Good one Jason!

If anyone ever passes through Saginaw, Michigan make time to stop at Frankenmuth, Michigan for their World Famous Chicken.
It's an old German/Bavarian town.

It's about 10 or 15 minute ride from Saginaw.

Rafed
Be an entrepreneur and publish your road running travel experience about road side eateries in a handbook and use the extra income for building a big greenhouse for your figs. I know you may say there are many already.

Martin, I meant to comment on your pictures earlier. I thought was especially fitting to see the snow plow/salt truck in the background out beyond your sleeping fig trees.

According to Accuweather's forecast it's supposed to get down to 15F for us again tonight. Then a very mild (small) warming trend Thurs through Sat but then right back down to 17F again on Sun night. I like the cold less every year, brrrr :-{ .

Sounds like you guys had quite an adventure in the old Pontiac Martin. Glad to hear it didn't end much worse - could very well have been the Pontiac waiting for the ice to thaw!

Ottawan; Yes, it sounds like it may be about time for a greenhouse for a good number of us. In fact, I've got plans to have a 4' X 8' cold frame set up by the end of this week (for starting cuttings in next month). With even bigger plans to go a little more full scale before the end of next fall. We'll see how it all pans out.

Bill that was one time the ole Poniac did not breakdown for me.
I had problems all the time with it, water pump, fuel pump, belts and it did not have lot of miles on it just a lemon.
Long story short it burned up on the Eisenhower Expressway at 17th ave.
I was driving and temp light came on and at this point i was aggravated with this car 1 thing after another. So i pulled over and walked up ramp to call my brother on payphone no cell phone back then. As i was walking back down a firetruck comes wissin past me down the ramp and thought nothing of it till i saw the commotion.
My car overheated and burned.
Good ending
I went out and bought a 1967 gold eldorado with black leather interior one of my all time favorites when i think about it. Oh the memories !

LOL  --  Ottawan, I have spotted a nice affordable place here for rich retired people on the West side of Vancouver. South facing, Just waiting for you to put some fig trees.

Thanks Sal!

Hi, everyone!
Here in midle of Florida already 2 night 28 degree..Cold..
I'm thinking.. our short winter.. may be will never happen again.. Last year, like never before winter was long and cold..I live here 10 years.. And winter.. this is like 2 weeks..But not the last one.. And I'm thinking climat chanching..Summer will get more hot and winter longer and colder..
This is actually why I start getting all my figs ..I lost 3 mango trees last year...But figs seems to be Ok with cold..
But..I manage to bring almost 500 potted trees inside..I just don't want something else happen..Bad enough I fight nematodes..And..I won..But this cold weather..I don't like it and all..Even I come here from Russia.. And winter in Russia very cold..
So..I'm feel everyone pain right now..And this is too bad most of my figs tree now have little figs on them..I think..I will remove them...
Hopefully.. One day .. soon.. warm weather will be back.. Cold.. is sucks..

Paully
The rich retired have already left for Victoria Island in BC. The non-rich have their figs in the garage at -4C with the heater ON! The worst is to come tomorrow night with -15C outside the garage so I may need a 2nd heater to heat the tall drafty garage.
However, the precious ones and the Desert Kings and other with breba crop are safely hibernating in a cozy cold cellar with limited space shared with other stuff.

I place a blanket over the trees and have a small fan if temp hits the -3*C(26*F). The blanket traps a lot of warm air, especially if U have a tarp over the blanket.

Most rich retirees lived on mainland, closer to loved ones. Better medical facilities & food on  mainland than the island plus we have the international airport. The scenic ride on the ferry is nice but inconvenient -- sailing always subject to weather and traffic issues.

WOW!  After reading the Freezing stories , I think we have some tough
fig fanciers ! But, the few days of 19/20 degrees here is enough for this old, fat man! Fred

OH MY GOSH!!!  It was 12 degree in Charlotte this morning!  What is going on with the weather!  This is VERY RARE for Charlotte.  Our cold weather has started a month eariler this year.  I hope my in ground trees survive!  I have a large container 3 year old Stella tree on my covered deck in the wind.  I felt so bad watching the temperatures drop last night.  So I placed it up against my house against the brick fireplace wall and placed a black bag over it.  I also wrapped the trunk with 1 strip of plastic cable hides.  I hope she survives.

This was the first year I got 4 huge red interior figs from a small thick tree.  Last year growth was very slow and I only got 2 amber interior figs. This year it doubled its growth and I was able to air layer one limb.  Junior is growing very fast.  I got it potted up inside my garage in a one gallon pot.  So, if Mom dies, Junior will have to take over.  Cheers,

Akram,

Sorry for taking so long to respond to you, been busy.

I might just take you up on the book offer.
We can add a new location, Just spent some time with Gene and his wife and Vivian ( noss ). They took me out to eat at a Cajun restaurant, Had some alligator, Yummy Yummy.

Good morning, Y'all.... the winter did come early this year, already saw out first 40 degrees mornings in South Florida (zone 10), my ficazzana white fig has some leaves on it still and I removed most of the fruit and just left one or two figs in case we get a return to "normal" for a couple of weeks and they might ripen... I doubt it.

The large black mission is already growing new leaves...It thinks spring is here already?

First pic is the ficazzana white from last year May 8, first fig on Mother's day... my wife enjoyed. It was almost fist sized.
 It was a dry and warm spring, hopefully we'll have another warm and dry spring

Well they say we will be hitting 32 f today first time in 8 days we might make it over the freezing mark for the high.

Not complaining it will feel warm then back to the chill next week.
Heck it was a balmy 59 in Miami yesterday.

