When we started thinking about expanding our fig planting, I decided to do some research on figs that can grow here in zone 6 (and even for those of you in zone 5).  I'll write a later post about frost protection; for now, I want to talk about selecting varieties that can handle the cold best.

Before you start thinking about frost hardy figs, though, you need to understand that young figs of any variety are more sensitive to cold winters than larger figs are.  Depending on who you talk to, figs less than two to five years old are likely to die back to the ground regardless of your efforts.  In addition, wet feet over the winter make a fig more likely to perish.  So, don't lose heart if you've planted a supposedly hardy variety and it spends its first few years dying back and producing little fruit --- the tree might grow out of it, especially if you provide better soil drainage.

Okay, so which figs are likely to achieve hardiness?  As I searched the internet, I discovered that fig aficionados talk about varieties you're unlikely to find in most nurseries.  In fact, you might have to join one of the fig forums and beg for cuttings if you want to try these heirlooms.

The good news is that fig lovers have also put a lot of effort into testing the cold hardiness of their varieties, in one case setting out over a hundred types of figs and letting the plants deal with a cold winter to see which few survived.  Sal (Gene strain), Marseilles vs Black, Blue Celeste, and Hardy Chicago were the winners in that experiment, which had a winter low of 0 F.  Another fig grower reports that Hardy Hartford is his most cold hardy variety, surviving -4 Fahrenheit with no winter protection.  During a winter that only got down to 10 F, the following varieties were added to the cold hardy list:

• Florea
• Gino
• English Brown Turkey (aka Eastern Brown Turkey)
  
• Sweet Georg
• Adriana
• Tiny Celeste
• UCD Celeste
• 143-36
• Paradiso White (Gene Hosey strain)
• Archipel
• Lindhurst Wht
• Jurupa

Yet other sources add the following figs to the cold hardy list:

• Brooklyn White
• Violetta
• Hanc Mathies English Brown Turkey
• LaRadek's English Brown Turkey
• Sal's EL
• Dark Portuguese
• Paradiso
• Alma
• LSU Gold
  

Another factor to consider in addition to sheer cold hardiness is the fruiting nature of the variety in question.  Figs produce two crops: the breba crop early in the season on last year's wood, and the main crop later on new growth.  We chose Chicago Hardy (aka Hardy Chicago) because it will produce a large main crop even if it freezes to the ground during the winter, but I'm starting to realize that a main crop that ripens in September is never going to produce as much fruit as a fig that can give us an especially early breba crop as well.  Some sources say that Celeste (aka Malta, Celestial, Conant, Sugar Fig, and Tennessee Mountain Fig) can produce a heavy crop as early as June, as long as prune sparingly and use frost protection.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post about protecting figs over cold winters.