I think i will get Hardy Chicago, Dauphine and Desert King.
I will also try to propagate our own “unknown” fig variety next year with Air Layers.
Its a very vigorous bush that is hardy and the figs are sweet to very sweet (green figs, red flesh)
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Covering without a heat source is little to no help. Mine uncovered outside at 27F look better than yours. The top leaves are toast but not the lower ones.
Greenhouse/high tunnels are not easy to manage for heating or cooling. The plastic is nearly no protection by itself. It makes a much better oven on sunny days than a frost blanket at night. Cloud cover is much more protection, I guess you could say day and night.
My greenhouse with two layers inflated and reaching 90F yesterday still needed the heater to maintain 34F last night. By itself it’s at most 3F protection after a very hot day. Cloud cover holds 6F protection based on my experience, ie on a cloudy night it can stay 6F warmer inside than out. Plus with clouds the outside air doesn’t get as cold.
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Hardy Chicago and Desert King are wise choices.
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Be interested in seeing the project completed. You definitely need more support on the top and on the sides… to get it rigid and to stop snow from caving it in.
I’m sure you’ve thought it thru, but just mentioning.
Dax
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Dax,
I’ve not thought things out very well yet. I’m more just having fun now and thinking out a much larger operation next year. There are agricultural grants in Kansas funding a free greenhouse. I don’t just want to jump in a huge greenhouse without practicing some in a smaller scale. I plant test crops of plants on a small scale before I ever do large planting’s also. I learned a lot already but by the time winter is over I’ll get better at this.
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Cool.
Dax
Very warm here today and I’m enjoying basking in the sun while working on a few things. One of my neighbors passed away and his dog came over to give me a hand. Guess he missed me and decided to come over. Sure do miss his owner. That’s a rabbit foot hanging out of his mouth but don’t know where he got it.
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I know this reply is old, but after growing a lot of different varieties, that’s been my experience as well. Not sure if it’s actual hardiness of the wood or something else. The Bordeaux types (excluding RdB) haven’t been all that hardy for me.
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I need a little advice on my Chicago hardy trees. I kept them in pots that were too small this summer. This fall I repotted into what I estimated is two fifteen gallon pots. I put them in front of a sunny window. They grow very slowly for me , what can I do to this winter to better prepare them for next season?
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I stored all my 40 plus fig pots in the unheated shelter already. I normally give them a jump start in early Spring with Urea Nitrogen 43-0-0 about every 2 weeks with 2 applications. They just perked up in about a week with real nice green leaves and good growth. I pinched the tip at the 5th leaf for faster fruits formation.
Tony
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I let mine accidentally dry out in early September and they lost all of their leaves. They have since leafed back out . I was thinking I could keep them growing over the winter and have more wood for figs to form on in the spring. I hesitate to move them into storage since I stressed them by failing to water them. Not sure I am on the right path, maybe I should just move them to the root cellar
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I don’t have much experience growing figs inside over winter, but know the potential pitfall is lanky growth caused by reduced daylight.
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I have read that here. My figs seem to grow very slowly, that may change now that they are in much larger pots
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They don’t grow much indoor during Winter months without additional lights. Not an energy efficient way to grow them indoor. I would defoliate them and store them until Spring.
Tony
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A secret I use is growing them in 2 gallon pots because once they are rootbound they produce more figs. My Chicago Hardy produced like crazy this year.
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That is about the size of pot I used this summer and they were rootbound. They made several figs but they were very small , the biggest were the size of a nickel at best
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Darby,
I am rather inexperienced about fig growing but I have kept a potted CH in the house and also in an unheated basement.
I agree with @tonyOmahaz5. It is difficult to have enough natural light in our winter to keep the growth going indoor. My CH sat in the house, got watered, no growth. The bad part was when spring arrived. I found it difficult to transition a fig plant full of leaves outside. From 70 F indoor to 40-50 F outdoor. It was still cold out. I tried to transition it slowly but ended up having sunburned leaves, anyway.
These past two years, I’ve left the pots outside through a few hard frost. By then (mid to late Nov), leaves were mostly gone. ( I don’t force defoliating). I then moved them in the unheated basement. It is easier to transition leafless fig plants out in the spring.
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Even if the plant doesn’t continue to grow, will it keep the foliage intact? Just wondering if it can be used as a nice house plant. But if it looses leaves and look all ratty then no. but even if it doesn’t grow if it keeps the leaves, that would make a nice house plant.
I need to buy a couple of house plants to make the home more homely. I don’t want to buy the regular house plants that don’t flower or fruit. I was thinking about pomegranate or a fig as a house plant. But it doesn’t sound like it’s an easy task.
My potted fig did not lose leaves while in the house. But it did not have many leaves to begin with so it was not an attractive house plant at the time.
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Finally?!
My potted Battaglia Green has had 18 figlets stuck in suspended animation since August.
Just this week (first week of November!), one of them seems to be plumping up and softening a bit.
I hope some of them make it. We are having a short stretch of mild weather. I so want to eat these!
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