Thanks Suzi, Marten If I under stand this right we need to pot fig trees the same as I should pot my citrus trees. My boss and I are looking to sell these as in the ground trees. What we are looking into was 2 parts coarse sand, 1 part organic potting soil (not peat based) 2 parts Pine fines. Our business already has the organic potting soil and pine fines. Sand can come in a dump truck. My plan is to root cuttings and get them up to 6+ inches. Any one can buy a hardy chicago fig tree in a 5+ gallon pot. for $50 or more. We can provide an ORGANIC tree for under $10 that will go into the ground and put on 20+ feet of combined twig growth the first year as my original 6 inch $8 tree I started out with 3 years ago. We also want to direct people how to best grow their trees in pots if that is their plan. This is wheir your advice is most needed and It appears you have provide excellent choices. Thanks again Steve

If it gets hit with a hard freeze before the leaves drop it could be killed to the ground, brown bark aka lignification is important for hardiness but first the tree must be dormant. When full of sap it is very tender and the trunks are easily damaged. Being next to the wall it has good protection though. If you are feeling brave: tie it up, bend it over to the ground and cover once dormant, the trunks are flexible enough, be careful and go slow, you can bend it in stages. The leaves look more like Celeste, and also the lack of fruit!

Thanks a lot but no Bob , it and a few others did not wake up sadly including my 2 UcDavis black madeira's still in their containers in yard. The madeira's i treasure the most for its flavor on palate and still hold out hope as i cannot replace them being UcDavis no longer has the scion program along with one of them i finally was able to have it show FMV symptom free after constant propagating from mother tree i have had since 2008. It is shown above. Noire de Barbentane just started growing from soil line and Hardy Chicago started sprouting from its limbs. The 3 year old Madeira that looked fmv free of course only a test would tell for sure from last season.It was a lot of propagating to get to that point with Madeira and heart breaking. Still i look each day at it after cutting it back for a node to awaken even sprayed some old harpin on it had laying around. Jolly Tiger is totally lost i originally bought from now closed nursery that first brought it out , it was so expensive back then i had called and talked to the owner on phone about it but only grew it for the beauty of its leaves as the taste was not good to a me so no big a deal. Spring started ok but turned cold un like all other years growing the figs. Martin

Hi Lina in 2012 as an experiment i planted our 10 year old potted hardy chicago inground with the intent to leave unprotected in winter to see if near chicago z 5b how long for survival. Following season it died near to ground and grew back as a multi branch plant as the main sprouted multiple branches. Then Jan of 2014 was the cold winter everyone talked about here is picture of plant morning of when temps went to 19 below zero and plant un covered except for the snow. Following season it grew back slowly pictured below 5 months later date stamped June 8 2014 Late September it produced some ripe figs. In conclusion plant would start out low near ground and produce late in season later than the potted figs in yard but it survived non the less unprotected. For several of the plants last years i simply threw over a cheap blue tarp over it held down by large stones and it made the ripe figs come a bit earlier maybe several weeks if i recall. Then its demise came when i notice plant was not doing well and noticed it had a bad ant infestation while looking they were biting my ankles and i had to leave . I burned the area and then later tilled over area. I still have hardy chicago from the original bought many years ago growing in large container and a few others. Hope this gives you an idea of hardy chicago fig plant as mine never grew past the height of fence you see in picture which is 5 feet tall. It was ants that killed it not the winters. Best to You Martin