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outdoor freezing vs indoor fig jungle

It's freezing cold outdoor, about -10C/14F in the morning.
My fish pond has freeze overnight:


Even air bubble is frozen:


Koi are swiming under the ice:


Inside my sunroom.


Grow lights on top of the shelf. Some fig trees receive extra light at night, space heater and circulation fan at the bottom.


The 5 gallon bucket is to bring the water from my koi pond, this recycled water is ideal for plants.


Running out of space, so small pots on top of big pots


Fig are sprouting in all size of diameter, pretty crowded


Rooting inside lunch box, the open box is one node propagation.

You got a nice setup! Talk about production, WOW! How many trees do you have?

Nice set up.

Congrats on your one node success.

Awesome.  Can you tell us more about your sun room?  

that's a nice set up in your sun room. i wouldn't mind something like that.

  • jtp

Holy cow! That is a setup, a veritable fig factory.

Jimmy,
             Very nice 'Sun Room' set up . I am amazed that the Koi can survive in that cold ,frozen water temps . they must be very hardy fishes.

very inspireing. i would like to know more about the sun room myself.

This sunroom is about 9'W x 15'L x 8'H, facing SW. One side (15') is attached to my house, so there is no windows, the other 3 sides has 9 windows and one door.  
I keep the temperature between 65 to 70 F. It can drop to 55-60F when temperature is cold outside, and heats up to 80F in a sunny day.
To stablize the temperature, I open the door between sunroom and living room, so the heat will exchange. Another benefit is the humid flows into my house, so no need of humidifier anymore.
I use wireshelf from homdepot (it has 6 shelf, but maximum of 5 shelf can be setup in order to accommodate the bins), so I use S-hook to extend the shelf with the extra shelf. Wireshelf is easy to configure, and maximize the light penetration.

The other side of the room does not have windows, I use it as working bench and storage. I just bring in a fish tank at the bottom, haven't get a chance to bring in any fish yet.


The next project is to install misting nozzles and timer. 

Koi is very cold hardy fish. They will survive as long as the water is not freeze to a solid block.

Serious investment and looks fantastic.

That looks great!  What fig varieties are you growing?

90% is Sals
5% is Petite Negri
the rest 5% are VdB, RdB, Hardy Chicago, JH Adriatic, Lemon, Black Mission, Brown Turkey, Magnolia, Green Ischia, Antonio Black, Marseille Black, Rosmary's purple, Carini (from Frank), Smith, Hunt, Tiger,
unknown 1 (Brown & large, I call it Jumbo Kingsland for now)
unknown 2 (White & large, I call it Victory SI)
unknown 3 (White with red pulp, I call it Rhonda)
unknown 4 (White with amber pulp, I called it unknown white brooklyn)
unknown 5 (I call it New York Ave)
unknown 6 (I call it Montgonery SI)

Except unknown #3(Rhonda) that dies back when freeze, the rest of unknown are collected from my neighborhood (zone 6) without winter protection.

I am only interested in figs that are cold hardy to zone 6. Since I don't have a garage to store them in winter, and my sunroom is pretty tiny. One of my next door neighbor is a neighborhood nazi, so I can't put anything to insulate the trees.

I live in a moble home in zone 6b illinois, i am after cold hardy figs as well. ones that grow unprotected or with minimal protection for a few years. i like your grow room set up. I have been planning on setting up an out building for plant propagation in winer and as a shipping office in spring summer and fall as i sell some plants on ebay as well. but in building an out building like a shed i am told even with inslation, a good space heater, and south faceing windows i will never keep it to temp. some have told me to give up on this ideal that it cant be done.

any thoughts. are they right or wrong. I was going to go with a 12x15. insulate heavly, and panel over that. i would like to do half the roof with curigated clere fiberglass. a bit expensive but now i am thinking it will take away from the inslation. and should just stick with a few windows on the south wall and a few t5 setups.

What is your neighborhood nazi saying about you wrapping your figs outside?  Is it illegal to wrap trees in your yard?

That's really serious indoor setup.  BTW, how deep is the koi pond?  

Try the following varieties: I have the same climate

Florea 
salem dark
lyndhurst wht
Black Greek

Jennifer






To Dave,
Not sure if your sunroom plan will work for the temperture. I think if you use low-E insulated windows, it might keep the heat. If you get it insulate pretty well, the worst scenario will be adding extra heater. I know a company call "four seasons" who build sunroom using glass with some film that blocks infrared. But the price tag is horrible, their quote to extend my sunroom to the front porch (12' x 16', only two walls and a roof) is 80K!!! I believe some company will sell such kind of infrared film with cheap price.  

To Greg,
The neighborhood nazi always complaint about everything on my yard. They don't like this tree or that tree. They even call police if I park my car in my yard. Even I grow tomato and vegitable, she thinks they are ugly. Compost? no, she call it garbage in my yard. So I am planting some bamboo around my fence, and wish she have fun of bamboo shoot in her "beautiful" yard next year.

Scott,
I built the koi pond with 4x4x8 pressure treated wood, this way, I can easily adjust the depth. Again the neighborhood nazi always call zoning board for anything happen in my yard. So the depth of the pond has to be less than 24", otherwise, I need to have 4 ft of fence around it. I do plan to extend my sunroom to enclose this front porch, so the pond will be indoor, then I can increase the depth.

Jennifer,
I do have Lyndhurst White, forgot to put on the list. BTW, I live in Lyndhurst, where Lyndhurst White was found here. 

Dave, sounds like it's a lot of work just to keep your neighborhood nazi happy. If she has a well manicured lawn, a sprayer full of double strength Roundup will set her back. She won't have time to look at everything you do cause she'll be too busy replanting her yard. I had a neighbor like that too so I know what it's like.
I like the bamboo idea. I had that stuff and couldn't get rid of it. It still pops up in spots. You need to put a deep barrier on your side so it doesn't take over your whole yard.
Good luck with the Nazi.

Tony,
I don't mind bamboo shoot in my side. I planted sweet shoot bamboo. We do enjoy eating the shoot.

Ha yard Nazis!
 We got a 6 page lists of rules in the mail when we started planting fruit trees .
 One rule said you would have to put a purposal in writing and wait for a hearing to decide if they would LET ME PRUNE my trees .
Screw that!! i ignore them and plant what i want and i chop away anytime i feel like pruning a limb.

Cheap solution for insulation is to use this product on your windows. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00002NCJI/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1361655666&sr=8-1&pi=SL75. It works and if installed right with a hair dryer you don't notice it. Vid course, you can't open the window though.

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