Well its 5 degree's above zero outside and 22 above in garage .
We have 4 inches of snow on ground from recent snowfall with more expected later this week.
Think Spring i keep saying !

we're looking at 8-12 degrees with wind chill.

this last cold snap pushed my regular at-every-season-change sinus infection into overdrive.  had to take antibiotics for the first time in a decade.

hooray, winter?

Yup winter is here its -5 celcius right now in Toronto about 20 farenheit and snowing. Should of put the winter tires on the car this weekend summer tires and snow dont mix.

I feel for you Martin, it was a brutal 29 F overnight here. Tough getting out there before dawn this morning--I had to move the geraniums into the garage to keep the blooms from getting singed.

Wow!  I really feel for you guys up North.  I really do!!!  However, I must agree!   Winter is here!  I moved my one year old trees out to my greenhouse and the heater has been chiming in every hour or so.  It was 27 degrees outside last night and I was able to keep my GH at 35 degrees.  That is rare for my area for December.  We usually see temps like this in late January.  But this year we did have 90 degree weather in April which is also rare!  I moved my 3 year old trees flush against the South wall of my house.  And I moved my baby 1 year old and younger ones inside my insulated garage. 

Ok, I'll fess up!  I also moved a few of my 3 year trees inside my garage too, Green Greek, Sals (Gene), Strawberry, Chico Strawberry, Gino's, Pananas Purple, Golden Atreano, Brooklyn White, Negretta, Malta Black, Negretta, Black Celeste, Trojano, Black Madeira, Sultane, MdeSaisaon, and a few others.  I just could not risk leaving these outside and some are not not 3yrs old yet.  I'm planning on planting around 40 or 50 in March creating me a Fig Orchard. 

Cold weather and wind chill can kill a tree and this year my 12 in-ground trees are not protected.  I wonder which one will die?  Hopefully none!

Been putting off wrapping my three inground fig trees till now and it is COLD!
28F but feels much colder with the wind.

Hope it wasn't too late with the wrapping part.

Dennis, Here in New Bern , it was 27F. by the backporch gauge.
All my young one / two year old trees are planted outside. None in pots.
  I put screen containers around them and filled with crushed leaves, that I raked up. But, this winter is starting off early and serious!
  Good luck to you .  Fred

Yeah we're feeling it too Martin. It was a brisk and windy 19F this morning here in W. KY. No snow to speak of though like you guys are having.

I put all my first year trees under my house about a week ago. I buried my larger trees by digging out some soil, laying the trees in the trench & then covering them with mounds of first leaves & then mulch on top to hold the leaves in place.

This is my first experience in protecting fig trees in this way. I hope all comes out well in the spring.

BTW Martin, what month do you usually start bringing your trees back outside again? What about anyone else in zones 5 & 6?

Hey Fred, I'm in North Charlotte.  I was going to do that this month during my Christmas vacation. 
Bass, lost a lot of trees due to rodent damage so I'ave been delaying doing that.  Last year, I left the following trees outside the entire winter with very little damage:

1.  Atreano - huge container tree--a few tips froze but tree was fine
2.  LSU Purple - a few tips froze but tree was fine
3.  LSU Gold - a few tips froze but tree was fine
4.  Black Spanish - huge container tree--no damage--one tough tree--huge figs but lacks taste.
5.  Byadi - huge container tree --a few tips froze but tree was fine
6.  Peter's Honey - huge container--died completely to ground--grew back 7 feet
7.  Italian Honey - huge container --died completely to ground--grew 7 feet
8.  Black Mission 1 - in ground tree--died to ground, grew back 1.5 feet
9.  Black Mission 2 - in ground tree--died to ground, grew back 2.5 feet
10.  Black Mission 3 - in ground tree--died to ground, grew back 2 feet
11.  Celeste 1 (was labeled White Kodata WRONG) - in ground tree--no damage
12.  Celeste 2 (was labeled Black Jack WRONG) - in ground tree--no damage
13.  Celeste 3 (Was labeled Italian Everbearing WRONG)- in ground--no damage

This cold front has come south as they are saying possible frost warnings this evening. I'm not to concerned for my figs but my veggie crop which I got a late start on this year might get hit. I usually have fruit set on toms this week but because I planted 3 -4 wks late I might not see any. Alot of work for Not


JD I had left a few figs on just in case you made the trip but I picked today they were OK. Again sorry for your loss as we will talk again. 

