Scratch the bark with your thumb nail.
Brown is bad-news; green is good-news.
Even if it is (bad) brown; most likely
your figs will sprout new shoots from
the basal root stump ... good luck.

howlin4, fig is a lot hardy than we think, I mean the Hardy Chicago fig. My current one was completely dead in the spring back few years ago...no new shoots came out the whole summer. Branches are all dead. I cut all the braches off to the soil level. By the time I was going to dump it out and re-use the pot next spring, I saw new shoots started to grow from the soil level. So it might take a while for the root to gather energy and re-grow the leaves again. Don't give it up yet.

Thanks for the replies. I scratched the bark and it's greenish. I'll keep my fingers crossed. As for the Hardy Chicago, my husband gave me one a about a month ago and it's in the kitchen. Twice the size of when I first got it. I hope the other two are OK.

Again, thanks!

Hi to everyone, I am new here at GardenWeb and I wonder what the other fig growers do to maximize fig harvest. My fig tree never get a chance to get much of its fruits to ripen due to our short season. My fig is a 3 yrs. old Chicago Hardy and it is planted on the ground. Would someone have an idea how I can get more ripe fig from my tree? Thank you.