Good day, the wife and I are planning our retirement and me being retired mlitary...I'm seeking a state that does not tax military retirement. And if I'm gonna move, it has to be to somewhere hot like CA, FL or TX. Our neice is in the Air Force and just bought a house in San Ann! So, now the wife is thinking and I'm thinking about growing figs there!!!!!

So, are there any forum friend that live in San Ann? If so, how cold does it get there?

You can't beat Texas for land, housing prices and climate!

Hi Dennis,

I live about an hour and a half drive from San Antonio. San Antonio is generally hotter than Austin (about 5 degrees F) and home prices are more affordable than in Austin.
As far as I know they have excellent services for Veterans down there. We get our cold spells (Freezing temperatures) but they usually don't last. The summers are very hot. 
As an example the temperature today at 8 am was 31 degrees in Austin. The temperature in San Antonio was 35. Freezing drizzle in San Antonio today caused by a winter storm. We have a winter weather advisory over central Texas today until 10 am. This means that patchy slick spots are on highways and bridges < 1/10 of an inch of ice which would cause travel difficulties. In general most icy conditions are usually gone by noon.

During the winter, I've seen temperature dip to the high teens at night, but it always warms up during the days. 40 or 50's on Cold days.
We've had days where temperatures were in the high 70's even 90's in February.

Thanks Justin and Sas. We're seriously considering moving there. We're going there in April for the fiesival for 4 days. I am so excited! The wife is cold natured and we both love the heat! Knowing me, I will be seeking about 5 acres. That should be plenty for my trees.

Dennis,

I did a search this morning mainly because I want to know historical weather data for my own area.  I found this amazing link.  You just put the city in the search field, and click on the correct thing in the drop down.  You will get todays weather, but right under the title, San Antionio, Texas is a bunch of links.  Click on the one that says Historic Averages.  Amazing info there!

I am bookmarking Intellicast for sure! 

Suzi

Dennis,
  Here's something to consider.
  San Antonio, like other part of the country, is experiencing a prolonged, multi-year drought.  It has been especially bad these last few years, but I've been hearing about water-related issues on and off for 10 years.
  If you're looking for 5 acres, they you'll be looking around the outskirts of San Antonio.  (San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the US, partly due to the fact that the city-limits encompass a huge area well outside the downtown city center.) That might put you into the "boonies" where you may be on well water.  The geology beneath the San Antonio area is limestone-based and riddled (in a good way) with caves and aquafers -- but the water reserves in the aquafers has been dropping due to the sustained droughts.  This might be a challenge for watering 5 acres of figs.  (Come on, you know you're going to fill up all 5 acres!!!)
  I don't know details, but San Antonio is surrounded by multiple military bases, and the city itself seems very military-friendly.
Cheers,
Jim
PS -- the B-B-Q at Rudy's is pretty darn tasty.

They usually allow 2 or 3 acre feet per acre owned depending on location. If you have a well on the property then getting permission to irrigate should not be a problem especially the further away from the city you get. In most areas, the maximum withdrawal allowed presently is 2 acre feet, per contiguous acre controlled, per year. Here's some idea about regulations in the district of one of my properties http://www.posgcd.org/regulations/
Every district has its own rules. If you use city water to irrigate your yard, it could get expensive. My summer water bill is at least three to four times my winter bill.

1 acre foot ≈ 325,853.383688 U.S. gal

Dennis,

My wife is fron Central Texas. We met when I was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division and stationed at Ft. Hood. We lived a number of years in and around San Antonio. We loved it there. It has become congested and busy. You have to do some research as there are rougher sides of town.

We had a small ranch (50 Acres) of pecan trees in a town called Hondo, about 45 mins southwest of San Antonio. later, we moved into town on the north side just outside of the loop (1604), near hwy 281. Others are correct, you will need to live in the burbs if you want 5 acres or so. There are many nice areas and towns to choose from. San Antonio's water is provided by the Edwards Aquifer. Wells were grandfathered in 20 years ago. I am not sure what the current state is for obtaining water rights on new homes.

