The revised fig book is now on Kickstarter The special hardcover edition of
Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t and registration for the October 15 and 22 Fig Camp are available now. A lower-priced softcover will follow this fall.
See the book and Fig Camp options.---
Will Pananes grows large fig trees in the ground in south-central Pennsylvania—USDA Zone 6b, where unprotected fig trees can freeze back to the ground.
His solution is a homemade heat tube: an incandescent light bulb enclosed in metal pipe and placed inside the tree’s winter wrapping. The small amount of supplemental heat protects the trunk and branches during the coldest weather, giving the tree a head start the following spring and enough growing season to ripen a substantial crop.
In this conversation, Will talks about:
- Why he decided to grow figs in the ground
- How his heat-tube idea developed
- The burnt burlap that led him to enclose the bulb in metal
- Pruning and gathering the branches before wrapping
- Protecting trees of different sizes
- Monitoring the bulb during the winter
- The advantages of preserving mature wood in a cold climate
This interview originally aired on The Food Garden Life Show in 2020. Will and I have corresponded for many years, and pictures of his trees and winter-protection system appear in the updoming revised edition of my book, Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t: Growing Figs in Cold Climates and Pots.
What is Fig Culture: Helping You Grow a Fig Tree in a Cold Climate?
Want to grow figs but live somewhere with cold winters? Our passion is growing figs in cold climates.
We help cold-climate fig lovers grow a fig tree in a pot, grow figs in the ground, and, most importantly, conquer winter.
There are many ways of growing figs in cold climates. Find out how you can successfully grow figs in your garden. Learn about fig-tree care. And get creative ideas for winter protection.
Host Steven Biggs is a cold-climate fig expert, horticulturist, and the author of the award-winning book Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t, the first book specifically about cold-climate fig culture. As a horticultural journalist, he interviews other fig experts, and writes about cold-climate fig culture for magazines and for his own blog at FoodGardenLife.com. His fig fetish began in 1993, when he spent a summer at the nursery with the UK National Collection of figs. He hasn’t looked back.