Good day, been spending a lot of time at my friends place.  He's big on Citrus.  Got a big Improved Meyer Lemon from him and as I was trying to locate a space inside my garage to house it, I notices 2 trees breaking dormancy in a 50 degree insulated garage!

Unknown Pastiliere and Beall!

My RainTree Pastiliere is just like the one at UCD.  It has not broke dormancy but the buds are swollen on it.  The same is happening to my Black Maderia, Smith, and De La Senyora.

Beall is one excellent tasting fig!  I got 2 big ones but never winterized them.  Every year they would die to ground and be the last ones to sprout from roots.  Well, this year, I've decieded to winterize them both indoors.  And both are trying to put out leaves!!!  I opened my garage door every day to swap out the air this time I left the door up longer to get the temperature down to around 48.  I have to be careful because my big moma Meyer lemon is loaded with blooms.  

Any body else have trees trying to break dormancy?

All my trees spend the entire winter exposed. Both in ground and several hundred in pots. Several already had leaves the size of quarters when the temperature went to 17.5 F. Happens every year. Trees leaf out and get to start over. Usually the in ground Celestes will get 2-3 inch leaves before a frost will get them. Nothing I can do short of putting them under refrigeration. Living in Florida we go from 20 degrees to 80 degrees and back within a week.

Snaglpus-
Those Meyer lemons will significantly drop leaves when exposed to changes in light. If it went into your garage and is dark now and wasn't before, it will likely shed all leaves and won't set any fruit. I had near south facing windows and still had difficultly last year. This year I have lost some leaves but have a 40w cfl on it now and it has leveled off. Mites and scale are also relentless on my Meyer lemon trees (2 of them) when brought inside for the winter.

Citrus are ok under an HID lamp, especially if also near a sunny window.

Ive still got trees that have yet to enter dormancy...strange year...strange year...

Seems like a challenge to keep a meyer lemon tree growing and a bunch of fig trees dormant in the same space.  Seems like the range of acceptable temperatures will be small.  Can a Meyer lemon handle 40 degrees?  If so I think for the figs you'd be better off below 42 degrees.  Up around 50 I think they will start to think spring is on its way. 

My garage stays mostly high 30s low 40s all winter. 

Some say, Meyer Lemons are hardy and so are Kumquats.  They are in my climate if and only if you grow your trees in containers and store inside during winter!  I have 2 Meiwa Kumquats and 1 ML tree last year.  I left them outside and they died to about a foot from the ground.  I chopped them down and repotted in a smaller pot and the darn trees are almost back to their original size.  This winter, I placed them inside.  My new ML is near a window so I think it will have enough light.  I never had scales until I got a Meyer Lemon tree.  I have them under control but one has to constantly monitor and inspect their trees or the scales will take over.

Breaking dormancy?? Not here .
though i have 1-2 varieties still pushing out leafs in the cold more than others.
I wonder if they are less cold hardy because of that?

Dennis
Three more months to go for dormancy break here.
Coincidently, that is the difference between our zones 8a and 5a !!

Dennis, I have my 2 year old Brown Turkey in garage and it is cold in there. The tree seems to be sleeping still.

 A few of my trees are dormant, but not Borjosette Gris.  And I look forward to the figs.  This purported to be the most amazing fig ever.  More strawberry than a strawberry.  Well, the tree is huge and not having a thought about going dormant.  Sorry, no cuttings.

Not trying to be mean, but when a fig tree is in full leaf, you can't take cuttings.  And Bourjosette Gris is in that mode.  Sorry.  Can't cut her.

What happens when you cut a fig tree in leaf. ?

You shed tears over your mangled tree?  You increase the risk of tree disease?  I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to take cuttings from an actively growing tree.  All the unknowns I rooted last summer were from leafed out trees.

only 15% of my bay fig trees went dormant, :(

Thats why i was asking. I took a ton off my tree all summer long and winter. They root super fast to. They tree did get ugly lol.

Bob, I usually bring my lemons in with my figs and usually keep my garage around 55. My friend that sold me my tree has a plant nursery. He said to just keep the temps around 50 and not to worry if they loose their leaves. His huge lime tree might be mine this weekend! I'll have to take a picture and post it.

It's rare that I let my garage get below 50. I keep a heater in there just in case I need to jack up the temp.

Glad to see you posting again Suzi!

no... my point was, isn't going to dormancy helps them to fruit better?
I hear some places they use ice cubes to pour under the trees that require many hours of cold, like Cherry trees in LA, if you pour ice under the trees every night for like... 15 days, they bloom like crazy in Spring and fruit set better that year. I don't know...
Yet 80%+ of my figs here in my garden are still green.

I bought 2 smiths from a Fl nursery in Dec. I didnt want to risk leaving them outside so I put them in a cool room. They are not breaking dormancy and I have 4 figlets on them. They are about 3-3 1/2 ft tall and I will let them keep going. I will eat figs next year!!!. I mean this year :).. Also have a couple figlets on an unknown grasa. I will eat those figs as well. I have 3 more of those cutting though that I will pop them off of when they appear so they can do the right thing.

Last year I didnt get any figs so I will have figs this year even if it slows down the trees in other areas. The smiths are already in large containers and maybe mid summer they will need to be up potted.

We had some warm days and I got some green buds on my shed trees. Tips will definitely die as they got done to 12F. Oh well could be worse.

Potted trees are breaking dormancy and I did notice that CDD Grise is unfolding a couple leaves but that is not a good thing.

Three of my older in ground figs (2 Celestes and 1 Brunswick/Magnolia) have swelling buds and 2 early blueberries actually had a handful of open blossoms on them. The other two dozen or so blueberries are showing some bud swelling but not dramatic enough to worry me. I have 2 apricots and one pear with very swollen buds and I am crossing my fingers that the rest of my fruit trees (apples, plums, one more pear, currents & gooseberries) have enough common sense to remain fully dormant for at least 1-2 more months.  These are all in ground. First year baby figs which I buried in mulch are looking good.  They have not broken dormancy and do not appear to have any winter damage thus far. We have had night time temps in the low teens and some of the day time temps have been in the 60's (ugh!).  

Totally OT - Growing a Mexican mint (Yerba Buena) which had not shown any signs of dormancy till we had 11 degree weather. It has freeze damaged leaves along the tops but still continues to show new and undamaged lower leaves at soil level. I am starting to believe that this variety may rival Kudzu in terms of its ability to thrive no matter what nature throws at it. It survived 3 years of drought in an unattended garden in a dry location and eventually colonized half the garden. I was given a bouquet of the stuff last summer and rooted several stems. Good thing because the new owners of the property are going to convert the garden to lawn and everything that is growing there that has survived on its own for the past 6 years is going to be lost.  This includes some low growing raspberries which grow in a row about 2' tall and produce a moderate crop of large berries.  Hoping to score some of those for my garden before they are tilled up. Any variety which thrives in this soil without care is worth saving.

Dennis,
  Last winter I had a bunch of trees break dormancy in January (in NJ).  These were potted trees that I kept in a cool part of my basement for winter storage.  I had to put them under grow lights, and then eventually there were so many that I had to bring them upstairs and put them in a sunny south facing window.  The all ended up doing just fine...there was just the hassle of tending to them while they were indoors for many months.
  This year they all seem pretty well behaved...nobody is breaking dormancy early, but I do have on little Olympian that just won't drop that last leaf (even with minimal light, water and heat...)
Cheers,
Jim

Many not dormant, some definitely breaking dormancy. Have an air-layer on the front porch that has grown 8" in the last month. Ate a few figs in the last two weeks, and still have some green ones on a few plants.