Congratulations. I used to live in Methuen, MA and I grew a Hardy Chicago in a container there for a couple of years. It should do very well for you. It is a good choice for a first fig. The quality of the fruit is quite good. There are a couple of topics that you should do research on to be successful. Try to find out more about pinching and winter care. In general fig trees need to be grown outdoors during the growing season and given as much direct sunlight as possible. During the winter they go dormant and need to be stored in a dark, cool location.

Joe

Thanks for the info. I should have the tree tomorrow and ready to start growing. For some reason the last few days have been 80 degrees +.

Do you happen to have any pictures online or on your computer to share of your fig tree?

Also I wanted to ask as I'm guessing this is not a dwarf tree, by putting it in a large pot will I be able to control the size of the tree or will I just have to trim it from time to time?

I understand some trees only grow up to a certain size depending on the size of their pot.

Either way if it grows and makes it through the winter I may plant it in my back yard next season.

Tommy,

I grew that tree in a container from 2007 until 2009. In the spring of 2009 I planted it in the ground. In 2010 I moved to Arizona, but I dug up a sucker from my Hardy Chicago before I moved and now it's growing in my yard here in Arizona.

Here's a picture of the tree growing in the ground in Methuen before I moved.

Here's a picture of it when it was dormant in my garage that last winter before I planted it.

It makes a very good quality fruit, but you'll have to pinch it to get the fruit to ripen in time in your climate.

It will be much happier in the ground than in a container, but you'll have to give it protection in the winter time. This is what I did.

The first few years it's best to keep it in a container until it gets bigger and stronger.

Good luck!

Joe

Wow!
Iam impressed!
I hope mine gets that big one day.
Cant wait to get my baby tree tomorrow.

Awesome pics!

Tommyg

Too bad you're not up here anymore. I would have loved to see your plant and how you got it to grow wide like that.

I just put my tiny tree in a larger pot hoping it might do better and allow for the roots to spread more.

Tommy that tree was originally a sucker that I dug up from my grandmother's Hardy Chicago tree. It was one straight shoot with no side branches. I got it to grow wide by pruning it during the first winter dormancy. I left 6 or 8 inches of wood above soil line. The next spring the plant grew out branches from the stump. I'm not sure if I would do that again. It helped the long term shape of the tree but it did set it back a bit in size.

Joe

Great info.
I have had my hardy chicago tiny tree for four days and it hasnt grown at all. Is that normal when repotting and getting used to the new environment?
The leaves look very healthy and it is getting good sun.

"Hasn't grown at all in four days". You don't want it growing top this time of year. Hopefully the roots are getting established. Next spring is the time for top growth. With proper conditions it will grow a lot next year.

That is a great point.
of course i'd like to see it grow as it's my first plant..but you're right.
If its going to survive the winter the roots need to grow some more.

I also see that I might have been fertilizing too much on these and my banana plants so i'm just going to use minimal water as its getting cold.

Thanks

Ok so I decided to add some more perlite to the soil to help with drainage and to help the roots breathe. I also moved the plant into a slightly larger pot as I hear good things about putting them in larger pots.
I found that the soil was very damp, so this was probably for the best.
With the added perlite I think the plant should do better.

joe - wht do you hve inside the plastic??

Herbue43.
That looks like home insulation rolls. Pretty good idea.

Yeah it was insulation. But I had to tweak that setup to make it work. I started noticing a lot of condensation building up inside of the plastic. I didn't want mold to develop and rot the tree. So I cut a large hole in the top of the plastic bag and then covered the whole thing with a really big bucket. That way it could breath and everything would stay dry.

Joe

Here is my original post on how I winterized that tree.

Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: Original Post

When i was a kid by grandfather had fig trees in the back yard in Brooklyn NY and i remember him covering the tree with tar paper and placing a bucket on top. i know we were just ki9ds but we were able o climb the tree it was so big.

joe - thaks for your e-mail about postingpictures. i posted them on "figs not maturing" on this forum but i cold only get one picture at a time. how did you post three at once??

thanks

frank

Hi Frank,

You should be able to post as many pictures as you want in a row. Just paste the html code for one photo then hit enter a couple of time to go down a line or two and post the next html code, etc.

That should work.

Joe

thanks. i will give it a try

lets try it again
{{gwi:824148}}

{{gwi:824149}}

{{gwi:825938}}

I was given this tree last spring when it was 6 inches tall with no leaves. i put it into a 5 gallon containe in june anmd set it out on my deck> I got a few figs on it but they never got vvery big and they stayed green. i was looking for urple fruit. I gooled it nd thought that the type i had was called Conadria and that they stay green all the time.

After the leavesfell off in Sept i put it into my unheated garage and covered it with a black plastic bag. i watered it once a month. In june, i put it outside in a 10 gallon container and you can see the results. notice the figs turned purple and i have taken off at least a dozen large purple sweet figs and i have a few more that are almost there.

the leaves are still on the tree so what do i do now. do i remove the leaves or leave it out until they fall off.

next year i will be moving to Rutland MA whee i will put it into the gtround.

asyou can see i finally got all three pictures on one post but it wasn't easy. i had to have a split screen so i could copy and paste one picture at a time and then go to this website to post it and then go back and forth until i had all three posted.

just glad i got it done.

r