This is a topic on overwintering freshly rooted and potted figs. I know this is a fig thread and I know figs are highly controversial, so I ask please, no drama.
I have freshly rooted fig starts in coffee can pots. I would like to overwinter them, but i’m not exactly sure i know how. My thought is to put them in a box indoors where the temperature will remain in the 60 or so overwinter. I will water them perhaps once a month or so with room temperature water. The rest of the time the box will be closed to restrict light.
As spring approaches and the days get longer, i’ll take them out of the box so they get artificial light and hopefully break bud. Then I’ll harden them off, so the dwarfs can be potted in larger pots and the regular sized one can be planted in the ground. I sucessfully harden off peppers and tomates plants, grown from seeds overwinter. I want to believe figs are a lot like tomatoes and peppers as far as hardening off goes.
Do I have a good plan or is there something i’m missing?
Here are my rooted fig starts, sitting on the warmest place on the farm. Ontop of brick lined inground water storage cistern, about 2500 gallons. The plywood has never frozen, i guess because of the thermal mass of the water right below it. As you can tell… due to decreased sunlight and cool temperatures, leaf drop and dormancy is coming up quickly.
Hi, I am not a fig expert but I do grow them. Figs, unlike tomatoes and peppers are perennial. They also have woody stems and grow to be large trees. If you keep your ‘starts’ in the house, they will most likely not lose their leaves as do most figs that live outdoors. Keep them in a sunny window and do not over water them. Will Brown Turkey not live outdoors for you?
He says where you store them … ideally the temp range would be above 15 and below 50.
That is for them to remain dormant for the duration of the winter storage.
If your temp is above 50 they may break dormancy a month or two before your last frost date. Not good.
I’m going to winter about 15 fig trees in my basement this year. Once leaves drop I plan to move them indoors and place them near the garage door in my basement. Winter temperatures stay cold enough to keep them dormant. It is important the roots do not freeze. It is important to stay below 55 degrees, otherwise they will break dormancy. Water only when they are very dry… which won’t be often. Dormant figs have very low water requirements.
I think it’s really just about how you can meet the following conditions:
(A) They’re reasonably well-lignified and dormant (some of yours look pretty tender so you may need to be gentler with those).
(B) Air temperature roughly between 35 and 50 degrees, with limited times where it dips below freezing or much above 50.
(C) Dark most of the time (avoid sunlight, but basic indoor lighting a couple hours a day isn’t an issue).
(D) Very limited moisture – not bone dry but they don’t need much water and this helps them stay asleep.
For reference, I overwintered my figs in my garage last winter – they’re all hardy cultivars so I’d be a bit more delicate with less hardy cultivars. They were well-lignified in 5-gallon pots, and I did expose them to outdoor temps in the mid-20s before putting them in my garage in mid-November. I woke them up to shuffle them a few weeks before my typical last frost date and they were all really healthy.
If it never freezes and stays below 50, then leave them where they are. Inside at 60 is going to mean a lot more work. They’ll be growing in a few months.
So your figs dont go dormant? I have that option available. Many years ago i built seedling shelves with ajustable height florescent tube lighting. That’s what I use to sprout and grow out vegatable seedlings for the garden every year.
I overwinter my figs indoor every year. Mature figs are in garage, and younger figs are in basement which stays around mid 40. My figs go dormant about this time of the year. Once the leaves drop, I start to move them indoor. Every little care is needed over the winter, just occasionally give them a little bit water once or twice.
I overwinter my figs in the garage. if they are in your house I think 60 degrees they will be too warm if you want them to be dormant. I would bring them outside so the leaves fall off and the wood lignifies and they become dormant and then you can move them to a cool, dark, sheltered location like a garage, shed, or unconditioned basement. when dormant you can water them every month or so.
I prefer to root my figs in the late winter/early spring so they have a longer period of time to develop good growth all summer long before winter storage. because yours are recently rooted you may be better off trying to keep them active and growing in a warm space all winter long.
Either way, good luck. growing figs is a lot of fun!
I’ve been storing up to 100 potted figs for 12 years. I never lost a tree. Here’re my recommendations:
Let the trees go dormant by reducing (not eliminating) water and exposing them to temperatures ~40 F for a couple weeks. I usually just leave mine outdoors until approximately Thanksgiving, sometimes later. And don’t panic about cold spells. Exposure to temps 20-30 F will not damage an established tree that has experienced weeks at 30-40 F. A newly rooted tree can be more tender, so move them indoors if sub-freezing temps are expected. Also move trees indoors if they have not gone dormant – leaves dropped and wood lignified.
Store the trees in a location that will maintain temps 20 F to 50 F. A dormant established fig will easily survive 20 F and may also survive as low as 10 F. But to be safe use 20 F as a minimum for established trees and 30 F as a minimum for newly rooted trees. A dormant fig will begin to emerge from dormancy over 50 F. That’s not good. A growing fig is susceptible to frost.
An unheated garage is a good choice. A shed can work provided that the walls go to the ground (no crawlspace). The ground will warm the inside of the shed provided that outside air cannot just sweep the earth away. I have a detached garage that stays 20 F or higher even when outside temps are ~0 F, solely due to the heat radiating from the floor.
DO NOT try to keep the tree growing. Do not bother exposing the trees to light. Incidental sunlight through garage windows is OK. But the dormant trees do not need or benefit from light.
Water the pots only enough to keep the planting medium slightly damp. The dormant tree loses no water through it (nonexistent) leaves. The only real loss is evaporation directly from the soil. A very modest watering once a month will be more than sufficient.
Take the pots out of storage when outside temps promise to remain above freezing. Most likely, you storage site will be warm enough in April to initiate growth. The growing trees are vulnerable. Try not to take a pot stored at 50-60 F in you garage in April and then expose it to 25-30 F outside.
I let my 30-40 potted figs stay outside until they get hit by a few good freezes in the mid-20s. Then I cut off all the leaves and trim for height if they won’t fit on the shelf…
I keep them figs in an unheated detached garage that has basic 2x4 and plywood wooden shelves that I cut rigid insulation boards to fit the spaces and on top. I keep a heater on a wifi Inkbird thermostat plug that turns on if they go below 28 F. I water sparingly every 6 weeks.
I remove in early April when I see them breaking buds and put into a small greenhouse I have that uses a similar heating system to keep them above 40 F at night.
I have two inkbirds, not wifi but an awesome product. I used them to lager beer when I homebrewed, I dont drink any more so they are packed away with my home brew gear. Do you probe for ambient air temp or soil, I’m guessing air.
I have 8x8x20 tack room in the barn I can use. Cement floor covered in straw, plywood walls and ceiling. I could add a milkhouse heater and inkbird to ensure I keep the room above 30F. I’ve brooded chickens in there overwinter with milk house heater and had no issues with frozen waterer. If I temporarily divided it off with a tarp or plastic it would even be easier to keep above 30F. My only real consern using the tack room is mice, it is a barn after all. But I think I could cage the figs, pot and all with hardware cloth, that should work.
I put them in there under burlap to shade them more and water less. they drop leaves mostly once bitter winter comes as the gh gets down to frost that time.
I bring them out and shuffle to harden them once the days are warm above 55F, to get used to the sun, back in at night. after a few weeks they can stay out all the time.
That should work. You’d only need >30 F for young tender plants, if then. Next year those trees would tolerate 20 F or lower. Yes, protect against mice.
