how to overwinter a potted fig
THE FRUIT EXPERT LEE REICH came to my open garden day this June, which was a happy surprise—and also a moment of terror. “Nice fig tree,” he said, and for a moment there, I felt so proud. “But what will you do with it this winter?” Uh-oh, a leading fruit guru who gardens in the same zone as I do thinks the tree’s a goner. Gulp. Now nights are getting colder, and it’s time for me to start the process to (hopefully) prove Lee wrong. So how will I overwinter a potted fig tree in Zone 5B?
After Lee’s early warning signal, I studied up–both in his most recent book, “Grow Fruit Naturally,” and elsewhere. Since my fig is in a pot, not the ground, and I’m in Zone 5, I can’t take the tack that I used to see where I grew up, in Zone 6-bordering-on-7ish: wrapping the tree in tar paper and/or burlap, then stuffing the whole enclosure with leaves.
Even more dramatic, I remember some growers actually digging around the fig’s root zone on one side, then tipping the tree over into a trench they’d dug alongside, and burying it. Wow, even more work that the tar paper-burlap-leaf deal.
So what to do? At least I got this much right: I bought a small, hardy variety (at least as hardy as figs get): ‘Brown Turkey,’ which will fruit mostly on new wood (meaning if I have to prune off any dieback, or simply have to trim to get it in and out of storage, I’d still have a shot at fruit).
With near-frost expected I stopped watering a week or two ago; I want to signal to the plant that it’s almost time to nap, and also don’t even know how I can move this baby into shelter semi-dry, let alone if the giant pot is sodden. (Above, how the fig looked the other day, pre-frost, with an ornamental sweet potato vine spilling out of its giant pot.)
The other signals to sleep are coming from Mother Nature, in the form of shorter days and cold temperature. Letting a light frost or two hit the plant is OK; I actually want the leaves to drop off before I stash my fig, a sign that it is ready to sleep.
In the next week or two or three, weather-dependent, I’ll get ready to roll my by-then leafless, fruitless fig on my trusty hand cart into a space where it will stay dry and dark (more important in late winter, I think, so the plant doesn’t wake up too soon) and just above freezing all winter. Thirty to 50 degrees F would be ideal, and again, if I still lived in a more favorable spot, an unheated garage might do fine. Here, the barn is just too cold if winter temperatures dip drastically.
The basement is my only real choice, and getting it down there will be, shall we say, interesting. (If you don’t hear from me again, you’ll know what happened.) I fear it may be too warm at both ends of the storage season, so I’m leaving it outside until the last minute (Lee says the figs can even take 20s for a bit). As for the logistics of getting it downstairs:
“Another option, since you have to root-prune and repot the plant every year or two to provide room for new roots to grow,” says Lee, “is to take the plant out of the pot, hack back the roots, and put the remaining root ball into a plastic bag, loosely tied. That plant will be lighter and easier to move, especially if stems also are pruned. In late winter, pot up the root ball and you’re good to go.”
Before moving it into its new quarters, I’ll inspect carefully for any pests that might want to roll along with us; some experts advise spraying with horticultural oil after doing that.
Wherever you store your plant, remember: mice love to gnaw at tender bark and shoots, so even deciduous plants in storage, though not needing water or light, can still attract rodent pests.
I’ll check whether it needs a little water in late winter, then bring the plant out to a sheltered spot a couple of weeks before final frost, prune it to encourage more new growth (which will bear the fruit) and water it properly when it seems ready to stir, and keep an eye out for coldsnaps before moving it back into place (forces willing!) come sometime in May.
When I read how Lee Reich solved his fig hardiness issues, I had to smile. Lucky Lee: He has a cool greenhouse, that he keeps no lower than 37 degrees F (well, unless the propane heater fails, as it did last winter at one point). Some of his figs are planted right in the ground inside the greenhouse, where he also grows his wintertime greens. (Others are in his basement.) Maybe I can just drive my baby across the Hudson and tuck it away in the care of a pro?
