The forecast predicted 17 degrees in my area.....but fortunately some clouds drifted in overnight from Texas keeping it a bit warmer than expected. I saw 22 degrees on my thermometer.

Last year I lost my Vernino fig tree. I rooted another cutting and planted the Start in the ground ASAP after I had it harden-off.It only grew to about 14 inches. In preparation for this cold snap. I neatly stacked bricks around it and covered it with a 5 gallon plastic bucket. I "believe" that the bricks thermal mass may provide just enough protection during these short duration low temperatures to keep it from freezing. I will remove the bricks once the cold snap moves through. If it doesn't die this winter, I intend to fertilize rather heavily in the spring and hope to see some nice growth and possibly some figs........time will tell.

Dan

Although that does not sound cold to me as its 4 out here right now as i type this not sure what the low was last night , that sure sounds downright cold for your both areas !January month of me getting a season older is always our coldest month. Dan sounds likeyou did the right thing in protecting your fig plant with the stone and covering the top it keeps the damaging winds off it,only thing going against it is age as the wood is probably not real thick yetlike a mature plants wood to hold more antifreeze for protection (lack of better term) let us know how it does come spring.In mean time you folks try to keep warm and think days now are slowly getting longer sunlight and soon all of us will be posting lovely fig pictures once again.
Best Health
Martin

Martin,

I know that 22 degrees is not cold by your standards. However, it is pretty cold for us here in zone 9. At least your winter temperatures stays cold and doesn't vary quite as much as ours. Here our winter time temperatures can vary from cold to hot.....and can go thru several such warm/cool cycles during the winter. Because of this temperature cycling, our in-ground trees cannot go as deeply dormant as yours. Our "fluctuating" winter temperatures is really tough on some fruit trees.

I know that I am going against all conventional wisdom of when to plant fig trees in the ground. But I live in zone 9 where the temperatures do not stay below freezing for very long.....at least in most years. There is a BIG BIG advantage to getting fig Starts into the ground ASAP. They will produce figs at least a year earlier than if I waited to plant the containerized tree the following season as is the conventional practice. Since I do my own rooting, I can choose the optimum time to root my sticks for in ground planting. Also, I already know that my Starts will not have RKN.....so I take advantage of all of these special conditions. The reason why I have adapted this approach to planting a hardened-off Start right away in the ground is because the new tree should develop a very good,spreading root system much faster. Starts planted in the ground ASAP do not have enough time for the roots to encircle the pot or form a root ball like they would if left in the pot/container until the following year.

I planted quite a few other fig Starts ASAP in early Spring and some have grown extremely well through the Summer. Those young trees developed sufficiently large enough where I did not feel the need to provide any winter protection for them. I'll find out for sure in the Spring if my hunch was right.

We only get a couple of freezes per year in my area so I want to take advantage of that fact. It is no trouble at all for me to get out the bricks and 5 gallons buckets when we do have a freeze in the forecast. I would not recommend this approach to in-ground planting in lower climate zones.....however, I'm highly confident that this strategy will work quite well for zones 9 and 10.....I'll know for sure next spring. I am very pleased with the results that I have seen thus far.

Dan

At 11:00 p.m. it was 24 degrees in my backyard. We were only supposed to go to 27 tonight. This is not Florida weather. I hope my figs in the shed don't get so cold that they don't survive.

Does anyone have any idea how much warmer a shed will stay than the surrounding air? It is on a concrete slab with a wood frame and wood siding but no insulation.

Lisa
Lakeland FL

Your shed (like mine) is not likely to stay below freezing for very long in our typical zone 9 cold snaps. It will keep frost from forming on your trees and out of any drying winds.......your trees should do just fine.

Dan

Hi Dan,
read your post.Oh yes i would defintely do the same and put them inground in that type of zone asap.Nothing like growing a fig plant inground i remember my grandmothers inground in chicago and how it grew each year after they raised it from being buried.What a pain at least for me to root prune just the 4 pots last season and now have 15 total that will need my attention in seasons to come but thats only temporary as i will not stay in illinois one day down the road and hopefully be in a nice climate to put some inground and just maybe have a few in pots only to admire up close near a porch setting.

I plan on planting my young figs in-ground this coming spring like Ottawan does, leave them in their pots and bury the pots
in the soil, and then if they survive the critters taking them up in the winter and protecting them one last time (can also see if they have RKN)
That is my plan, it gets a lot colder here that Dan & Gene
gets so I am not going to take the chance that Dan can safely take.
Cecil

Cecil, do you think you lost any trees you have in the ground? Will be interesting to know how you came out with your trees. I remember you saying you do not cover them.
I forgot to cover the little tree I sent you the cutting of, it was at my daughters. We will see how cold hearty it is. Hope everyones trees come out of this cold Ok.
J.A.

J.A.

The in-ground trees were not covered during this cold snap.

It will be interesting to see if they coped with the 12*F
weather we have had....I don't know yet if they made it or not, Time will tell.

Cecil

All of my trees spent the last 3 nights in an unheated shed which I think protected them from the harsh cold although they probably got below freezing for a little while. They are all yearlings except one LSU Gold that I just bought a few week ago and it's probably 2 since its in a 3 gal. pot. My 2 LSU Gold (not) are in the ground and haven't suffered damage before except for late frost. I also have 2 starts from these trees that I left outside in pots to see what happens to them. Good luck everyone.

"gene"

With all the people in our area dripping water from their faucets to keep the pipes from freezing solid, this has caused us to have very low water pressure.....hope no one has a fire. There was a water plant in the area that shut down last night because of this freeze leaving many without any water. Tonight it is expected to be the coldest night of this cold snap.....I am expecting to see around 17 degrees tomorrow morning. The schools will be closed due to this water situation. The infra structure in South Louisiana is just not designed to handle these cold temperatures for very long. Many homes in the area are built off the ground on blocks or pilings with water pipes that exposed to the cold air.

At least this cold spell will give me some useful information about the hardiness of some of my fig trees.

Dan