Hi Bill,
i start the process wheeling them out to driveway mid to late March depending on temps and wheel them in at night. Sometimes March will not cooperate and even first week of April when they sometimes cancel a Cubs baseball game due to cold and or snow. I do this to get them to slowly wake up a little ahead of time perhaps a week or several as temps in garage hover in the teens in January, Feb in 20s and 30s.
Cold seems to have arrived a tad early this year it did not reach 20 today .
But poor folks just east of me in Indiana are getting clobbered with lake effect snow now, glad the wind is south eastward now coming over the great lakes here as lake temp is in the 40s and creating the snow for them.
Here are pictures at the house in 2009 dated late March  29th driveway and April 5th back yard and December 22, 2008 12 degree's in garage and cold outside but January got colder both in and out of garage when temps dropped to 23 below zero - Brrrr it was cold.

Found this on: answers.com

Rafed
The real winter is whenever it gets really cold like our three days forecast and the real no-escape winter is mid-January to mid-February when we shall frequently hit -5F to -10F (approx  -20C to -24C). Right now I started a heater in the garage that is keeping it at around 28F. I have low differential between the inside and outside the garage. Next winter will be different, I hope.

Wed 

Thu

Fri

About 8 days ago we had windchill to -4*F for about 4 days in the night. Day time was like 20*F. Had a little snow like 3" and all gone
now. It's nice now at about 40*F. Leaving some trees outside with most buried in dirt above the pot's rim by 3" dirt.

I spent the past two weeks bringing potted figs into storage. and just finished wrapping my trees yesterday in the cold. 

This one came all at the wrong time.

We had 75 degree weather.   Then, when I knew the colder weather was coming, it was Thanksgiving week.    Instead of being inside preparing for and cleaning up after the celebration, we were out working on the fig trees.

6 giant tumbleweed types.   Each with a cage of field fencing around them.    Then we began filling them with leaves.    I was shocked to discover that after 50 black, lawn and garden sized, bags, I still only had enough to fill 5 of them half way. 

The largest one was going to be impossible.   So we cut off all but four of the most upright and larger trunks down as low as we could.   We then had a smaller cage to fill with leaves about 4 feet up.  Then another cage sat on that for another 4 feet, and filled with leaves as well.    This left about a foot of exposed trunks above the cages.   The whole thing was wrapped in black tarp, tied with rope, and folded over.    I realize now that maybe I'm going to need to open it up after this awful winter surge and air it out.

The rest of the trees we tried to cover the top halves with black plastic above the filled cages.   First we gathered branch tops into garbage bags, then black tarp was thrown over and clipped to the cages.

Mind you, this was done in incredible winds!    Argh!    Why does the wind always come between the warm weather and the time you have to protect from cold?    

Well, I had just finished patting myself on the back.   The tarps held under the wind.  I'd gotten them all covered right before the REALLY bad weather came, and life was good.

Then we got wind from the other direction.   We came home at 1 in the morning to find the tarps all blown off onto the neighbors place, in the middle of an icy and rainy wind storm.

I've given up for this year.  They are exposed half way, meaning my fig crop will once again probably not be much.

None of my scions rooted either.   I tried twice, probably with 150 cuttings.   I do not have a knack for this.

On the bright side.   With that biggest tree, when we cut the branches, I saved them to try again.

Several that had rooted, I buried in some really nice soil in a raised bed.    Then I made lots of cuttings (again) and poked them into the soil in rows in the same place.  The area is on the edge of the woods, with just a bit of protection there from the trees and also from the buildings.  

Then I buried the whole bed thickly in fallen leaves to hopefully keep the soil from freezing.   I hope to see life come from those cuttings in the spring.

I also, as an experiment, buried an entire, 8 foot branch in the garden, horizontally.  I want to see if it might send up sprouts along the wood in the spring.  

And, when we cut the largest tree, I found that the reason it was the widest was because horizontal branches had rooted over the years.    I can see about 5 different rooted areas.   

I'm hoping to dig those out in the spring.   Is that possible to do without killing the tree?

:o)

Valerie
Zone 6b

.

