For all you folks doing the fig shuffle – growing your figs in pots outdoors in temperate weather and bringing them indoors 24 hours a day for several weeks or months during winter weather – excluding greenhouses.
How many weeks or months do you overwinter your potted figs 24 hours/day indoors?
(I’ll ask about other fig shuffle data in future threads)
Mine start indoor around first of the Nov to first if the May. factory in each year’s temperature is different so 5.5~6.5. Months
5 months. I let them get frosted thoroughly then bring them in before killing temperatures come. They start growing around march/April and go outside for the day warmth.
I don’t shuffle them. I bring them in at the very latest day I can and put them in almost black darkness but there’s a large sliding glass door 25-30 feet away + a deck above that so they see some indirect light.
I have kept them inside as long as June when I was trying to kill them on purpose and they grew 3 feet easily. I couldn’t kill them though so I brought them outside and pruned back to hardwood where I found big buds to start them again.
Typically mine will always grow at least 14-18" and then it’s past mothers day. I don’t care for potted plant culture and got stuck with a fig bug is what happened.
They all fruit even with neglect and no shuffles.
I bring my potted figs inside in mid-to-late November, outside in mid-to-late April. So ~5 months. Exact timing depends on weather.
I don’'t do “the fig shuffle,” which is moving the potted trees outside in the morning to enjoy daytime sunlight and warmth and then back inside in the evening to avoid nighttime cold.