Hi - I'm new here and new to growing figs. My father had many plants when I was young but they were southern Italian varieties that made for a lot of work when winter came. When I heard about the existence of Chicago Hardy Figs I jumped at the chance to have a fig tree that I could leave in the ground over the winter. My barber planted one last year and unfortunately our unusually cold winter killed his off. I planted two trees in spring and want to protect mine. I have a strategy for protecting them however I’m hoping for some advice on a few things:

No Fruit - My barber’s tree was planted at about 12” tall, the same that mine was when I planted it this past spring. In his case the tree bore fruit in its first year. Almost 20 figs. In my case, while the tree grew to well over 3 feet tall, I didn’t get a single fruit or see a hint of a bud. Would anyone know why neither of my trees would show any sign of fruit?

Pruning – I’ve received different advice on pruning from “cut back half of the tree” to “don’t cut anything, just tie it up and cover it.” We had a couple of cold nights recently and the leaves are now curled up and wilted, yet they’ve not fallen off. They’re even still pretty green. So, should I be cutting these leaves off before they fall naturally? And should I be cutting some of these branches off? Or just the little suckers?

We’re getting to the point here where nights are dipping to freezing temperatures so I’m thinking I need to act sooner than later....BTW - My plan to over-winter is to build up the soil around it to effectively raise the frost line under the tree and then to tie up in burlap and cover with large black garbage bags, Hoping the black will gather a bit of heat.

I welcome all thoughts. This picture is of one of the trees behind my house in mid September.