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32 degrees tonight:( in Alabama

Just when you thought it was over...since my in grounders died back to the soil line from this year's record winter, I wonder how much this will set back the new growth. As of right now, there are tiny green nubs starting to grow.

I was wondering the same thing. It is supposed to get into the mid 30s tonight in NC.

i'm taking everything into garage. now it's down to 30. it's nuts.

I'll have to bring in just the tender stuff which of course is soaking wet! Wife will not be happy. Will this Winter every end? 31 expected tonight. Last freeze date is supposed to February 20 here. Our average low is 56F for April. Record low for tomorrow is 38F. I hope they are wrong.

Hopefully spring will come around soon.

it's good that you're getting ready. that front hit here sunday nite with temps down to 27.this was after days in the 80s.

it's finally over. i woketo a balmy 33. thing is, there was12 hours straight below freezing,  so i lost plants, tho i got the figs in the house.

this has gotta be the last one.

Predicted low 20 degrees here tonight!!!   :(
I don't have any inground trees yet, and the fig shuffle is not a burden yet. 
And fortunately my orchard of apples, pears, peaches, nectarines and plums has not bloomed yet.  :)

i'm tempted to just leave everything outside. the temp will stay around 32 for just couple of hours around sunrise. 

pete, if it's only a couple of hours you're lucky. perhaps it's moderating.

after12 hours below freezing i was pleasantly surprised to see the plants i  put in last week, virginia creeper and honeysuckles seem to be alive.
these are zone 3 and 4 plants tho.

New member here, north of Blake in N Alabama, zone 7a.  Did a search, trying to find out if everyone's had winter kill this go-around.  My mature Brown Turkey figs, maybe 4 years in the ground, maybe 4-5 inch diameter trunks, maybe 8 feet tall before I pruned this winter, are obviously winter killed.  Question: cut them back to ground now, or wait and see if new growth comes out of trunks and prune above that line?  There are cracks/splits in trunks, water/sap draining from them.  Really distressed as I was pleased to have actually done well with these since I'm not really a green thumb kind of guy.  We had several nights below 10 degress this winter.

Pretty sick of this winter and will be doing the fig shuffle and bringing all my pots inside for the next couple of nights.  All my ingrounders look like they have died back to the roots. I see new shoots coming up on some of them so I know that not all is lost. Its a reminder that even older trees are vulnerable to a harsh winter in 7b. Will be taking more cuttings of my favorites in early winter and keeping some for myself in the future as well putting wood aside for sharing.

Bad year for figs but on the plus side, It has been a great spring for transplanting blueberries, currents and jostaberries. For the first time I turned a whole bunch of my fruit tree prunings into scions, built a rooting box, applied some clonex and planted them to see what would happen. Looks like the majority have rooted but I will wait another month before attempting to transplant them into pots and starting to crow.

Don't know about the rest of the SE but after 3 years of drought, the tick population here has staged a huge comeback this year.  While stopping just short of growing to the size of a Dungeness crab in my yard, they are very large and plentiful. Its a good year to exercise a bit more caution and to think twice about whether you really hate Deet enough to risk hosting one of these critters long enough to risk infection with one of the half a dozen diseases for which they are vectors.


  I give up!  I'm in the wrong part of the world to grow figs.  its going down to 30. Good bye figs, I never knew you.

Just amazing what we do to grow figs !!

I would put a blanket over any green growth you can't bring inside and put plastic over that.  Hanging Christmas lights under it will protect even more.

Billy, welcome to the forum.  I'd protect whatever's leaking sap so it doesn't freeze and crack worse then wait and see what the tree does.  If it's leaking sap it's not dead.  If the cracks are high enough up you could cut them all off and try to root the cut parts.  You could also bind the cracks up and see if you can get them to heal.  You could also airlayer the parts at the cracks.

Al_Blake

How much this one correspond to in F tonite? My figs don't want to wake up knowing they can't do much until mid-May anyway.

Tue
15 Apr

Snow
  • -10°C

So after further reading, Brown Turkey is apparently not hardy to say 0-5 degrees.  All new growth branches from last year are dead, snap crackle pop.  To cover trees/bushes would be somewhat impractical without major pruning.  Thus the question becomes, prune it way back every year and cover, or go with a more cold hardy variety.  Really like these brown turkey figs, they are fabulous canned or dried.  Do most folks routinely prune all the way back to say a 5X5X5 size and cover every winter?  My bushes, though apparently mostly dead now, are about 10 feet across.  The early figs have never made, so it would only be the fall crop anyway.  Bob, I'll keep an eye on them obviously and see what they want to do.  I assumed these were mature enough not to worry about, at least not the main trunks.  Not too terribly worried about the light freeze tonight, I have no new growth that I can detect at this point.  A little worried about my peach, apple and cherry trees though, but not much I can do about those anyway.

My Brown Turkey survived a winter in Athens GA without nary a lost branch. The winter lows in my backyard were about 23 degrees F, give or take. On the other hand, it is only now starting to wake up. Seems a bit slow for 7b.

We have a frost warning here for tonight. The B Turkey will get a blanket and maybe a string of XMas lights, depending on how lazy I am.

BTW: as to Brown Turkeys, I saw on the website of a nursery in Florida wherein they claimed that the name comes from turkeys liking to roost in these trees to eat the fruit. This, of course, is total BS. Or, at least I think it is BS. I always thought the etymology of the word goes to its country of origin.

Joe

i understood BTs were zone 5 trees. not true?

Quote:
Originally Posted by OttawanZ5
Al_Blake

How much this one correspond to in F tonite? My figs don't want to wake up knowing they can't do much until mid-May anyway.

Tue
15 Apr

Snow
  • -10°C



Hello Akram,

-10c =  14F

20 degee drop in temp in 2 hrs. overnight low at 30 predicted. i pulled everything into the garage.

Good bye, Lemon brebas! :(   I agree with Bob. Cold wind can do more damage than just cold. If plants are small enough, plastic sheeting/blankets are worth the trouble.

Just pulled everything into the laundry room that was out--6 figs, a sugarcane jujube and a mammoth pineapple guava...
@ Akram & Martin, sorry I couldn't answer I can't take my phone in the prison.
As far as BT being hardy, my fathers tree, which is around 10 years old, made it and is now waking up. Some of the younger growth in it is now crispy but all in all 95% if the tree is good to go.

@ Bob C, I did just what you said so fingers crossed!!!

The prognosticators are saying 29 here. If the wind keeps up at 30 gusts to 40 there want be any frost. But if it gets
that cold and windy, thats not good either. I am going to try some sheets on the in ground trees.

Rick C, I am planning a trip to Petals soon to get a Lemon fig and tour the grounds in general. I am so excited for the field trip.

A 32 degree prediction here means 28 at my house in the country. 

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