Here I am in Florida and got hit with a freeze Mon and Tues lost 90% of veggies, Toms, cucumbers, beans and some peppers and eggplant another freeze is expected for this coming Monday. This cold usually doesn't hit till mid Jan-Feb. I planted late and did not get to pick any toms and only a few beans I picked last week. 

SAL
My sympathy for your weather from zone 5a !!
We had 1.5*F ( - 17*C) from last mid-night until 4am. Then it shot up to a high of 6.5*F. Besides cold, there are frequent abnormalities in the temperature patterns as well; like it could be very deep freeze cold during a day and then abnormally start going up a few degrees at midnight or in the very early mornings when it is suppose to go down. This can happen but this fall it is happening frequently. I may have to complain to Al Gore.

Ottawan please stop sending the cold weather south toards me.
I will then stop sending it eastward and them folks back east will stop sending it south towards Sal.

Notice Jon is kinda quiet? As of late there temps are decent but they had no summer this season as most of us had a warmer summer than Jon !

Ottawan Al Gore really screwed up .

Personally i think were gonna get a little more than average snowfall this season by me as for cold thats always expected in January - February 
Hopefully though the winter will moderate come early March similar to last season.

Feeling sorry for Sal? Well i would say no years ago when i was trudging in it at the train yards at work and freezing, but since we have decent chance of living there in future i feel sorry for Sal oh yessssssss .   ; )
I still have a very hard time thinking how tomatoes and stuff can grow at this time of year growing up near Chicago all my life.

I'm sitting here in Baytown, Tx. ( Houston ) and it is 70F.
I will enjoy every minute of it. HeHeHe

Today was the first day I really got out to see damage as it really hurt since I started everything from seed this year and was late because of personal reasons to planting. Same as figs when you watch your young starts get going and then bada bing something goes wrong it really hurts, they are only plants and trees I know but we all know the time, effort and dedication we put in no matter what the crop is. Chin Up and March is just around the corner for second planting of some veggies and I will roll the dice on a few others next week after next cold front passes.
I hope this doesn't bore any one but I just took a few picks to show good and bad
Martin both the VDB and Ronde have figs.
My Panache has only one left which will probably fall off  
Tim MBVS has put on figs again and I've eaten a few as recent as today. Not great at this time but beats nothing as you can still tell it has a good flavor if conditions and age of tree were better
Gorgi The Sal Corleone can not be slowed down as I've tried to prune and it just send up growth and figs. Must be nice to be young and full of vigor. It is still in 3 gal pot and about 5 ft tall even after trimming a bit 2 months ago. In late Feb I plan to trim down to about 32 inches and not repot till May after bud break but before leaves form  
Here are some pics of veggies and figs








MBVS


Blk U/K


Panache


Sal Corleone


Yard Long Beans about 12-16 inches short lol but still good


Damage to cucs and beans

Hey Ben. Where abouts are you in S. FL? I lived in the Naples area for 10 years. I can see some pineapple growth in that pic of yours :-) . That's one of the few things I miss about being that far south. Plenty of citrus, mangos & other sub-tropical fruit.

snagl; That does seem a bit extreme (12F) for you guys for anytime in the winter! The lowest I've seen at my place so far was +15F. Not too far off from you but it's a bit more expected in zone 6 this time of year.

Martin; 59F for Miami might seem a bit "balmy" to us right now but that's about the temp when many folks down there are putting on their parka!! I used to work with alot of folks from some of the islands (such as hispanola). They would, literally, be walking from the parking lot @ work bundled up in winter coats if the temp "dropped" into the 50's. I would pick on them for doing so & they would call me crazy for wearing only a t-shirt. Ha!

I guess if you've never in your life been exposed to any kind of cold, 50 might seem extreme. All about perspective I suppose. One of the girls from Haiti I worked with, once told me that she had visited family in KY in the dead of winter. She vowed to never go back. Guess she feared she might perish from exposure! hehe!

As for the topic of figs....I'm starting to fidgit. Thinking about starting a couple cuttings just to get my fix ;-) .     

Just got the weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday.  We got snow coming in the mountains on Monday and record breaking temps for the Piedmont to be 10 degrees with a wind chill of 0!  Outch!  I have to get out and wrap my in ground trees tomorrow before it hits on Monday!  Wish me luck!

Hey Bass, where is our mild weather?

Bill, yes those are pineapples mixed in with  a few fig plants. I have a big yard but I am very 'space challenged' and with two big orchid shadehouse and large pool enclosure, and many desert roses and several tropical fruit trees I do not have much 'yard' left to properly space and plant many fig trees.
Pineapples do very well down here, there is NO COMPARISON tween store bought and plant ripened pineapples. The fragrance alone is intoxicating and sugar content goes through the roof, with reduced acid content. The plants I have are Maui gold from Maui (Hawaii).

Sal, sorry about your veggies, the recent cold snap was un-expected for this time of year.
I will be starting some specialty eggplant seeds in the next few days, I'll let you know when they are ready in 4inch pots and can deliver them to PSL during one of my service calls if you're interested. Let me know if you're interested in an air layered BM fig 3 gall pot about 3 ft tall, it's looking for a home.

Hi Ben and thank you for the offer but I am not adding any figs at this time. I would guess the BM is Black Mission. It would be nice to meet. My garden is small but it does OK for our needs. PM or email me when you are in my area and maybe we can set something up. Again thanks for your generous offer  

Fig confusion! Is BM Black Mission or Black Madeira or ??

Yeah, from the above contest , I presume that BM  =  Black Mission.