I posted a few weeks ago about my concern that my over wintered 3 year old H.C. , Italian EB, and Petite Negronne have not shown any signs of growth after being set out in mid April. The forum's advice was to wait and wait and wait and wait. I did and Lo and behold they are sprouting!!!!!

Congrates!! Pics of it didn't happen...jk. jk

Rich,

That's good to hear.

Question,
Where and how did you store them? Where they ever watered while in storage?
If not, then it would be a good idea to give them a little water, even once a month just to keep the roots from completely drying out would go a long way.

Good luck

They were in an insulated but not heated shed with blacked out windows. I watered ( about a quart) once a month. We had one nite of 2 degs. but the rest of the winter was fairly mild- 20's and low 30's with an occassional dip into the teens.
Hardy Chicago is still in slumber as well as my Russian 26 and Salavatski Poms. One would think H.C. would be first to wake up??!!

Congrats on the recovery.

I had several DOA's that were traced back to temperatures in the 20's. The potting soil of these plants froze soild when the temperature fell into the 20's. Three Hardy Chicagos had dieback, but one that was isolated in a warmer area (40's) had no dieback and is currently covered in fig embryos (4 dozen), it is a 1+ year old, 4 feet tall with 3 main branches. Along with the producing HC were 6 other plants, they are well ahead of same cultivars that were in cold storage. The lesson learned is to keep the potted plants above freezing. These plants were islolated because they were going to be dropped off, but the exchange was never made.

Good Luck.

The soil never froze as I checked it almost daily in real low temps.
 I've purchased an electric industrial thermostat which can be dialed from 50 to 32 degrees. Next winter I'll plug it into a very small electric heater and set it to 34. That should keep the shed and plants from below freezing temps. Sound like a plan?? Any one else tried it?

Rich not sure if your insulated shed has cement or wooden floor.
Our insulated garage has cement floor which basically should have a steady temp given to bottom of pots when placed there compared to wooden floor pr stacked on top of another pot to save space.
It makes a difference .
For example in our garage years back i lost a santa cruz dark which was right next to another of same age and same size pot, but 1 was on floor and next to it the other was stacked up on air on lips of 2 containers.

The one stacked died 1 on floor lived.
Also bigger the pot the more mass of mix to help insulate as when i loose a plant in storage its always the smallest pots and thus iv'e learned to place them up in our attic which is warmer than the garage.

Good luck with yours and enjoy.

Spring '12 and '13 were long and too cool to push early growth.  My trees just sprouted leaves over the last month, and are set back.  It will be a very short season, and I'm almost tempted to pull figs off the younger, but productive trees.  Maybe not all the figs, but I might thin out the crop, and settle for a stronger tree for next year.  Lost an established 6 ft tree that I had been growing, containerized, unprotected, since 2007.  I was not happy.  But hey, sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's bad.


Frank

Dieseler, The wooden floor is insulated also and the 5 gal containers were not stacked. Maybe it was a lot colder in there than I realized. We'll try again this winter with the small heater. Seems like a hit or miss proposition keeping these babies alive during harsh months.

i only keep them till i need the pot. then off to trash can it goes. unless it's something i really want and it has some sign of life left on it. Socorro Black comes to mind. that thing is growing very well now. too bad one of my puppied pulled out the duplicate.