Good afternoon everyone, well last night they did not call for frost or even close to it. Well guess what? Yep, a nice layer of frost this morning in my area of town. Some of my fig trees took a heavy hit. Some of the little trees, all the leaves are dried up. They look like it's 100 outside and they have not been watered in days. Do you folks think they will re leaf and be OK? I'm so upset that it's not even funny. Even my grape vines took another hit again last night. I'm about to give up after all this hard work. Thanks Frank

Fespo, hang in there I know how you must feel. I think the trees will be ok and will leaf out again, hopefully just a temporary setback. This spring has been frustrating because we get days in the upper 70's and you think all is safe and then the next day the temps drop like a rock. I can't wait for the fig shuffle to end !!!

 Pete

I have had the same issue once this season, they are starting to come out of it now after 2 weeks.  The worst part was most of the trees were ok, but one Panachee only has two branches, one got hit with frost and 6 inches over the other wasn't touched.

Fespo i saw 35 on aol forcast for our part of will county just type in your zip code and it will give you the current temp and forcasted low for that night.
The little guys you had out will take the hardest hit though.
Dont give up Frank
All my trees came in as there in containers when i saw that forecast as you know its not an exact science and some forecast are for the city which stays warmer for right now until a little later spring then we have the advantage during day and night until the cold season comes around and its once again colder here in the outlying area's such as now during the night.
The other night the low temps where in the upper 20s here and if your tree's were in containers or inground and unprotected well you know what happens.

Just let them be, and let them tell you want is good, and what is toast. Tender new growth does take a hit. keep them as warm as possible to encourage recovery and new growth.

Don't give up! If it warms up soon, they should still do well, as long as the roots are strong. Even if the top dies, many figs will put up a whole new plant from the rootstock. Black plastic works pretty well for light to moderate frost, just take it up when the sun comes out.

I have a Paradiso that got hit twice as such. We had a very early spring this year. I pruned cuttings off the tree in November after it had gone dormant. Shortly after that it starting budding out. It was hit by a heavy frost that killed all the buds. It budded again shortly and again on Jan. 29 it got hit by frost that killed all the buds. It budded again and the third time was a charm. It's growing nicely with figs on it. So don't give up hope there is always a chance as figs are real hardy.
"gene"

Good morning everyone, thanks for the info. Yes all my trees are in pots, from 1 gallon to half wooden wine barrels. Yesterday morning once i got out of subdivision there was no frost go figure. The best part is I have all the frost blankets sitting right in the grass. With about 40 trees, its to hard to move them back into the garage. I do move them next to the house (south side) and cover when we have a real cold snap and everything was fine.I'm a big time gardener and even my grape vines took a hit again. This spring is just NOT RIGHT. Frank

I will try to post a few pictures this afternoon after work.

Normal spring Frank...lol
We just got spoiled here cause of a week or 2 of 70 and 80 degreew weather and everything greened up and then suddenly more seasonal temps.

Hi guys,

well I saw it was 33 degrees and frost on my cars so at 6:10 am I headed out and turned on my hose with the hand sprinkler attachment and hosed down all my trees like I have done for many of years with my young garden crops as well. It worked as you can see on the attached photos I just took.

You can also see the leaves that I must have missed with the stream of water because they are burned. Next time I will have to spend a bit more time spraying them so I don't miss any. All in all they fared out pretty well seeing that they had not been out that long to get hardened off.

Don't forget to drain your hose of water after turning it off because if it goes below freezing when you go to spray the trees in the morning-surprise no water.

Lou

Was there frost already on them and spraying them saved them or you caught tem before the frost set in? I would have thought the frost would have happened on them already by 6am.

No the frost had already settled on them. It seems like if you wash them early in the morning then the damazge can be halted up to a point. My cars that are parked just next to them where thick with frost. I know I tried scratching the windshield and that when I deceided to spray them down. I also did my young pawpaw in the back yard that have a few flowers on them and no damage was done to any of them. Checked them out just a bit after noon.
Give it a try. I have been gardening many years and it always worked on my young veggies when frost hit. Remember a frost and not a hard freeze.
I cover with blankets for those events
Lou

So basically you just melt the light frost before it can freeze the cells?  It seems really simple, I don't know how they do the citrus but california and florida, some growers use sprinklers if there is a frost but I don't know or how they decide to.

I guess it works because frost is usually in the last hours before sunrise and its not on the trees that long?

Tonight's forecast low Central coastal NJ
weather.com  36 F
accuweather.com  35 F
weatherunderground.com  36 F
Grumble grumble grumble

Hopefully the danger of frost is over now.
Currently, we are having some strong gusts of westernly winds, here in NJ.
http://hint.fm/wind/

Hi George, I hope your correct but in this area I doubt we have seen the last frost as yet. It's very windy today here as well.

George if Bass has the fig get together in his yard this spring are you going? I hope to make it to this one. I cut a few branches and cut them up for cuttings from my trees while they where still in my garage just to give to anyone there if they are interested.
Hope to see you
Lou

Freeze warnings tonight in MA.  It's one of those bordline calls where the low is predicted to be 31F.  It's very windy now so hopefully that will keep the temp up.  I'll bring in the smaller figs.  I'm already getting no peaches on the in ground peach tree do to the swinging temps.  Hopefully the one in the container will give me peaches.

Just saw the weather channel and they where scrolling a hard freeze warning for early morning tomarrow across the screen for are area. It
indicated all flowering fruit and veggies can be in danger. I did not want to but I gave in and started pulling all my fig trees back into the garage. To much wind so the blankets are out of the question. The older I get the more I hate doing this.

Last year after all the work the squrrels ate most of my figs as  soon as they ripened. It took them many years to learn that they liked figs. This spring I started a catch and release program. So far my wife and I relocated 12 of them. I'll have to set out the trap every time I see them around my bird feeders.
Wish all of you good luck with your trees!!!
Lou

I spent two days pulling my trees out of storage with help of another person. I'm not gonna bring anything in. With the wind, I hope there won't be frost. We're expecting 28°-30° by tomorrow morning. 

I know Bill has a fig cart he makes but has anyone else had luck with casters or any method to make it easier bringing figs in and out, I only have 20 that I am bring in and out, the 3 gallons don't bother me so much with their pre-molded handles but i can see that big buckets with rope handles will be a huge pain in the neck.

The only other option which I will do is put up a hoop house, still this will be a pain moving them from the garage to the hoop house in the spring, has anyone tried bills cart?  It seems like it would make things easier.

I'm going to perform the dreaded fig shuffle very shortly!

Martin said "if your tree's were in containers or inground and unprotected well you know what happens."
I am not sure if frost is worse than -6C expected here tonight.
Unfortunately I have to take a chance since I have already buried the pots (when help was offered). So probably I will find out soon what happens. I was able to bring in only the one gallon pots everything else stays outside.
In early April I was caught with -10C after a few days at 24c. it was sudden and I lost some prized plants in containers other than figs which never shoot from roots. I am looking for some 'good prayer ' to recite' because covering will be difficult and may not work @-6C.
I will watch what happens to breba fruit. It will take a few days before I know what happened because fresh frozen parts of the plant look fresh.

Friday Night

Do you have any insulation?  The bubble foil, Styrofoam or the fiberglass seems to work well maybe it can help for -6?

I'm so glad I live in the city, a true benefit tonight, no frost predicted should only go into the 40s.