San Antonio is a very veteran friendly town, with lots of medical facilities and bases. Winters are usually mild. Periods of cold and ice are brief. Summers are brutally hot. 105 and hotter is not unusual. We used to have to water our house foundation periodically to help prevent it from cracking.

We had a wonderful time and would go back to San Antonio in a heartbeat.

Not from SA, but I live ~1 hour North.  Average home prices around SA are definitely lower than around Austin.  

Personally I would look into Canyon Lake, and New Braunfels close enough, but far enough from City yeah know.  East of I-35 will be lower costs with land being cheaper, more land for your money, but to me not as pretty as the places I mentioned before.

I had wanted to move to New Braunfels or San Marcos, but wife's job is in Austin.

Early to mid April will be mesmerizing here.  As everyone above said, Spring and Falls are great, Summer...well good to know you like heat.

I love the heat (our mild winters still destroy me), but even I am ready for a break by September.  Summer temps start in May and continue most years until second/third week of October (good for figs).

thanks guys and gals for all your comments.  I've visited Dallas several time in the 90s when I was in military.  And of course, I did my ROTC training at Lackland AFB.  I really thinking of my fig trees.  I know many of my varieties will grow extremely well there.  But the water issue is something to consider.  We will be flying there sometime in Mid April to scout out the area.  

Just days ago here in Charlotte, we had temps below 20 and on Wednesday it's suppose to reach 70.  The up and down weather has my trees totally confused and our rainy season is about to start.  I have so many tree starting to leaf out now and there is no stopping them!  I love Charlotte but not a fan of the weather.  We're planning our final stage for retirement and it would be nice to live in a warm weather state.  Wilmington NC is an idea, but I'm not sure about the climate there.  Another place to consider.

Dennis,

If you are planning on planting them in the ground, you will need supplemental water the first year.  Mulch yearly and you should be fine after that.  To me the big issue with growing in Central Texas is there is no easing the trees into dormancy.  It generally stays warm enough to keep the trees green right up until the first freeze.  There were a couple of years ~60F was the coolest temperatures we had before a cold front dropped us into winter.

I have not done a lot of travelling through New Braunfels and San Marcos.  I have been through a few times and it always strikes me as particularly woody.  Not a lot of super tall trees but probably cedar, elm and oak trees.  If you are allergic to cedar, this may not be the best place.  I'm not sure how rocky the ground is, but I'm willing to bet you will need to do a fair amount of work on the land.  The area is a good place to also grow Pomegranates and low-chill peaches.

Dennis,

Have you ever been on the SA river walk tour? If you have, did you notice a fig tree growing out of the side of an old restaurant? I remember when I visited a few years back, my eyes caught the shape of the leaves and the color of the wood and I immeadiately knew what it was. I never got to stop by and see it up close. I was pretty amazed to see it growing like that. Definitely a fig friendly area

Best of luck!

Dennis, I noticed you mentioned retiring in California as a possibility in your first post.  Have you looked into how you would get all your trees into the state?  Would they have to be in quarantine for a while?  We are also thinking of making a move at some point to another state and CA would be one possibility.  The logistics of moving a fig tree collection there sounds daunting though.

Dan,
  What was your ID of the tree growing out of the wall on the riverwalk?  I saw it for the first time last spring, and I got cuttings of it when I was there last fall. 
The people who work at the restaurant say it is Brown Turkey, but I'm not so sure!  (Sometimes people who know just a little about figs think everything is a Brown Turkey!)  The business card of the restaurant has a graphic of a tree with green figs on it.  In the sprinb it looked like there was a breba crop,  but perhaps some main crop from the previous season stayed on through the winter.  The unripe main crop figs had only very short stems --- the figs were growing very close to the branches.
Jim

Don, I don't recall seeing it when I was there. But I will check it out.

Steve, I'm not worried about getting my trees there. I'll get them there if I move there.

James, if I move to Texas, it's gota be San Antonio or further south. And if I move to Florida, it will be in the Tampa area or a bit further south.

I moved a bunch of plants to OR, which may not be the same.  I had my state Ag dept come out and issue a phytosanitary certificate and that plus a form I got from the OR dept of AG was all I needed.  If it happens, call the state dept of Ag for CA and they'll tell you what to do.