Ciao,  Many places near here have over foot snow and cold and windy,,,, Winter is very much here, but good in nice warm house!  My inground fig tree is good but have to knock snow off of the bucket on top before it bends mummy tree down!  Snow snow go away! come again I will not say!

I say let's all take advantage of the situation and do a weekend ICE-FISHING adventure.
We'll invite Jon to come along too.

Speaking of the cold, Im located in NNJ, we've been consistent 20's at night and a minimum of mid 30's if not warmer during the days. I have yet to wrap one of my inground trees and bring in my potted figs, I remember reading once that fig trees can sustain short periods of temps regularly in the mid to upper 20's.....is this true and will they be ok til I wrap them up???

Hi Martin:  Thanks for the insight on when you start bringing your trees back out. I'm trying to guage when to dig my trees up & stand them back in the upright position. I guess I'll do it sometime in March. But I'll probably be watching the 14-day forecast real close because we do usually get one more good cold snap in March before it starts looking much better in April. Our last frost date here is April 15th. So I would definately have them back in the ground by the 1st but just watching things closely.

rafed:  Ice-fishing! Sounds like a plan. I haven't done that since I lived in northern Ohio as a kid. I always thought it was pretty funny to see those guys drag those little houses out on the ice. They would have those things set up pretty nice with a coleman heater in there along with their case of beer  (didn't need a cooler )  ;-)! Didn't matter if they caught any fish. They'd just stick a line in the ice-hole, get sauced, & listen the their favorite ball game! We'd definately have to bring Jon along - but he's gotta bring his own beer!    

Bill,

I tried ice fishing once a long time ago off the Saginaw Bay in Bay City, Michigan.
We went out about two or three miles into the frozen lake ( at least that's what it looked like.

There was a small area with that yellow tape, You know the one that warns you not to cross?
I asked one gentleman why is that area was barricaded and he said the local authority were waiting for the ice to melt so they can get the full sized suburban out. LOL

As for Jon bringing his own beer I would say yes, He has to bring his own beer!
We would supply him a shanty 

ValerieEden you write
 when we cut the largest tree, I found that the reason it was the widest was because horizontal branches had rooted over the years.    I can see about 5 different rooted areas.   

I'm hoping to dig those out in the spring.   Is that possible to do without killing the tree?
at no harm to tree.
YES !

Fortis, just my thoughts,
depends on size, age, type of fig plant, even container size.
When in doubt its best to protect afterall your not going to get anymore ripe figs. So in my opinion its best to be safe .

Maggie the Misses just came thru West Virginia, Penn , Ohio, Indiana, and she said it was cold and snow everywhere . Actually its suppose to get colder here next week and were going send some back east including more snow for present !

Rafed ,
everytime i hear the word ice fishing i get memories of time in 1979 we were partying in friends basement drinking 151 Rum and playing cards and some Einstein came up with the idea of going ice fishing to Lake Geneva.
Big big mistake as it was snowing already good but we were younger and did not care.
Little did we know it would be the second biggest snowstorm here.
Year was 1979 there was 5 of us in my ole Pontiac we made it only to turn around and go home as the ice shanty's out on lake were nearly buried with the snow . Coming back on e-way w needed all of us to get out and push our car and cars in front that were stuck on e-way it took us forever to get back as there was 1 lane open barely. Dropped several off on the 1 block they lived on and was in middle of the side street and went to move but could not , they had to come back out and push me.
Nope no more ice fishing for me since then.

Fortisi, Please wrap them soon, Okay!  They can take for short periods, not prolonged periods like we aare have now. Also, remember the strong strong winds, which in themselves can kill sometimes before temperature. I would try to make arrangements if I was you to start the process of wrapping soon, but will maybe be harder when there is snow. Ciao

Bass
Thanks for encouragement when you said "I'm predicting we'll have a very mild winter despite the recent cold and the snow we're having. You wait and see."
I hope it will pass as you predicted. Makes me already feel good for the time being (since no youth left at home to help clean the snow).
In the past I used to say that I don't mind very cold temperatures (-25*C etc) but it was the deep snow I hated but now, because of the figs in the garage, I get worried with that kind of temperatures.
Only spring or the fig plants themselves will tell how it was in the winter. (& the electricity bill for heating the garage to keep it just at freezing).

Hehe, speaking of memories.... everytime someone says "Saginaw, Michigan" I think of the old Lefty song