

How long is your tomato season ? Are you able to grow and get ripe tomatoes ?

Do you have a pic of your tree - BT is normally easy to tell .
Did your tree ever have had brebas ? BT is bifera .
Do you have space for growing in pot ? And a place in the garage for the winter ?

Fertilize and water the figtree as much as you can. Your figtree has been regrowing from the roots from year to year and thus exhausted the dirt . So YES, you need to fertilize.
Did I already mention that you fertilize and make growth this year to have fruits next year (especially for the brebas ) :) ? -, at least in my Zone7 this is how life goes .

Finally got some cell phone pictures.  I could not figure out how to post them for the image to show.  I hope you will try the links.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0wrbfw2ckwxszd/2014-06-23%2019.55.53.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6cc5rpf8hzkluhu/2014-06-23%2019.52.04.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w2hf5be75963ie9/2014-06-23%2019.50.56.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fhhddgg1tgtdb6i/2014-06-23%2019.53.34.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wl8c4t7d8dbxr1p/2014-06-23%2019.52.37.jpg

There seems to now be maybe 10 or so seperate plants.  All within the 4 X 10 space.  All beginning to send up "spikes" that last summer got to maybe 8 ft tall, straight up.  It was more the form of a very tall hydrangia but did have some figs. When I wrote before that they dropped, maybe the birds got them and I did not see it.  One day there may have been maybe 20 figs  on all of the stalks and two days later there were none on the tree.

Thanks for all of the good suggestions.  I would sure like some more input on what to do with this existing plant that seems to now be growing in a pretty healthy and vigorous way.

Hi Charley,
not BT - I'm speaking of the simple Brownturkey - the one I have.
The middle lobe is too long, and the leaves not round enough for BrownTurkey.
There are 5 stems on the left. I would leave three there, and remove all the smaller ones. The one alone in the right, I would let it grow. Behing in the background, I would choose two, and let them grow.
The ones you remove, you could play at rooting them .

When the trees reach 3 feet, I would pinch. Try to keep them small to be able to winter protect them easily and efficiently.
In my zone7, it normally takes 3 years to get ripe fruit from a root-shoot .

Another try with the pictures.  I think I need to drastically reduce the number of spikes/stems and only leave two figs in the area.