US Fig Growing Maps

Growing Degree Days can be used to measure the approximate amount of heat that a location is getting over a period of time. Areas with more growing degree days generally have longer season lengths. The darker areas in the picture above represent areas with longer seasons, and the lighter areas are areas with shorter seasons. If you are located in an area with a shorter season, you should typically select early ripening fig varieties. Areas that have longer seasons have the option to select some of the late ripening varieties if desired. Growers can manipulate the season length by providing extra heat. This is usually done by growing the trees in pots and warming them up earlier in the season using a greenhouse or other enclosure. It is more difficult to manipulate the season length for in-ground trees.

The USDA Hardiness Zones can be used to determine how cold an area will get in the winter. Zone 7 is generally a borderline growing zone for in-groung figs in terms of cold damage occurring in the winter. Growers in zone 7 will sometimes experience a lot of dieback during a severe winter, but will usually only have a little bit of dieback during a typical winter. Zones 8+ will usually not experience much, if any, dieback, while growers in zones 6- will have more issues with winter damage and may want to consider growing in pots rather than growing in-ground. In order to reduce dieback, growers in marginal growing zones can wrap their in-ground trees to provide them some protection, or plant them in a warmer microclimate area such as a south-facing wall. Growers can prevent the problem of winter dieback by growing the fig trees in pots and moving them into a protected storage area such as a garage or other warm enclosure in the winter. Some growers claim that certain varieties are more cold-hardy than others, although most of the data to support cold-hardy varieties is anecdotal. Generally, growers in colder zones should focus on growing techniques to improve winter survival rather than selection of a specific variety.

Areas with a higher humidity (higher dewpoints) in the summer will need to also consider selecting a variety that has a closed eye. Many fig varieties are not well suited for humid weather because they have an open eye, which will enable pests to enter the fruit or spoilage to occur. Growers in humid areas should consider selecting varieties that have a closed eye. Growers in drier areas (lower dewpoints), such as the western United States, won't need to worry as much about this problem as much and can usually select varieties with any sized eye.

Most fig trees don't require pollination to produce ripe fruit, but some do. To learn more about the different categories of figs and how they respond to pollination, see Fig Basics