Could the tree have been frozen this winter? Was it more cold than usual in your location?

I would expect a tree that large to survive even a bad freeze, at least the roots and maybe the largest trunks. Prune out all the dead wood, see what happens as it warms up.

I was a pretty cold winter....with temperatures around 18-25 for a couple of days however 3 years before that it seemed even colder and it had no problem. I am with you, for a tree this size and for how long it has been there its hard to believe cold killed it. This year has seen large swings of temperature from cold to warm.
I will post a picture later today but from looking on the internet my fig tree looks to be a: Texas Everbearing "brown turkey" variety.

I have a large Celeste that was here when we bought the house. It froze 3 years ago,no fruit. It has had large damaged areas on big limbs for years. It still bore fruit. Last week we had to cut a large dead limb to the ground. And prune a few branches. I got several cuttings to put in pots and 2 nice size rooted limbs dug up. There are 2 other large branches I plan to cut down, after fruiting.

The winter weather has been horrible, and the cracks may very well be from the freezing-thawing cycles, but then again, maybe not since the tree is growing in the same location without problems for years. But it does sound as if the tree suffered damages from the cold.

Your bigger concern at this point is what to do about it. If the tree is not dead, do nothing....yet. Wait for the tree to break dormancy, wait for the tree to send out new buds on the older wood, THEN cut out all the dead, weakened, and split branches. Fig trees can grow a new canopy in a few seasons. Establish a basic design of main branches, and go from there. If some essential, still living branches have splits, try closing the splits with stainless steel screws, or, use stainless-steel, threaded rod with some small washers and nuts on each end. Drill right through the limb, insert the thread rod section, then add a washer and nut on each end, and tighten enough to close the crack(s).

I hope your story has a happy ending. Good luck.

Frank

It Is frost Damage.
Frank advice is right on.
I have some cracks in my trees this year,too,and had in the past.
Not a problem tree will grow back in one year if a healthy type.

I'm in southern California, chaparral area, 2K feet and just realized I have the exact same issue with my fig tree: huge splits, cracks in the wood, tree appears dead. It's not frost: a nearby tomato plant is still going after weathering (no pun intended) the winter, which was bizarrely warm. (My jacaranda, which normally blooms in June, was dropping flowers in January!)

It looks like the fig barely started to put out new growth and then crashed: the little buds are dry and crumble away.

Could the incredibly erratic weather this winter be the culprit? Seems like there was an intense cold spell (but generally above freezing) in Fall, followed by long stretches of warm--like my jacaranda, lots of plants were confused.

I have several silver dollar eucalyptus that also appear to be dead or dying; I'm guessing it's longhorn beetle, but maybe the weird weather was the first step in making them vulnerable?

We have a fig tree over 50 years old it was cut down to a stump 12 years ago by the contractors building a new house after the 2014 freeze I noticed in July the fig tree is now 1/2 dead.

My Mom said it will start growing agan next year.

We live in a town near Atlanta GA

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