Or maybe I should have thrown all caution to the wind, and planted my ‘Brown Turkey’ in the ground alongside a warm stone wall, then wrapped it come fall, and pruned off winter damage around March, then grown it as a cutback shrub. In 2011’s wacky non-winter, a friend right nearby didn’t even have dieback on her fig that was grown just that way.
more about growing fruit
- Read my blueberry-growing Q&A with Lee Reich
- Visit Lee Reich’s website
- Order “Grow Fruit Naturally”
I’ve started accumulating figs rather by accident (I blame online sales from Logee’s), and bring them up to my makeshift “greenhouse” (some metro shelves with inexpensive grow lights-somehow it has worked for me for three years now) where they live with my citrus for the winter. The “hardy” ones always seem to drop leaves and stand bare until January, when I’ll see leaves poking out and resume a semi-normal watering routine. The more tropical varieties lose one or two, then go right on growing. My plan is always to plant one of the ‘Chicago Hardy’ figs on the south side of my parents’ house and wrap it well, but I always chicken out and bring them in. What happens when they get really big? I have no idea. Good luck with the ‘Brown Turkey’!
Love this, Matt. Adventures in fruit culture! I’m eyeing those ‘Chicago Hardy’ ones, too — wonder if it’s TRUE?!?!?!?!
I went on a garden walk here in Cleveland in the summer and admired a 60 year old fig tree. They cover it exactly as you describe, wrapping the limbs, piling lots of leaves around it and covering it with a tarp. It has to be 10 feet tall and wide! I’m going to that with mine this year. Last year I tipped it over and buried it, after wrapping and it was fine. Good luck!
PS both the 60 year old fig and mine are planted in the ground.
I’ve kept a very small fig tree alive for a couple of years now, but I have yet to eat a fig from it–they all dropped off when they got to be about the size of large marbles. What I am doing wrong? Or do I just need to wait until it’s bigger?
I babied THREE fig trees for about 5 years – I live in zone 3 Vermont. They made it through every winter just fine in my cellar, which isn’t as cold as it could be either – our wood furnace is down there, but I stashed them in the corner by the bulkhead, where the temps were probably in the 50’s most of the winter, warmer in fall. They always came back the next summer looking healthy and producing fruit – which never ripened. Some of it did fall off, but most just sat there, hard as a marble until the first frost. I finally gave up and dumped them in the woods. Sad, as I grew up with a fabulous yellow fig tree in northern California that I still pine for.
I have just finished my 3rd season for 2 potted figs in zone 5b. One is “Stella”, the other is “Peter’s Honey”. I have been overwintering in garage after they have gone dormant. I have never covered them, and they do start growing first crop in the garage. I don’t put them out until frost is over. My question is when and how far back can I prune? They are getting bigger than I can handle!
I got a Petite Negra fig and a Chicago Hardy fig which stayed out in pots. I brought them in, the Petite Negra with four figs on it and the Chicago Hardy with green leaves, about two weeks before frost. They will stay in 50 degree room with southern sun. Should I strip their leaves and fruit? The garage and basement will be too cold, so I hope they will drop leaves and perk up in January as the comments suggest.
This began because I made a Fig Compote to die for. I thought growing figs would make the jam even better.
I have been consoled for my fig failures by a friend who has two fairly large fig trees in her garden. At times this summer they produced an abundance of figs, which she generously shared with us. From what I can tell the trees bounce back even after a very hard winter here in Baltimore.
Excellent information and advice! I have been over-wintering a potted fig tree in my garage here in zone 7 for the past two years, I let it go dormant and lose its leaves then I bring it in and water it minimally over the winter. In spring (April) it starts to sprout and I put in back outside. Last year I brought it in just before Thanksgiving but this year it is already brought in. So far…so good!
my father-in-law gave me a potted fig tree last spring. i re-potted it & it produced 2 figs in 2011, but they didn’t ripen. i kept the tree in my garage @ about 40 degrees over the winter. it started leafing out again in march 2012. this summer it produced 16 figs & i was able to harvest 2 of them. i consider that a success! it still has 14 more figs & is inside the garage now, but i don’t hold out much hope that the other fruit will ripen……
I too have a “Brown Turkey” and happen to live just a few miles from Lee Reich. I drag my fig into my basement which is luckily on ground level. There are a couple of windows but really not a lot of light. It gets a couple of sparse waterings during the winter. It usually starts to leaf out around April 1st. Depending on the forcast I either drag it to my tiny greenhouse or upstairs to my glassed in porch. After pruning it gives me 30 or more fairly small but sweet figs each year. I think this is its fifth year now. I keep looking to buy some other varieties…maybe next spring.
I used to store my potted figs uncovered in my garage (z6). I could wheel them in and out depending on the weather. I had beautiful figs, then in late 2004 I moved to a house with no garage. Now I have a Logee’s Chicago Hardy fig tree planted next to the house on the west facing side. I put plastic bags of dry leaves around the base and between the lower branches, which I remove/replace depending on the spring weather. This past winter/spring it started to leaf out early, then the cold weather de-leafed it and I thought it was a goner but I have had the best fig crop yet – until the yellow jackets found them. As Mary did, I grew up with a fig tree in So. Calif. which I miss!
