I believe 62F is a bit higher to keep the plants in dormancy after the natural period of the plant dormancy is over. 62F is high enough to start the growth even in the dark (with whitish leaves).
Many plants tend to break dormancy above 12C (about 54F) after natural period of dormancy is completed.

Many plants break dormancy at temperatures as low as 40-45F. Figs are a warm weather crop but even for them 62 is way too warm unless you have strong grow lights and want early growth. Only way to hold most fruits fully dormant is to stay near 32F.

Thank you Fruitnut and Ottawan...

Appreciate that..What;'s weird is that yesterday I talked to a guy who stores fig trees in his basement all winter and he says his stay dormant although his temps down there are in the 60's...he does this every year.I was amazed..So I took one of my many and decided to give it a try..It's in the darkest area of the basement and we shall see.

The rest of over 20 of them will be put into my unheated spare sunny room that I really wanted to keep heated this year for my pleasure viewing of my yard..But I will as your good advice keep them in there cold since it stays in the 30's to 40's in there until about March..

Thanks again

MIke

Mike
There are variable you have to watch.
Depending on location and start of spring time when the plants can be brought outside is one criteria.
Plants will stay dormant for many weeks at 70F until the natural dormancy period is over and then start waking up. For some area it may be OK if the outside temperatures are frost free such as area where frost free time begings in late February. However there are areas where frost free time begins after mid-May and they need to maintain cooler temperatures to maintain dormancy until frost free time in spring.

Ottawan, that makes ALOT os sense. Thank you.

My friend lives a zone higher than I, in southern Canada, and he can start putting his out in early April because his yard is very warm in full sun against his house, so he can get away with it once they start to wake up..He says up until then they might and try to push a couple of little white fruits and a small leaf or too until then.

I won't be able to stick mine outside until the end of March and I am afraid they will wake up way before then. Thanks again

I have many friends growing them in Cailfornia and Florida, southern states where there temps never get as cold as the 40's except for a rare occasion and yet their trees still go dormant for a few weeks at warmer temps.

MIke

This post was edited by meyermike_1micha on Sun, Nov 23, 14 at 21:59

This forum is just strange..lol

I think the amount of those involved helping is very slim, never saw anything like it. I would off figured more would be concerned about dormancy or had experiences...Oh well, thanks to the two that came through here. I appreciate it..

Mike.

Mike
There may be good reasons for not joining the discussion (yet).
Those in the South, Southwest and West where tree can survive in the ground may not have that much interest in details of dormancy.
Those in the North and northeast who could be interested in it may be busy in chores such as winter protection, pruning, cuttings disposal and then the cuttings rooting routine.
They may add later.

Mike,
Many people, like myself, can't really comment on your question. I put my trees in my attached garage once they have dropped all or the majority of their leaves. I have a sun room that I can use as an intermediate to ripen a few more figs and let some trees get a couple more weeks to a month or so extra energy stores to the roots. But other than that, when they go to the garage they aren't waking until late March.

I do have a question for you though, what is the temperature of the unheated sunny room? If it is the same as the darkish basement, then I would go with the basement until they start to wake. Another thing to consider with basement is the temperature of the concrete slab, and this is only if the floor is unfinished concrete. Point is, if your pots are setting directly on the floor they could be a bit cooler than the air. you could put a temperature probe in the soil of your tree in the basement and see what that reads. I think the root zone temperature is very important in keeping dormancy. Another thing you could possibly do in an unfinished basement/basement room is put your trees in a corner and use some tarp or plastic sheeting from wall to wall on each side of the corner to try to somewhat corral cooler air from the walls and contain it among the trees. Just a thought.

Cis..What a great idea about the plastic...To keep the heat from the basement entering it too..

The sunny unheated room is in the 40's to the high 30's this time of the year until the sun starts to heat it up in the spring...It is the sunniest room of the house and naturally warms up as the sun gets stronger.
The floor of it is much colder..I am thinking they will naturally come awake with all that sunlight and as the temps rise giving them a earlier start...I might want this since I never seem to have time for my fruit to ripen.

The temps in the sunny spare unheated room are much COLDER than that of the basement...I decided to cut that room off from the rest of the house and keep it cold. It will save on the heat too.

I do have one tree in the basement and I am seeing what happens...I didn't think it was going to be this hard to decide..lol

Thanks again to everyone

Mike