thanks for the tip. i will do this. right now its dark out but i will check it out.i hope they are still alive espeacilly my big one which is from greece.it gives the best tasting figs in my opinion.

i scratched the bark of my tree starting from the top and going downwards and found no green. the only green i see is a small branch coming out of the base of my tree(bottom).
does this mean my hole tree is dead eccept for that one small branch. i am very upset.
is there anything i can do?

sorry one more question.
if there is no green under the bark does that mean its dead for sure?should i wait before cutting and if i have to cut how do i do this.

It isn't uncommon for a northern fig to die to ground level, although the sequence of events for yours seems strange. If the roots system is intact, it can grow quickly from even a small shoot. I don't cut dead wood off a fig. I just keave it there and eventually snap it off.

Here we are 12 years later - My fig tree was prolific for 7 years - amazing - this year looked good - I covered it with bird netting when I saw the first buds coming out - great leaves - then the leaves fell off the buds fell off and the tree looks dead. I cut it back so the longest branch was only my height and hopefully it will come alive - the branches and stems are brittle and have no green - but figs are amazing -= aren't they? Any least I'm hoping. what do you think - should I bury it?

Susan,

What happened to it this year Susan? Did it get hit with severe cold? What is your zone or what part of the country or what state do you live in to be able to grow in the ground.

I had a question, it’s helpful to read the threads above. My fig was planted this winter. It is about 5 feet tall. It immediately grew leaves all over the tree this spring and they suddenly, turned yellow and all started to fall off. I did research and found it is most likely rust. I took away all the leaves and then took away a large amount of dirt from the tree as it is clay soil and holding a lot of moisture. I put a bunch of proper dirt in place of the clay dirt. A couple questions!! Will it regrow leaves and how long should it take? I will try to see if the tree has green under the surface (seen as suggestion above), but I’m not sure what to do for it and what to expect.

There isn't much you can do for it other than keeping it from drying out and just waiting and see if it revives.

Jewel-

That doesn't sound like fig tree rust to me. It sounds like it didn't get enough water. You could prune a few branch ends by a couple of inches to see if they are alive (green ring) or dead (no green). Other than that, keep watering it and see if it comes back. If it has a decent root structure, it can shoot from the base even if all of the branches have died. Here is a fig where all the branches died because rodents ate the bark and I cut all the branches back to the ground, that is now recovering:

Hey guys this is Tony in Michigan I have Chi hardy fig tree I we t out of town ,had so.sone to do the watering. When i got back i found that my fig tree look like it was dead look like to much water all leaves were wilted. The soil still looks wet is .y tree dead

Anthony, sorry to be slow replying. Hopefully you have held the watering to let the soil dry out to a proper level of moisture. Just be patient, hopefully the roots didn't rot, and the tree will recover.