Leaves and fruit are still on my figs even after two nights in a row with temps down to 28F. I am in St Louis MO and in another week to a week and a half we are supposed to be in the upper 20's every night. I am new to figging, and wonder if I should just cut all the figs off and them maybe the plants will start to go dormant so I can bundle them up for the winter. I have no place to put them in, so they will overwinter outside.

Are they in ground or in pots?  If they are to stay outside in STL, your concern is not whether they go dormant now or next week or the next, but how to allow them to survive the winter outdoors.  Especially if they are in pots.  If they are in ground there are ways to wrap/bury them, but if they are in pots you are going to have to be smart about insulating them enough so the root mass doesn't freeze solid and die. 

Hi Bevman,
Knock half of the figs already and let the trees go dormant .
If the trees are in small pots it will be hard for them to survive ...
In which usda zone are you ?

All of my trees are in ground.
We just had 2 nights in a row below freezing.
Every fig in the orchard has wrinkled up leaves.
Beings the leaves will be falling in a day or so I
removed all the figs on all my trees.
I do not want the plant trying to produce any fruit this late.
I would rather the strength of the tree to focus on its roots.
Besides, its "cutting" time after the leaves fall.
I can't harvest cuttings with figs still attached....


Doug

I've been knocking off the figs on my potted figs for the past month, knowing that didn't have a chance in...well you get the point, but that hasn't induced any dormancy.  We've had back to back nights around 32 here in GA, and my plants still have leaves too.  My in ground one (which is actually a clone of one of my potted ones) seems to finally be losing its leaves.  I don't think it's from going dormant though, but probably because the frost nipped it last night.  My two potted ones are going strong, even though most of the figs in the area have yellowed and lost most of their leaves (Because, you know, it's not creepy to notice who in town has good sized fig trees when driving by...right?).

I'm going to leave my potted ones out until lows are expected to hit 25.  Even though I have huge pots, it's not worth risking going any lower than that to me.  They come into the garage after that.  I might bring the smaller one inside though...the cat likes the fig trees (she spends all winter rubbing on them), and they exit dormancy and leaf out in late winter in a sunny window if you're lucky.

TL;DR:  I don't think you can convince a fig to go dormant.  It does what it does.  Bring it in your garage or home once it hits 25 for lows though.

My figs are in pots and my smallest pot is 10 gallon and I have already lifted it into my old compost pile and buried the pot. The walls of this bin are a foot higher then the plant. As soon as my leaves are gone my plan was to gather the limbs and bind them together, wrap them in sheets, lay the plant sideways, and bury them with a foot of leaves.
 The second pot is half of a 55 gallon plastic barrel so it is heavy and a large mass. I have fencing circling it, spaced a foot from it and I am stuffing the circle with leaves. When this one goes dormant, I will gather the branches and bind them, wrap in sheets, and finish filling my fence cage with leaves till I am over a foot above the branches or more.
 This was my first year at growing and still have not had one to eat but I sure have a lot of them but they just haven't ripened fully, but they are much larger then a quarter.
 Someone who I work with brought me my first fresh figs in the fall of 2013, and I knew I had to learn more and grow them myself. My first two I bought from Gurneys. Now my fellow worker brought me an air layered cutting she was able to make after I taught her how to do it. She says she and her husband have tried rooting cuttings before with no success. Her fig is very special to her and her husband because his grandpa brought the cuttings with him from Italy when he came to America. All they have done with it in the winter is bury the ground and the trunk with two feet of mulch every fall and every spring it comes back, it was big. Then the winter of 2013-2014 happened and we went below 0 several times and it did not come back this spring. She told me about it and said have you removed the mulch and she said not yet because we wait till it buds but it is late budding. I told her I suspect the upper half of the tree froze but get the mulch off the base and watch the miracle happen. A couple weeks later she cane and told me the yard that was under the mulch looked liked a missile launch site with all the shoots coming up. I told her these will grow fast because they have all the roots stored energy and that they did. Some are more the five feet tall now. She has made several air layers using what I taught her.
 The leave is different then the others I have and it is covered in a spiny hair that you can only stroke away from the main branch. If you stroke it toward the branch, the hairs are almost like thorns, they are very prickly. I am going to try to attach some pics of mine
                  

Dirt under the fingernails.  A true gardener! 

I hope the bundling method works out well.  I've seen lots of pictures of folks who did it, so I see no reason why it wouldn't work.  I would be hesitant to wrap them up BEFORE the leaves come off though....I feel like that sets up conditions that could induce rotting....but I have limited to no experience with the matter, so take that advice with a grain of salt.  Sounds like you're already planning on that, so not a problem I suppose.

I will say that I am originally a midwesterner...and I know winters can get brutal sometimes.  I agree with an above poster...burying the pots will matter, so I'm glad you found a space for the 10 gallon one.   The big one will probably be fine.....probably.  I can't see 20-30 gallons of dirt freezing solid unless you have a 3-4 days in a row where it doesn't break 30...even the sun should warm it up enough.  I know where I grew up (northern Indiana) that was a concern...it could stay sub 20 for several days in a row.  How does StL fair?  If you think you have a chance at many days in a row that are sub-freezing day and night, I might try to take some extra measures.  Maybe wrap the pot in something black to help it heat up during the day?

Not trying to make you paranoid...just thinking cautiously.

I am in Zone 5a  and by this time every year the fig pots are already stored inside but not this year. We already had 25F two three time in the last ten days but many of the plants still have green leaves.The younger one and the older ones in the most sunny locations are reluctant to drop the leaves. I am leaving it outside until the dormancy sets in and the leaves fall but am concern that it will become a tough job if there is a heavy snow dump or very cold and windy.

@cyberfarmer : I just harvested 30 figs this morning :) - as I feared the ufti has early brebas but late main crop figs. I leave the figs that I think can ripen before this coming winter
and knock the others to try to get the tree to focus on ripening the figs.
I leave some figs that have no chance to ripe, but this is to slow down the trees or those 0#@!!# would grow new leaves and that would be a drama at this point !
Last year, winter was some mild here, and some figs did survive the winter on the trees, but exposed cold damage once ripe - that is all inside areas were not fully developped and the figs had clear brown stains on the skin.
That happened on one unknown I have, on "Goutte d'or", and on some uftis trees. So this year, I'll knock them all off.

Bevman,

I think your winter protection plan should be sufficient.  At least I can't think of anything better you could do in your situation.  However, I doubt any of the figs that are on your tree now will ripen.  I knocked off any figs that hadn't started swelling a couple weeks ago.  Had my last two figs of the season a few days ago.

What varieties are you growing?  You may want to grow a variety that is able to produce in a shorter season.  

How old are your trees?  Maybe as they mature they will be able to produce a bit earlier (or maybe not).  Or if the winter is less harsh and/or spring comes sooner in 2015.  There may be some other tricks you could employ, but I think the best bet is to grow a variety that produces in a short season. 

I got to plants from Gurney spring 2014 and they called it everbearing but they state it is a Brown Turkey. They were trying to get rid of them so I got two for the price of one and it was late in the spring. Planted them when they arrived and the one struggled while the other shot up like a weed. The one that grew rapidly, on the branches that grew in the wrong direction I air layered them and gave them away. I have two more air layers in progress that are about 6 weeks old and debating if I should wait till spring to separate them.
  I figure because they did not get into a pot till late spring is why the fruit showed late, and the cooler weather has slowed their growth.