Young ins don't know any better and never listen to adults.

Hi Alan.

Nick- I would try and be proactive with pinching and removing buds to stop the new growth from forming and promote branching, or stop it once a few nodes have formed if the branches are in a good place for a branch to be.

If the containers are not very large and growth is just starting or buds are enlarging rather than shrinking, take them back up to the porch and cool them down that way for a while. You could cover them over to protect the roots and any younger growth, but fresh green growth cannot stand any freezing and covering them up and putting them right next to the house will only gain you about ten degrees from the street temps. NY City really is quite warm for its distance north though, so maybe you could still have a few weeks of temps above 25.

I look forward to seeing how this turns out, I think insulating the pipe will really help cool things down and lower your Mom's heating bill some; fig growing is beneficial in so many ways :) They make us more attentive to our surroundings in order to serve them better. Also, the subway nearby might be making the street side wall warmer too, Alan is right to question what the temperature down there will ultimately be this winter.

A real fun thing to try, that will work, in theory, is to build a little "swamp cooler" all over the awakening trees by wrapping them 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 moist branches will change and roots would eventually form after a month or more, it could also cause fresh growth or buds to rot. The relative humidity in the basement should also be low enough for the water to evaporate fast in order to do substantial cooling, if it is humid down there then don't even bother trying. Like I said, I guarantee this to work, in theory, but there could be more problems than benefits. Desperate times call for desperate measures so I thought you would like to consider the idea.

I wonder what the branches would develop like without any sunlight to harden them, as well. I think light is important, young branches are photosynthetic for sure with all that chlorophyll showing. Leaf development might matter too when it comes to girth. If they develop into flimsy but still healthy twigs I think it might be OK because lateral branching is supposed to increase fruiting. The soft growth will, however, draw the trees energy reserves without giving anything back and cause the tree to lose more water for months till they harden. I would not let them grow too much if you want to keep or prune now if you do not want the branch.

Out of curiosity, what varieties are waking back up?

My opinion: since it's growing put your grow lights down there and keep them going if it doesn't get cold enough in there eventually.

What does a guy from paradise know - but I would just try and lower the temp and let them be.

Unfortunately I think that's easier said than done.

I've had the same problem for years with the weather in TX.  One year, when my trees were small, I bare-rooted all of the trees and put them (about 40 of them) in the fridge.  It actually worked amazingly well.  There was one variety (I think it was Alma) which didn't seem to like the fridge too much, and a couple of the tree were large enough they touched the sides of the fridge and were damaged by condensation.

Perhaps you can slightly open an escape window to allow more cold air into the basement.  Or build a box in the basement and run a vent pipe from outside into the box to make a small fridge.

~james

We have a fig sucker in a pot (wine grape juice bucket) that stayed in the garage for the winter last year and started growing January 2011. There were several points of new growth but it was not green but all white and very alien-like. My garage gets pretty good natural light but I guess not enough to turn them green.

The new growth all browned and died off by spring time and this particular fig tree grew nothing through the spring/summer 2011 and in September finally decided to give me a treat and show a few leaves.

This year we have the potted fig trees on the most shady outer wall on the inside of my garage. Hopefully cool enough.

I appreciate everyone's input.

The blanched shoots actually look tasty to me, I bet they would make one cup of really gourmet fig tea.

Hi everyone