Steve

I'm with you! Spring is right around the corner - the figs are itching to spring into growth here too! A ton of snow and a ton of sunshine n blue skies.

Greetings again

So in the dead of Summer, when we are all roasting and worrying sbout our figs over heating and not having enough water, we can turn back to these glimpses of our snow-bound early March trees.

You can nicely see that my thick leaf layer stays pretty much dry even during a blizzard.

It will be interesting to see if the exposed wood on your Hardy Chicago (and my Marseille vs Black) survives.

Yes, it will. Last year after our real cold spells, it did take some time to come back. Well, maybe I'll have to give it a good pruning come late Spring.

When are you thinking of removing the protection from your in-ground trees?  Should we dare do this on Saturday?  The forecast starting Saturday and going out to March 15 looks compatible with not having protection but the way this winter has went I don't have the guts to do it just yet.  This is one of those Vegas decisions. On the other hand, if it keeps getting up to 50-60 degrees the temp inside the tarp will probably be even higher and they could start coming out of dormancy.  I suppose I will at least open the tarps wide at the top to make sure they are venting.

Steve, my rule of thumb i guess is to look at overnight lows. When overnight lows stay above freezing, then I unwrap the in-ground trees. No sense rushing things and having them frozen. Have to watch the forecast now and see.

Anyone else in the area have thoughts when to unwrap ur buried trees?

I think the cold is finally breaking! Looking forward to venting the shed and getting some sunshine in there. 

Steve by the way the cuttings you sent me are doing well. Some have already leafed out and rooted, so before the last cold things must have still been viable. 

Spring is around the corner for sure. Forecasting 60F on Wednesday. I like the looks of that.

Frank, thanks for reminding me about those cuttings.  I looked it up and it was late January when I took those cuttings off my in-ground trees.  Of course we got the worst of the winter in February but nevertheless that gives me hope that the damage won't be as bad as I thought.

Greetings All

Spring is around the corner, geese are flying, birds are checking out the new bird houses, spring peepers are chirping, and our snowdrops were in full bloom today, daffodil buds spotted, it MUST be time to start the uncovering of our in-ground fig trees. I uncovered the one that I had least protected, and it looks in good shape. Nice green hue on main trunk and branches.

Heres the pix:
1. Hardy Chicago covered in snow
2. The newly uncovered tree
3. A pix of our blooming snowdrops.

Looks like your HC will be fine Mark.  I uncovered my Takoma Violet today it also looked pretty good. I took a quick survey of damage on the others.  With possibly one exception, I think for the ones I protected the top growth is mostly alive.  The three that were just protected with mulch around the base had more damage but I'm pretty sure they won't be dead down to soil level.  Those will probably lose 2/3-3/4 of their top growth though.  Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic about my in-ground figs.  I think I will the extended forecast this weekend and if it looks like it will stay above freezing the rest of the month (as the forecast predicts currently) I will go ahead and take the protection off of all the figs.

I moved my largest (3 year+) potted trees and all apple trees out of the shed yesterday evening. Moved the small batch of 1 year old 1 gallon trees into my small greenhouse. 

Steve , Frank

I guess it is time! Good news Steve on your trees, I guess the protective measures taken on the in-ground trees worked. I'm getting ready to go outside right now and uncover my larger HC, the one that had top branches exposed, but bottom fully covered with shredded leaves and tarps.

Yes, the weather forecast does look pretty good. Rain today with increasing daytime temperatures, a few low overnight temps but nothing extended that will impact the tree growth. It will take a few weeks for these buried guys to really wake up and produce tender shoots. By then we will be in the clear. At least we better be!

Frank, you actually put your potted trees outside for good? I'll probably wait a few weeks yet, at least until Spring! Most of my dormant trees are showing greening buds, one that was in the garage all cold winter, actually has a few tender leaves just opening.

Happy MD figging all.

Key to pix:

1. HC as it was in the snow sleeping
2. Unwrapping begins, nice and protected inside
3. A young shoot looking nice and green
4. Unburied, about half way done. Main trunks all exposed.
5. HC, all cleaned up and looking good.

Greetings. Post above shows the completely uncovered Hardy Chicago. All looks good, maybe a few frost burnt tips on the branches that I didnt cover up. But, no harm no foul - get those buds, leaves and figs coming.

Mark I plan to finish uncovering my in-ground trees today and will start a post to document damage to the different varieties.  One thing I will do differently next year is to do more pruning in the Fall.  I also plan to leave my container figs in the garage until the buds start to swell.  I haven't seen that on any of them yet.  I think it stays a bit warmer there overall (or at least there are fewer temperature extremes) so I am thinking that they will come out of dormancy faster in the garage than outside.

Greetings Steve. Pretty good day today to finish up the uncovering process. I just finished my others. Yes, i agree with giving them a good cut back in the Fall, that's pretty much what i did to all my in-ground trees. I'm sure garage temps are a few degrees warmer and will bud out earlier there then if u bring them out soon. The potted trees I have in our cold sun room are all starting to push green buds. One actually has some leaves i think because it was kept a bit warmer near in the garage with my banana plant.

So, i was able to uncover my "fig hedge" today that consists of three HC and one Celeste. They all look really good and have survived yet another Winter. The interesting thing is that the HC to the far right was not pruned too hard in the Fall, but I tied it down horizontally as close to ground. This tree, on close examination, actually has some nice green buds protruding.

Key to pix:
1. The buried trees
2. A bit of top exposed
3. The process is slow...
4. One HC uncovered
5. Tied down HC
6. Hedge cleaned up
7. & 8. New buds!

Got some baby figs popping!

Yep, after close inspection of my "dormant" figs that are starting to green, my wife says, hey, you've got yourself some baby figs coming out. And sure enough, we have plenty of early baby figs starting to pop out.

Picture here is of our Madeline de Deux early figs and some of the other early leaves.

Greetings all

Now that I have green buds, leaves, figs popping I plan to hit all the potted trees up with the much hyped about MaxiGro 10-5-24 hydroponics fertilizer. This product promises to promote the growth of strong stems, roots and foliage.

Pix of the product

Nice photos Mark. Your hard work paid off. Time to grow some figs now. Have a great growing season and thanks for sharing!

Chris, yes it really is time to get the figs growing! Today in our area, close to 70F - now that's some Springtime weather we can all use in these parts. One could probably risk it now and put out potted plants. From now on we should only get an occasional overnight or early morning cold snap. The advantage is that on days like today, the trees would really snap into attention.

Thanks for sharing info........I still have some snow on the ground ......itching to uncover some of my ingrounds but afraid to look......weather reports still show freezing temp for evenings for the next five days.....

A few evenings of below freezing won't hurt anything. It's the extended deep freeze that does the kill tree damage. With high daytime temps now, I'll bet your safe to uncover. I'm getting ready to move my banana tree out soon. It can take a freeze or two.

Greetings.

Nice semi-overcast, warm day here with temps in the mid-60's. I have too many potted figs to play the fig shuffle, but I did move the Vista outside for the entire day, and gave it an extra watering. Getting close to moving them all out, but this friday ther's talk of a mixed bag of precipitation, snow, sleet, rain. So we wait.

Mark, today was one of those weird Maryland days: crazy warm. It's been nice to get out and do some yard work the past few days, though. I'm going to attempt keeping my plants in the greenhouse and see how bad I chicken out.