No point to this topic I guess. I am just happy my first to trees that I bought at the end of last year and went in ground lived through a pretty rough NJ winter uncovered. I never thought I would pace around a tree waiting to see if it was alive, but this was making me nuts all winter. I bought these trees from someone locally that put an ad in the paper and he insisted they would not need to be covered for the winter. I planted them in ground maybe late August or early September and the past few days leaves and buds have been popping up on branches. Now, I need to figure out what kind of trees they are when they fruit. I know I have an idea on one tree thanks to the help of members on this boar

Cool, what varieties of trees were potted outside and made it?
I'm in Philly and noticed a couple trees buds awaking today.

I don't know the varieties. When I bought them I was told one was a white fig one was brown. When I get some full leaves and fruit I will post  them to try and get an ID.

71GTO, What town in New Jersey are you located? I would like to check the historical weather data for your area, to see what type of winters you have been having. I think it's impressive that you can put a fig in the ground uncovered the first year, and not have it winter killed, in New Jersey.

I am in Hamilton nj, but there are two hamiltons in NJ. I would use Trenton as the city. The trees I bought were a few years old. I did ask they guy if the younger trees would do the same uncovered and he said they would.

You have them against a house, that could be the reason, it created a microclimate. I doesnt really mean they are cold hardy, but could be a good learning lesson for those needing or wanting a microclimate.

Planting next the house most certainly makes a difference. But, I'm not sure that much of a difference considering that they did not have a chance yet, to develop a strong and deep root system.

Yeah, I did do that since the guy said it would help, but he said I didn't need too. I would just have a more dieback if I planted them out in the open. I have to say this though with Hermans knowledge I think I may have actually planted them in a bad spot The one tree is at the very front edge of the house and I don't think it gets any help at all, the other is back futher near the middle of the house. My house is 90 years old and built very narrow and long. Last year and I was looking for a place to plant them I do not have a south facing spots, east and north were not good either. So they are along a mostly west facing wall that the winds all winter seemed to come from the north and there was a bit of a wind tunnel between the houses. I don't think they got much help from the house at all.

We did have an extended period of time where we had single and very low double digit temps, as well as a lot of snow. Can a microclimate make that much of a difference?

The MC can make a huge diff (1-1.5 zone diff). When it is very cold, u can be 2-5 degrees higher. I have an apricot tree by an huge water tank. Half of it froze, the rest didnt freeze. We had a very big blizzard here in Feb that killed apricot flowers before they developed.  Again the small microclimate provided by my tank helped immensely. Trees can also shade from frost via late frosts.

Microclimates and how they affect plants

When either choosing a place to start a garden, or trying to select landscape plants for your home in the desert, understanding how microclimates work is essential. Have you ever noticed how one part of your yard is colder than another, or that a certain plant thrives in one spot of your yard, but not a few feet away? Chances are pretty good that a microclimate is influencing that plant.

Microclimates vary for every single home. They depend on a number of environmental factors including sun orientation, overall elevation, low and high spots in your yard, the proximity of drainages and washes, type of ground cover around the home (rock or plant materials) and the proximity of plants to the home, patio walls, or large boulders. Other factors include plantings underneath trees (which also vary depending on whether the tree is deciduous or evergreen) and roof overhangs.

Sun orientation affects plants not only by the amount of sunlight they receive during the day, but which orientation of sun they are receiving. This is especially important in the desert, as the west sun is much more brutal to plants that the east morning sun, and reflected heat (such as radiating off a west facing wall) can make the west sun deadly. North facing walls usually receive hot sun in the middle of the summer, but no sun in the winter, making it one of the toughest place to grow plants.

The overall elevation of your home, if you live within the city limits, probably only varies one hundred feet or so, but those low pockets in your yard can get several degrees colder in the winter since cold air flows like water-downhill. To check just how much colder, setting out several thermometers on a cold night in different areas of your yard will give you a good indication of just how much colder these areas can get; for some cold sensitive plants, this might be a problem.

If your home is adjacent to a drainage or wash, you will be much colder than homes just 100 feet away. Cold air follows drainages and it spills over into the surrounding landscape. Materials such as decomposed granite, boulders, patio walls and home walls also create microclimates. Inert materials collect heat during the day and radiate it to the atmosphere at night. Plants adjacent to such collectors will benefit from the warmer nights in the winter, but if the sun does not shine those areas will be much colder. The same holds true for summer, but in the sense that those areas will stay warmer overnight. Ground cover consisting of plants instead of gravel will be cooler in the summer. Microclimates are also found underneath tree canopies. Evergreen trees provide year-round summer cooling and winter protection for plants underneath. The eves of your house also can do the same, provide they extend far enough out to provide shade in the summer, when the sun is almost directly overhead.

Knowing how microclimates affect your yard is an important consideration when deciding on everything from planting vegetables to where the best place is to install a patio. If you are a new home owner and your yard is a blank slate, it really pays to wait before planting anything. If you can, wait a full year so you can document how the seasons and microclimates impact your yard. That way you will be able to make better decisions and avoid costly changes.

Micro climate can make a huge difference in some instances. For instance....planting fig trees on a slope will give them some protection from the cold. Cold air flows down hill.........the temperature is usually warmer on the slopes than in the valley. Planting close to a stream or a body of water will help protect the tree from frost and freeze......because water vapor is the earth's most significant green house gas. Water vapor holds the heat in. The reason deserts get so cold at night is because there is no water vapor in the air to hold in the heat.....after sunset the daytime surface soil heat is rapidly lost (radiated) to the atmosphere after the sun goes down. If the desert had some humidity in the air......it would not get so cold at night. When a frost or light freeze is predicted in our area.....it helps to water the tree the night before so more water vapor gets into the air to help retain the earth's heat (air temperataure) around the tree a little longer. Frost will not form on a windy night.....however; on a still night, watering the tree the night before definitely can help avoid frost forming on the leaves.


Dan
Semper Fi-cus

This is really nice that you were able to do this.  I put one in the ground but I covered it, at zone similar to yours but it was out in the lawn so they buds are starting to swell, there was winter dieback from nitrogen feed, but it is interesting to see what can survive winters in similar locales, my neighbor has a huge tree with at least a 8 inch trunk that is growing in a bent over form and just pushed to the ground until it warms up.  Can I post in here as my tree awakens and compare?

Yeah, I would love to see some Pictures. The tips that lived started to swell and shed to swell and shed some of the outer layers that were dead. This past week the weather finally broke really warmed up and everything took off

Also, thanks for the microclimate information. It definetely helps to know. I am new to figs and gardening in general. These were the first trees I bought before I really Started reading. I just saw an ad in the paper after I got back from Sicily and really got to experience fresh figs. I knew a little about them figs from family, but I wasn't sure they were worth the work. Now I'm obsessed and I have planted two more trees in the backyard after convincing my wife we needed to do this. In hindsight I might have done it a little differently. I just tell
My wife by the time we get our next house I will have this all worked out.