Figs without dormancy

11 years ago

I have 5 little trees developed by air-layering and planted in 5 gallons pots. One month ago I took the poor little babies into my basement where the temp is around 60-65. A week ago I find them shooting new growth. I got excited and gave them sips of water laced with foliage pro fertilizer I use for my Citrus trees, also I will give them miracle grow later. Today I found green leaves over the little trees. I hanged on them 3 of 60 watt lamps producing no heat, I leave the lamps on all day. I guess I am giving my little trees 3-4 months advantage. If they develop fruit I will remove most of it. An Egyptian friend of mine told me figs in Egypt never go dormant they drop their leaves but they grow new ones shortly. The coldest temp there is 65.

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Comments (4)

fignewbies
11 years ago
Hi,

I took a 10" pen thin, little sucker from my mother fig tree as I worried that the mother tree may not
make it through the winter. I live in Ontario, Canada.
The mother tree is in the garden (covered).
The little sucker with some tiny roots was planted
in late September indoor and went dormant for 2 months.
I gave it some water now and then to keep it alive.
Then I gave some rinsed rice water ( water to wash
the uncooked rice), the little sucker woke up!
Now this little twig has 2 tiny leaves and I can
see another leave is wrapped in the bud but will be
coming out soon.
I don't know if it was the rinsed rice water that
gave it the nutrients it needed or the little tree decided
it was time to wake up and send out leaves!
centurion_
11 years ago
My last winter at Lake Havasu Arizona, it did not freeze. Fig trees did not go dormant, and they produced fruit the following summer. I have two indoors in pots right now near a south facing window that were rooted several months ago. They make beautiful house plants, but will be planted in ground in April.
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budbackeast
11 years ago
Please consider that figs thrive in tropical regions, so dormancy is out of the question. It's only in colder zones that the trees sleep. Dormancy does not greatly affect quantity or quality of fruit production as I understand it. But I do note that figs in cooler places may be sweeter, similarly to strawberries and other fruit.

I live in Florida, and half the time, they remain leafy all winter, with first fruit in April, last fruit in December. The only other factor as I see it is that there is so little actual sunlight up north that a tree kept awake indoors might need artificial grow-lights. Anybody out there doing this?
foolishpleasure
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes sure grow-light is a must. I have several grow lights hanging above the trees. I have three trees out of the five fully green all over. The other two I can see numerous buds swelled. These five trees are young and as a rule of thump I allow only 3 fruits per each foot of tree heights. The tricky thing is to be patient when introducing them to outside environment usually it takes from 10 to 15 days and few hours every day. The first few days to go only shaded area then introduce them to the sun slowly. Same way as I do with vegetable seedlings grown inside during winter before they go in the sun full blast.