Hey all - just moved to Truckee, CA (zone 6) and am looking to add some figs to my solarium room. The house is a passive solar envelope house, with a south facing room the has mainly windows and skylights, so for all intents and purposes is a psuedo-greenhouse (15+ feet ceiling). Large temp swings over the course of the day/night. In addition to a hydroponic salad wall, I have a dream of having some fig trees - so came across this forum and thought some ya'll could help. I'm a DIY geek, so want to make the system as automated and productive as possible. Probably going to have 2-3 plants, and was hoping to do it hydroponically. I have room for a sump/pump system, and the figs would be permanent  - i.e. not need to be moved. I'll probably build a nice looking planter for the whole thing, to match the room decor. So, I'd love advise on what is the best hydroponic system to use (siphon bell/bed, continuous drip nutrient solution in media, etc.) as well as 1-2 good varieties to use in my climate - they'll need to be cold hardy for the winter. I've just started learning hydroponics, and the salad wall I'll be building will be sort of a NFT system with gutters and net pots, recirculating pump with a nutrient solution sump. If I can employ the same basic to the figs, that would be awesome - but if another system is better, I'm all for it. Reason I would prefer hydroponics is that the solarium room is a finished living space, so it would be less dirty, etc.

Thanks for the help!

Best, Peter

Welcome to the forum!  No fig survives a Z6 winter unprotected.  You seem to be saying this is a room of the house yet the figs have to be cold hardy.  Tell us more about the temperatures the room will experience.  Highs and lows in the summer and winter.  

As far as I know there's not much published research on figs in hydroponics but I've never searched for that.  I think figs do best in pots 12 gal and up if that helps at all.  Breba crops are killed somewhere around 27 - 25 degrees, fig wood is killed at 17 degrees and figs break dormancy somewhere between 45 - 60 degrees.  They need at least 6 hours of sun to be healthy, more is better.

Hey rcantor - thanks for the reply! This is the solarium of the house - in a passive solar house, so it is positioned facing south at the calculated angle to catch the most light in the winter, etc. It has six 4' x 7' picture windows, and twelve 3x3 skylights - so it is mostly windows, and designed for solar heat gain. We get big temp swings here, 40-50 degrees in a day at the most extreme, so the temp will swing a bit in that room. The previous owners of the house basically had a jungle growing in there, so I know it can support plants year round. I would say it will get down to low 40's at night in the winter, and get up to 60's in winter, even if it is 10 degrees outside (if sunny) I'm learning a bit how to control the heat by opening the skylights, etc.  - something I eventually want to automate. I'm installing a salad wall (~NFT rail system on a 6' wide, by 12' tall wall) as well, so will have some heaters hooked up to a thermostat to prevent freezing, if it ever gets that cold. Room has fans for circulation as well.

In my initial research of figs plants, I've come across several species that are cold hardy (Chicago hardy, etc.) so thought might as well plant those because of the added resistance to temperature, that's all.

Your temp milestones for breba crops and dormancy are helpful - thanks. My wife likes the look of fig plants as well, so if we can keep it from dropping leaves - that would be great too, but I assume the leaves will drop in the winter. But, I'm more interested in the fruit : )  I was thinking about using hydroponics, just because it is a little cleaner for the living space, and would be nice to have a larger hydroponic planter for several plants, and maybe a few other larger vegetables I can't grow in the salad wall rail system. Not wed to hydroponics, but it seems I'd have more control over the growing conditions that way - could keep the nutrient solution a constant temp independent of the room temp swings, etc. Don't have a lot of experience with growing in pots. Would want the figs to probably stay 8-10 feet high at the height of seasonal growth (room has sloped ceilings from 8' to about 16').

I think you are right - hence my post. Found a few videos, but not much about growing figs hydroponically. Not sure why it wouldn't work, but would be nice to see someone else has done it : )

<< No fig survives a Z6 winter unprotected. >>

I don't want to make a federal case out of this, and I don't mean that this is a reliable strategy, but some unprotected figs survive Z6 winters.  Some die to the ground, then regrow.  Some lose branches but survive.  As an experiment last summer, I planted Gene's Paradiso on the NE side of a big rock. It survived the winter with zero damage.  Granted it was a mild Z6 winter but it was still 5-10 F at the lows.

<< Breba crops are killed somewhere around 27 - 25 degrees, fig wood is killed at 17 degrees >>

What's the basis for these very precise statements?  Is there some science?  FWIW, I have harvested brebas on in-ground plants after winters at or below -5 F.  Yes, these were "protected" figs but the protection only blocks wind and sun, it doesn't provide heat.  And just last week I saw a couple dozen brebas on a DK stored last winter in an unheated detached garage in Z5.  Winter temps in that garage last winter probably dropped to 10 F or below.  

I think it is fair to say that these plants will be "protected" - inside, etc. and loved, so it won't be an issue. I'm sure there are exceptions to every rule, but the general milestone temps are helpful at least. Looking for advice on hydroponics for figs - thanks!