Thanks, just what I was thinking about. I have a Chicago Hardy fig I bought this spring and planted in a big pot. Now what to do? I have a sun room that is cool and not dry all winter . I overwinter camellia and rosemary there and they love it, but they are not dormant (the camellia blooms in there in December). Do I pull the fig in there, put her in the basement, or wrap and stash her in a sheltered south corner on the outside of my house? (This has worked for other iffy plants) . I live near you.
Good luck. I’m on the no-plant list by the FGI (fig growers’ investigation) because I have killed so, so many fig plants come winter. Name your price in herbs and I’ll trade you as many bushels or five-gallon buckets you want for one homegrown fig. But I think your plan is far more thought out than mine ever were. When faced with who would lose life or limb carrying massive pots to the basement…I chose figs!
My two Brown Turkey fig trees have always been in large pots set in dollies so I can wheel them around as needed (not elegant but very practical). When I lived in zone 6 they overwintered in my greenhouse. Now, here in zone 5 with no greenhouse, they get wheeled into our unheated garage for the winter. I dump a gallon of water on them about once a month, but don’t do anything else. Never have any dieback or rodent damage. Each tree is over 8 feet tall now- only pruned to fit through the garage door. I have never root pruned or anything. This year we had a bumper crop – figs by the hundreds, instead of the usual dozens. Lesson? Figs are tougher than we think.
My mother’s hydrangeas are potted and she lives in the Great White North. She left them in their pots last season, surrounded the pots with bales of hay and dressed the plants with loose hay and burlap on top. All 3 survived.
I’m dying to try the ‘Chicago Hardy’. As I think I’ve said before, I LOVE fresh figs.
Fig trees are so easy to root. I live in zone 7b and have two in ground and three in pots. I just planted two (Celest and Lemon Fig) at my parents house in zone 8 yesterday. I encourage everyone to try to root some fig trees and try both in ground and protected and see what happens. Good Gardening.
Thanks, Angela, for the encouragement. I am excited about the possibility of another year of delicious fruit!
Luckily, here in Central North Carolin, they grow into large trees after many years. Loaded with fruit. The problem: Birds get most of them but leave enough to preserve or eat fresh!
So much good information!!!! I live in Omaha and actually have a big potted Brown Turkey that overwinters in our heated walkout basement. It stays pretty bare until the days start getting longer. Wish I was brave enough to plant it in the ground!!!!!
I have been accumulating figs by discovering some branches that had layered and struck. I figure that figs must be somewhat hardy because the three root layered cuttings that I took (one of them with very few roots) overwintered in the unheated glasshouse and are all thriving and leafing up for our spring. We don’t get frosts here much because we live alongside a river and are luckily on a north facing slope. I didn’t realise how much effort it is to keep some plants in colder climates! Good luck with your fig migration. Overwintering it bare rooted sounds like the way to go.
When I was a little girl we had a fig tree in our yard. We lived in Union City NJ. Every year my Italian uncle would come and wrap the entire tree in a wax coated heavy paper and mulch around the base of the tree. It always survived. That was in the 1940’s Have you ever heard of that? I moved years ago but I thought it was interesting I would remember this.
Margaret, I’m in your “neck of the woods” and have been bringing my Brown Turkeys into the house the past 2 years. With light and 50+ degree temperatures they never go completely dormant, just lose all their leaves. They suddenly perk up in February as soon as the days begin to lengthen and are completely leafed out by the time it’s warm enough to put them back outside. My next door neighbor planted a fig in his yard this summer so I’ll be watching to see if it survives.
I have a very large potted fig tree and live in zone 4 (well, probably more like 5 with global warming). I bring it into my den in the fall where it loses all its leaves. At Christmas I put lights on it and decorate it. It starts to sprout again in Spring and eventually it goes back outside. I’ve done this for years, but last year was the first year it didn’t produce figs. Is this because it needs root pruning or fertilizer? If anyone has advice I thank you…
I call my tree “Aunt Grace” because it was a shoot taken from her tree after she passed away. Since I’m in Zone 5A, I move the pot into an unheated basement and cover it with black fabric which blocks out light but allows for air circulation. The shoot is now 3 years old so I’m hoping for figs next season but who cares – Aunt Grace is still with me in my garden.