Ironic how the warmest winter in 40 years managed to kill so many of my in ground fig trees.

Petit Negri from last summer:

Petit Negri today:

More corpses:

This one was given a good kick in the cojones, but it will be back:

That's really tough to look at.  :(  Did you have a couple days of really cold temps and then really warmer than usual temps?

Indeed.

We had 3 freezes all winter long and each came suddenly after weeks of balmy weather. The trees had leafed out and were out of dormancy when they were hit with freezing temps. The last freeze in February was the killer.

They will grow back from the ground.

Still....

Wow. Any variants not affected ? Hope they will all re-grow. Any chance you will change your methods in growing them when they re-sprout ?

Its warming up here but I have to be careful. I had a bunch "fried" once by artic cold in May.

Hey Paul,

Fortunately the majority of my trees were fine. There was no rhyme or reason as to which tree got fried as far as varieties go.

Not much that can be done with crazy weather like that.

Frank

I wonder if removing leaves that sprout in winter would help protect the trunks in your situation. I think it could slow down the sap flow a bit, it looks like the cambium was pretty swollen up on your PN, the bark is slipping off easily, yes? The leaves pump water so the more leaves the more swollen the cambium has to be and the more likely to be damaged by a freeze.

Brent, the petit negri trunk and branches are dessicated and brittle. Time of death was a few months ago.

Hi noss, the fig deaths were a combination of many factors inclucing varietal hardiness, exposure to the wind but 99% was due to the weather change causing the internal hemorrhaging, as you so nicely put.

The good thing about figs is that they are like zombies, if the root system is well established they will invariably rise up over and over again.

Frank

Very true .......if root system is good they will come back. I had removed a tree with a good rootball to my place from a friend's house & in less than a year it grew back at my friend's house.

OK must have been the first freeze of the year then. When the bark pulls away from the trunk like that it is because the cambium layer was thick when the tree died. I know because I have made a few mushroom logs and do a little woodcarving. dormant logs and branches hold their bark much better, while summer cut wood the bark slips off as soon as it starts drying. I thought for some reason that it had gone dormant and was killed after it woke up.

Most of my trees had pushed some new growth before the last freeze and I lost all of my new grouth but all of the trees recovered and all branches are now in full growth. This winter was a cruel one. We only had three freezes and only for just a few hours. Just enough to ruin five bunches of Bananas and set back the sprouted figs.

Frank,

Did you have at least two of all of them?

If I understood your comments you did and some of the named varieties one was hit and one not.

Frank,

I have the same issues as you.  There is not enough "cool" weather before the first freeze for the trees to go dormant.  It does not help that there is several weeks of warm weather between cold spells.  Between October and December of last year, my trees pushed out new growth 3 times.  All where knocked back by freezes.  Eventually, nearly 100% of the tops of my trees died back (even those reported to be "cold hardy").

Here is a picture of the bark splitting on a 2 year old tree. 

I don't have a good solution to this problem, yet.  I'm hoping just protecting the trees from the cold will be enough to prevent damage.  In a post about rooting summer cuttings, Dan suggests removing leaves sends a signal to the plant to push out new growth. 

~james

Charles,

I have copies of all of those that died, thanks. Even the ones that died will be back...but it took 4 years to get the petit negri to that size and productivity; that's what bothers me a little.

James,

It was the "perfect storm" this year for fig devastation in my neck of the woods. Most years are not too bad.

Frank

It was even more perfect here... severe drought from spring through the summer, wet fall, then several freezes with winds.

I've had this issue since I've been growing in the Austin area (three years) and even longer with my nephews tree.  All but a couple of my younger trees have are already in full growth mode this year.  As I mentioned, I do not have a good strategy for dealing with trees being green when the freezes hit.  I'm hoping this discussion continues and others in the same situation will chime in with what has / has not worked for them.

Good luck on a speedy fig recovery.

~james

Frank,

That is good to know. From your cuttings I have six Green Ischia, two EL Green, and both Petit Negri that I have potted up. There are some cuttings still in the box that I will check in the next few days. Thanks for the cuttings.

My 2 cents:Grow fig tree in bush form in your climate,and prune only in the Spring.
You will be amazed ,that the thick old trunks may be dead,while new young trunks at the base will be alive and ready to replace the old dead ones.

My 2 cents:Grow fig tree in bush form in your climate,and prune only in the Spring.
You will be amazed ,that the thick old trunks may be dead,while new young trunks at the base will be alive and ready to replace the old dead ones.
Also keep fertilization at minimum,let the  plant grow slow,and woody,and ,in a bush form it will be alive with live branches to choose from every year.

Herman, looks like water will always finds its lowest level... and I may very well end up with scraggly fig bushes rather than the aesthetically pleasing canopied tree form, but I am not giving up without a fight for at least some of them.

There is nothing more pleasing to the eye than the classic mushroom-shaped  tree with its huge ripened black figs hanging at eye level just waiting to be plucked and eaten.

Yummmmm!

I'm with Herman. Instead of "scraggly", I would describe my in-grounds as round and full. Grow your shrubs to 8-9' and you will have lots of fruit at eye level. Besides, single-trunk is not the recommended shape for us 8b-ers for this exact reason. Good luck!

I feel your pain, FMD. Most of mine woke up dead.

John

NC Zone 8A/8B

I didn't really have a great reason but when I started collecting a few figs a couple years ago I would always buy the multi trunk ones as opposed to the single trunk. I felt it would leave me with more or better shaping options and the more branches the more fruiting potential. At least that is what I was thinking.