What I’ve read — correct me if I’m wrong — is that it will wake up in dormancy in my basement when the basement temperature gets warm enough? Even if I keep it in a dark spot?
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Yes, it depends how cold it is at which point youd need grow lights
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@Petey – Yes. With temps >50 F but poor light, you’ll get weak leggy growth. Not good.
The tree does not want or need light so long as it remains dormant. But continued dormancy requires cool temps. I don’t know the exact boundary but it seems to be ~40-45 F.
Got it. Before weatharization, my basement has historically been 40-45 for a few months. After weatherization, I hope it will be warmer (I’ll be moving my home office down there to the unfinished fieldstone, to make way for the nursery in our 2nd bedroom!), though I’ve read the heat pump we’re also installing can cool the basement somewhat, so it may wash out.
I’m going to keep on musing on options for the advice you gave me @jrd51 — basically the closest equivalent to an unheated garage as I can build in some corner of the property, and failing that, seeing if I can beg/borrow access to a nearby one, at least for now while I test.
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Makes sense. Keep me in the loop and I’ll give you ,my 2 cents. I think I understand what’ll work and what won’t.
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Is this insect damage or something else? I cut the fig off and was going to look at it but lost it on the way back to the house.
The fig tree is unsprayed and in a pot and has 3 other figs growing on it.
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its just blooming. sometimes they do this and arent inside out.
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Interesting. I thought the outside was damaged and the inside was hanging out- but you are saying it might have grown normally if I’d left it alone?
Also, do people thin figs? This is a young fig tree. If it was an apple tree I’d be removing fruit. It has one fig for every two leaves!
no it wouldnt grow normally. a fig is an inverted flower, but sometimes for whatever reason it just isnt inverted. but it ends up being dry and not good and like.. well a normal flower
People do not normally thin figs except toward the very end of the season when there are new figlets that will not ripen to conserve energy. or if its not yet rooted people will flick off figs to conserve energy because it wouldnt taste great
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Basement under a grow light worked for me last year too, Petey. Bit of a pain but the tree came out of it fine. If the pot is too big to move easily, some people just let the first frost knock it into dormancy then bring it in with no light at all, just somewhere that stays above freezing. Seems to work for dormant figs without the light overhead.
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I’ve done this too. Only issue is that lights may not cover the UV spectrum so trees will be susceptible to sunburn when moved outdoors. So when you transition them outside, give them a week in the shade.
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First figs this year. Desert King overwintered main. Boy these take a long time to fully ripen. Would have liked to let them hang longer, but I’m leaving for a few days and wanted to make sure they don’t go to waste.
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Do you hand caprify?
No. Apparently figlets from the end of the previous season will ripen like breba after overwintering. DK is particularly good at keeping figlets over the winter in the garage.
Last year made me want to get a caprifig and try hand-pollinating though. I had a lot of DK main crop figs attempting to ripen late in the summer and even getting semi edible.
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Interesting…. Id think that they’d drop since its san pedro. Never heard of this. Can I post your images on another forum for discussion
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Sure thing. If I remember, I’ll try to come back to this topic in Sept/Oct with photos of what my DK’s main crop figs look like at the end of the season. Last year, the earliest main crop figs got soft and waxy, and eventually developed a small amount of colour and sweetness inside. I mean… they weren’t good. But I was surprised they even got to that point.
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Fruiting time: Dottato and my father’s Unk Verdino. There’s a lot of old varieties with small figs that dries on the tree here in Veneto.
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I harvested some figs today! First real amount I have picked! (More than one!)
There was a sneaky third one I didn’t know about because it was hooked over the side of another pot! Ants were eating it. I stole the Precious!
I forgot to take a picture of where the sneak was hiding!
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Funny I found a fig today that was hidden by a nearby tomato plant. It was way overripe, oh well.
I’m looking forward to Martinenca Rimada to ripen in October. The figs are some of the best tasting I ever had but really late ripening.
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I’ve only just recently gotten into figs, but I don’t pay attention to most comments for variety selection, unless you post Drew. You aren’t far from me, just a bit farther south, so I take your posts more seriously as far as feasibility goes. I have selected several cultivars of other plants due to your sucsess or failure, so thanks for that. It’s been helpful.
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