sandy0225

do figs HAVE TO go dormant to produce fruits? like chill hours like blueberries and other fruits or can they produce anyway?
I have chicago hardy, and brown turkey--they're in the greenhouse at 45 minimum temps at night. up to 80 of a day if the sun is out.
The brown turkey is starting to yellow on the leaves which I imagine is going dormant, but the chicago hardies aren't yellow at all and one still has a few figs on it that are slowly growing.
if I do need to chill them, would my heated but not lighted garage work. It's heated to 35 degrees to keep chemicals from freezing in there.
Thanks for your help!
Sandy

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Bob3

To give a general answer, yes, figs need to be chilled in order to produce dependably.
I'm not familiar with the Chicago Hardies but again, generally speaking, figs rarely need more than 2 weeks of "chilling" to keep them happy, so you can get away with sticking them in your garage for a couple weeks & then return to the greenhouse, where they'll probably start growing again.
Don't let actively growing trees get below 30°f; fully dormant (no leaves on 'em) can handle temps down 12°.

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Richard

Compute chill hours as follows: Between November 1st and January 1st, the number of hours below 45F MINUS the number of hours above 65F.

Approximate minimum chill hours for Brown Turkey: 100.
Approximate minimum chill hours for Chicago: 150.
I'm sure they're fine in the present location.

The Chicago does drop its foliage later than Brown Turkey. Over-wintered figs on the plant end up tasting like cardboard, so I'd remove them now.

Since you are over-wintering in a greenhouse, I would prune your figs like we do in southern California: Figs for San Diego Climates

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sandy0225

Thanks again for the info. I guess I'll be well off to prune them then. They haven't gotten much chill time between those dates because I just only now turned the greenhouse down to 45 from 50, a couple of weeks ago. It's getting to around 80 in there during the day as long as there's any sun. That wasn't today, though!

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

palmtree

Im keeping my brown turkey fig in my garage until spring when I will plant it in the ground permanently. Not sure exactly how cold it gets in there, but it hasnt been below freezing in a decade. So far it has remained dormant with no dieback and no problems. This is my first year with figs but a lot of people grow them around here without any protection.
Good luck!

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saltydad

A neighbor across the street is growing Brown Turkey outside. It's fairly nice size young tree. If she succeeds this winter, I'm buying one too.

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Richard

If you can find the Chicago, go with it. Then you and your neighbor can argue about which one tastes better!

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