I was lucky enough to acquire some suckers with roots.  they range from ~24inches to about 5ft in length.  a few have fairly substantial roots, while others have just a few small roots.  I have potted all up in moisture control potting soil, and added additional perlite to the mix.

My question is how best to care for these over the winter.  pretty much the only place to store is in my basement, which averages about 50-55 in the coldest days of winter, but most days is probably in the low 60's.  There is also very little humidity down there because of the furnace, and also very low light.

My main question is how much to water these.  When I potted them yesterday I only gave the soil a light spray, nothing like a shower I would normally give something i just potted.  The soil already feels pretty dry.

I am hoping that the roots can creep and develop over the winter, but not sure if that's how things work.

any advice on water, temp & light would be appreciated.

thanks

I'm not sure what others will say but I don't see a problem overwintering 1st year plants at regular room temp. in a south facing window. Now I see we're talking about some large suckers here but overwintering in a sunny place in the house will help them build more roots and in the spring you can put your pots outside. You'll be ahead of the game. Normally overwintering plants inside during winter is done at lower temps but your plants will appreciate the care and I don't believe that they will get leggy.

Your cuttings will not go or stay dormant at those temps. You will either have to find cooler storage (below 45 degress) or consider growing them through the Winter. As for watering, just do not let them dry out or keep soggy. Good luck!

A shop light with 48 inch bulbs, either grow light bulbs or one cool white and one warm light, should be enough light for as many as you can get under it. You can buy a timer at any hardware store. I think that the cooler temps of your basement would be great. Pans of water around the plants will increase humidity.

Thanks for the tips.  These were entering dormancy, or already there.  The leaves fell off about 3+ weeks ago, and we've had about 5-6 nights below freezing before they were taken.   Should I try to add the light right away, or wait?  The shop light situation I could probably set up.

I know everybody has a different opinion so you may be toying with different ideas.

Thanks for the tips.  The attic really isnt an option. 

I guess i will wait until I see the buds start to open and then get some plant grow bulbs for the shoplight.

I think keeping these in the workshop side of my basement (where the boiler is) was too dry, with too much warm air moving around.  The tips of some are drying/wrinkled pretty badly, more so on the suckers that had fewer roots attached.  I have moved to the other corner of the basement, and watered again.  Any thoughts on if I should cut off the shriveled parts, back to solid wood?    These might turn out to be tougher to keep over the winter then I thought! 

Hi motown, I had a (possibly crazy) idea that I posted in a thread about another warm basement that might help you out.

Something to try, that will work at least in theory, to lower  the temperature of something in a dry space is to build a really basic "swamp cooler" around a tree by wrapping it loosely with a natural wicking fabric or paper towels and then wetting the wrap down periodically; imagine wearing a wet t-shirt in front of a fan to increase the rate of evaporation and you will get the idea. The water carries heat away when it evaporates, leaving the interior of the wrap, or shirt, cooler. I would not do this for very long because the characteristics of the moistened branches will change and roots could begin to grow after a month or so, it could also cause fresh growth or buds to rot eventually and make your nipples hard and show through your shirt ;) A fan will really increase the cooling effect, but might dry out any trees in the area that are not wrapped and wet down regularly enough, especially recent transplants that have few roots taking up water.
 
It may just be crazy enough to work! I have much colder storage temperatures so have not had this type of problem and never dealt with it. Whatever you do, pick more than one good option so you will have more chances for success.

You could also probably put some back outside and cover them down to the ground against your house out of the direct sun. They will go dormant faster with near freezing temperatures and could be brought in for really cold nights and left in front of a drafty door to stay cool.

I read something else here a while ago about digging a pit to store figs outside, I think Herman2 did it but don't really remember the specifics. You could try something similar and bury one a foot or two deep in a well drained spot (sideways to prevent water from collecting in the pot) and mulch over top, then dig up in the spring.

edit: I meant no harm with the nipple joke, it seems a little less appropriate to me now, during daylight hours. Hope you are not offended.

thanks for the idea.  It seems a bit involved, but if I see some of the buds start to green up i will maybe give it a try.

At this point I am more worried that i dried them out by having them in the same room as the boiler.  I have watered pretty throughouly and I now have a moisture meter.

I think they are still dormant, and have had probably over 200 hours of cold, dormant driving temps here before they came inside - basically the month from Snowtober to thanksgiving.

And not offense taken at the joke...I'd have to be really uptight to be offended by that!

We all have nipples so I guess there is really nothing to worry about...

The swamp thing would probably not cool all that much, get moldy and require too much attention. If you are going to be keeping figs in your basement in the future I think you should give terracotta a try, the extra evaporation through the sides of the pot will cool the roots a little more than plastic.

 Your plants will probably stay dormant longer than established plants would in the same situation because they are trying to regrow their root systems and cannot pump much water to the buds until they do.

Most of my trees are still outside and doing fine last time I checked, it has been a wacky fall with only light freezes here, the snow did damage to new growth but they are now good and dormant.

My semi-rooted suckers have not been doing so well.  They have some pretty serious dessication going on.  if I grab a tip and bend, it snaps off.  Still has a green layer inside though.

I think the problem is the basement is just too dry (~40% rel. humidity).  I am thinking of cutting my losses and trimming these back to about 1-2 feet, so that I can water then put a bag over the whole thing to trap some humidity.  Some of these are long enough that I cant effectively trap humidity without cutting way back.

Any thoughts?  Should I perhaps move to a sunny warmer area also?

Thanks for any tips!

Having no issues with my rooted cuttings in a similar situation:  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1271711290&postcount=32

Thanks Jason.  My plants current status is in quite a different state- and much less full of life than yours!  Mine went dormant outside (before suckers were extracted), and have not woken up yet.  They are 3-5 ft long, and basically just sticks, that are drying out from the top down, despite a nicely moist pot in my 55 deg, dark, dry basement.

Nicely moist may be a problem.... During dormancy, plants hardly "drink" anything. You may be drowning them.