Ah by the message subject one might have thought more fig pictures from Dieseler. No as when i took picture this morning temp was 37 at about 6:40 am. Then i got into car and turned on wipers to swipe dew off window and realized the dew was frozen. Not enough chill to make my plants go to sleep though but chill enough to make the adults start to yawn now, the younger plants i can imagine this scenario , french type talking to italian type,
"hey Luigi last night it was cold soon i need protection as im starting to get tired" . " Pierre dont worry soon we will have bed sheets on us and our other little friends and take a nice nap, i also am getting tired and our care taker will sing us a nice song when we get tucked in.

This season seemed to go quickly this year for a lot of us and a sense of humor always helps for what seems to be long winter ahead.
No more pictures of ripe figs just this picture .


Best Health

OH NO!! Already still no frost here in Toronto that I noticed I take my dog outside around 6am everyday didn't notice frost yet but you can definately feel it near.

Martin, you are toooo funny, we haven't had frost yet, but getting coooler.  I think it is funny how you made the little script with the Italian and French figs talking together, I did something similar once with my Italian, French and Greek figs, Only it was Nikos, Pierre and Salvatore!!!!  What fun we have and we have to keep that sense of humor.  Only problem is my italian figs fight with each other from different regions who makes the better figs!!!!!!

( this is because in italy, each region, the people think they make food better than in other regions, my Mother always said we abruzzesi are the only ones who cook right!! )  she was serious, but I take it as fun and it gives folks something to talk about)

Yes i understand about what you meen about the different regions . When we went by my grandma's house my moms mom,   dad would always have something to say about her cooking like the sauce she would make on Sundays. Course i was lucky to get the best of both regions and although grandma was very good dad was just as good and in some cases better like with pizza and lasagna he would make. Dad made the sauce at house on sundays because he did not like mom's sauce, he also was very good at cooking seafood as he fished instead of high school of coast of Bari.
Octopus and squid were always a treat when he made them. One day he came home very early than usual from the club and made bricholes,sauce and cooked the barese sausage,  we sat at table later and he asked me and Anthony how you like the bricholes?
Well Anthony would shove down everything without tasting but i was finicky eater and i replied " dad there good but something is a little different this time.
Dad then smiled which was rare and simply said heeee heeeeee like a horse sound and Anthony and i could not figure out what he meant then he did it again and Anthony caught on but me being younger did not until it was explained to me, but it was good thats for sure.
Best Health

All this chat about food is great. I love food. Time for more indoor activities & the only thing to do is to snack, snack. Hey figfriends, we not only have this whose is whose better, we have it in figging and its all fun. The ultimate fig & I end up with a fig jungle now, no thanks to all fignuts here. Yahooo, Fig on..........

Hey Paully,
bet my figs are prettier looking that yours.   ; )
Its a a joke Paully !

No frost on my pumpkin, yet, but last night at 58, was the first night below 70 in months.

Martin!!!!!!! you make me hungry!!!!   We were supposed to have frost last night, but didn't.  Just the outlying areas of the city.  Figs still don't look like they want to go to sleep ( Pierre, Sal, and Nikos )  Their other friends outside who don't have names yet, not sleeping or getting ready to nap at all.

Maggie i have a bad feeling about this winter by us because of the cooler than normal summer, and then fall came in with a bang being 10 plus degree's cooler than normal , more rain than normal , if winter is normal i will be surprised but if the summer and so far fall are any indications winter will be great or rough.
My large trees seem tired after spending all there figs, leaves are yellowing , the young plants are humming along green as can be but growth has slowed considerably , there juvenile (wish i could say same) anyways thats why im careful with them because with our weather a sudden out of noware frost can hurt them so i let them get used to the cold slowly by bringing them in shed at night when temps drop into high 30s, shed is slightly warmer. Soon  daytime temps will drop also and little by little the small plants will go dormant, i just like to ease them into dormancy.The bigger older plants are on there own and can handle any kind of sudden frost .

There was frost on my pumpkin yesterday morning...ice on my windshield! I was shocked. It was down to 45 last night around 10pm. No ice this morning though.

I'm definately colder than Jon who's down the 'hill' about 30 miles. My trees are going dormant. Last year they didn't go dormant until early Jan. This year, three have already dropped leaves and most of the others are turning color. There are a few hardy hold-outs that remain green with fruit that will not ripen but most are going to sleep (starting to yellow).

Sue

Martin, I like to look at it this way, the other years were abnormal and this year is normal. We had a normal summer and we are having a normal fall :)
And Sue, keep your frost on your pumpkin there please, at least for another month, that would be normal here.
J.A.

wow ice in california and 60 degrees in Toronto thats a first. None of my plants lost their leaves yet.

Jstall, thats great you had a normal year as most others did not it seems from what i read on forums from the midwest to the northeast figs were about 3 weeks late in pots   (me ) and inground  but i figure somewhere its normal .
Svanessa , your fig plants are spoiled , heck they get a little chill  and are going dormant there in California. ; )

Sue,  What a turnabout!  You have cold weather and figs dropping leaves already.  It is not unusual where I live in the north-east (New Brunswick), but you??  I still have healthy fig trees with all of their leaves, though time is running out for them as we had one mild frost on the roof and lawn two weeks ago, but my fig trees were sheltered so did not get hit so hard.  The ones with figs left to ripen, I brought into either the sunroom or my house and I got some tasty figs that I otherwise would have lost.  I still have far too many that may not make it.

As for a cold winter.  You can bet on it.  I don't know who follows the sunspots here, other than me, but we have been in low sunspot territory for a few years.  The last time it was this low was in the Maunder Minimum - the little ice age!!  We also lost that other bringer of warm weather the El Nino, as it was very short lived this fall.  The last two winters here were colder than usual - which says something - and with twice as much snow as normal.  I had to shovel off the roof which had three feet of snow and was feeling it.  One good thing about the snow is its insulating qualities.  I will bury a lot of fig trees this year, and I need that snow cover.

Happy figging all.

John.

Martin,

My fig plants are spoiled, just like me! A hint of chill and the furnace goes on and the quilts go on the bed! :-) I just hope we get some RAIN this year!

Sue, there is no way I am even thinking about the furnace, or quilts, etc for this little cold spell. ;-))

Sue that sounds like my wife with the quilts, course she is either hot or cold , while im usually ok hot nor cold. You folks northeast are gonna get some wind and cold temps soon if not already. The wind is howling here as i type this ,i was out with the dogs and the little yorkie look like he was gonna take off like TOTO in the wizard of oz movie, we are getting gust up to 50mph tonight ah heck were getting em now.

Tonight

Very windy with increasing clouds. Low near 45F. Winds W at 35 to 50 mph.

My favorite weatherman says were gettng a fresh blast of you guessed it Canadain cold air with highs only in the upper 40s this weekend, the isobars are real tight and creating windy conditions as i had to move some of the smaller pots up against the shed doors out of the wind and some back under the eve of house .

Gee can't wait for winter !