Ok coldest day of the year so far here in Toronto -27 Celcius with the windchill, Got to work this morning and the heat is not working what are the odds of my young rooted plants surviving temps in my office are 5 celcius around 40 degrees fahrenheit, about half of the young rooted plants have wilted leaves already.

I could see last evening through the window the snow with cold high winds coming straight from the North. The temperature just outside the porch showed -24C (- 11F). It came after a January thaw that lasted close to a week with day time highs at or just above freezing. It was a treat. I hope there will be no more repeats like this. This year we are save the test of endurance at -30C (or -35C once in a while).
Well, the figs go on. I am glad that the people who had originally build our house had built a cold store (& that my family gave up on stopping me from spreading into more space in it).

I live in zone 4b, though I can hope that it gets to 5a at times.  So far this winter, while everyone else has been freezing, and the seaports in northern China are frozen, and Europe is howling cold, my zone has been in the 6a area.  My heating bills love it.  I suspect it will not last however.

Its warm on western Canada. Raining.This warm trend is going to cost British Columbians big time in hosting the winter Olympics. Right now it's 10*C(50*F). One of the ski hills for the Olympic's have been closed to the public for at least 2 weeks already & we the public have to compensate the operators to save whatever snow is left. The guys in power bidding for hosting the winter Olympic's never learn -- both Montreal  & Calgary Olympic's have huge deficit in the billions.

And everyone thought I was nuts when I purposed we all move to Jons neighborhood!

Rafed
We thought fig-nut, not just any 'nuts'.

I feel for all you up north folks! Nelson, I hope you were able to warm those plants up some way!  Thank goodness figs are resilient. Hope they all make it. Good luck!

I just checked the cold storage for my fig plants and found that because of intense cold on the exposed three sides (to the outside) there is a 1/4" thick layer of ice on the concrete ceiling and the temperature in the cold store has dropped to 3C (or 38F) close to the ground, ideal for dormant figs. Normally it stays around 7~8C (44~45F) from mid December to mid March. A good number of pots keep the closed room humid and the pot never need watering. The inside humidity circulates as condensation between the ceiling and the ground.
So far`I have not encountered any problem because of the room being closed all the time, no mold and no rot.
Is there anything I should be watching as a precaution for such enclosed space.

You have a great temperature for your fig plants , wish my garage would stay like that but thats impossible.
Anyways only thing as a caution
1. Someone taking your figs.
2. Door open and animals coming in if any.

Can wait for season to begin darn snow and cold !

It is -1 F at the moment, up from -5 F when I got up this morning.  Thank goodness for the distraction of cuttings.  They keep me from pacing around the dormant fig trees in the basement.  I just don't quite know what I'm going to do next winter if all of these cuttings survive.  Time to expand.

C.J.

Tim im noticing what looks like white fluffy mould on the roots through the cups. When I got to work this morning seems a few have gone past the point of no return. I have lost more small plants in Jan. then all of 2009 combined, seems the owner of the property is turning off the heat in the night on a timer and thats what is causing problems for me.

Well Nelson, that just sucks!!! You need a more reliable place to start your sticks. You've had tragedy after tragedy this month. Them sticks don't grow on trees!LOL(pun intended):-))))) I know you've lost some precious ones that are hard to replace.Hope it all works out.Good luck!

Sorry to hear that Nelson , is it possible to bring some to the house now or maybe next time around?

Thank you guys really appreciate it. Martin I have ran out of room at home for the time being, Only have room for baby stuff. We just had a baby shower yesterday and Now I have so much baby stuff at home that I dont even know where all this stuff is going to go. With that being said I will try to buy a heater and humidifier for the office and see if that helps since the heaters here are controlled by the owner of the property and there are days they dont show up at all and it gets really cool in here. So far I have lost around 20 small rooted plants in the past two weeks. My accu-temp thermometer is reading 25% humidity right now and 50 degrees fht at the moment.

Yes, it is Brrrrr for the next 6 weeks more as told by the other forecaster.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100202/national/groundhog_day_canada

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100202/world/us_groundhog_day

Yes groundhog indicated 6 more weeks.
Course its always at least 6 more weeks or more for us no matter what !

Supposed to be mild next two weeks supposedly, I know global warming is bad and all but man I hate winter wish our winters were a bit shorter like from Dec.24th to Dec.25th that would be enough for me lol.