Dester king, these trees did not have any ripe fruit as it was top killed this past winter. they did grow however 7 foot tall and bushlike. no protection. planing on protecting one this winter.
 
The small fig hedge, compleatly top killed in winter. no protection. this hedge is home to 1 hardy chicago el, 1 RdB, 1 Sal's G, and 3 MvsB. all came back with strong top growth and put on figs. hardy chicago i do not think will ripe, RdB will not ripen, Sal's G one starting to ripe, MvsB most will ripe.
 
A almost ripe Brown Turkey. Have heard alot of mixed reviews on this one so i had to try formyself. this will be my first Brown Turkey fig ever. No winter protection (top killed)
 
Here is a look at some ripe MvsB that i am going to pick tomorow. no winter protection (top Killed) will protect one this winter.
 
Blue celeste, no fruit will ripen.  (top killed) no winter protection. massive new top growth. will protect this winter.  
 
Adriatic, no winter protection, top killed. loaded with fruit, might not ripen. this tree is one of the best growers as far as fruit production. this has never been top killed in years past but i did cut it down to almost nothing this past fall. usually ripens fruit in july here. all figs are about 2 months or more behind schedual from years past. will protect this winter.
 

this is an unknown i got from a member who asked me not to use the same name for ID that he did. so for this post i will call it DU001 this was the second tree to ripe fruit for me this year after being compleatly top killed with no witer protection. the tree now stands a 6 foot tall and is riping about 18 fruits at this time.

the first tree to give me a ripe fruit was a top killed Lattarolla, no wihter protection the tree only grew to about 2 1/2 foot tall multi-branched. it did however ripe up first and had 10 fruits. sorrr no pic of this one. will protect this winter.

Hope this helps others growing in cooler zones, many more added this year to the collection to see what's what in cold hardyness.

Great summary. Thanks. We live In 7a and I'm planning on mixing pots and in- grounds next season.

Great topic Dave and very useful to know!  Thanks for this post!

For me trying to decide what to grow it would be nice to have a thread with everyone growing figs in-ground in colder zones reporting their results?   Could this thread be used for that?

That's the hope. In looking for cold Hardy figs the info is not consistent, forum members have provided the best info so I am posting my findings to help others. Please add along with growing zone, and results.

Niagara Black with produce even top killed, had 1 so far, more to come, would be sooner but bad summer.  Colisanti 3 will as well, rdb as well.  For now that's all I can say for certain.

That is a great deal of info, it has helped me tremendously.  I live in zone 5B and high altitude. I will need heavy protection for all of my figs if they ever go in ground.  Looks like pots and one day a greenhouse for me.

Thank you for sharing you findings.

Scott  

Hey Scott, you could most likely able to do nordland in ground. My cuz in Denver has had good result

I'll Keep an eye out for a Nordland, thanks for the heads up.  Colorado Springs is a good deal harsher then Denver, I'm 1000' higher and a much drier climate.  Heavy winter protection will be needed for any variety I'm sure.  Some may survive the winter unprotected, yet never fruit.

Scott

Would like to throw out one more variety for consideration in colder areas based on the fact that where I am growing similar varieties, my experience with my unprotected in ground trees largely mirrored Dave's.

I had extensive top damage and on top of that, I discovered an Ambrosia Beetle infestation after what was left of my trees started to bud out and I could see the tips of new shoots coming up from the roots.  At that point, I cut everything to the ground rather than try to fight the beetles.

My 2 Brunswick Magnolias both came back in spades. The older tree grew to a bit over 5' with 20 plus stems. I have a main crop on it of several hundred figs which started ripening about 4-6 weeks later than normal (we have had a cool summer too). I think its  ability to rebound, general cold hardiness and production statistics should make it a suitable candidate for colder areas.

MvsB is the best cold hardy never protected and eat lotsa figs every year tree I have.

I never do. And they seem to handle the cold better every year

Dave -- 

1.  What's "lotsa figs" -- 10, 100, 1000?  For example, I got >200 this year from a smallish, protected, in-ground Florea that had zero kill despite temps at -7 F.  Did you see anything comparable?
2.  What's "better"?  Do the unprotected figs survive winter without damage?  Or is there just better growth from more developed system of roots?

Thanks.

Thanks for this thread on cold hardy Figs, I learn something every day on this forum.  I am new to this fig collecting hobby (addiction?) so I can’t add much as to named varieties but I have been around fig trees my entire life and have grown trees in ground and containers for about 35 years.

While most of you know this already, here are my observations of things to consider in addition to varieties, from my limited experience.

1. Older the Tree the Hardier – it seems when the trees have been in the ground at least 10 years the bottom trunks are larger/hardier.  Even if the tops freezes to the ground the older trees comeback faster/stronger with more fruit, so you need patience.

2. Location Makes A Big Difference - the trees that do the best seem to be the ones that have full sun and are in a backyard up against a wall or cornered by two neighbors garages.  I believe this is because of protection from the wind and the sun radiating off of the walls.

3. Survival Of The Fittest - the unknown old trees found in “the old neighborhoods” were only grown for the Figs, they were known only as either dark or white.  The only criteria was, did it survive the winters and produce a lot of good tasting figs.  Since most folks only had one or two trees only the best strains of trees were passed from one paisano to the other, only the trees that performed the best in the local area were keep.  Trees not good for the location either died over the years or were removed.