Hey all, over here in Aus we still have a month of winter to go, however I am getting impatient with pots of sticks and want to see them all pick up and put on some growth. In total I have about 12 potted fig sticks, as well as some in the ground, and some other type of potted sticks, such as stonefruits, apples and berries.

In Canberra where I am we have quite cool winters, however this year has been fairly mild so far, and the weather bureau has predicted a week of almost spring like temperatures, with the extended forecast much the same;

M: 6/15C (42.8/59F)

T: 6/15 (42.8/59)

W: 2/14 (35.6/57.2)

T: -1/14 (30.2/57.2)

F: 1/14 (33.8/57.2)

S: 2/11 (35.6/51.8)

S: 1/12 (33.8/53.6)

Seeing this and knowing August is generally warmer than July I pulled out all my figs from the garage in the hope they would break bud early. Thinking about this, I began to wonder exactly what is required for a fig to break dormancy and started looking through forum threads and research papers, but couldn’t really see what the exact trigger was.

Some posts seem to indicate that above about 6oC should be enough to  trigger, but for how long!? Is this soil temp or air temperature? Does day length have anything to do with it? We have had temperatures hovering around 15o over the last couple of days and this hasn’t been long enough to cause the buds to break.

So, what I am really interested to know is the experiences of forum members here. What is the soonest you have had your figs wake up? What caused it? Was it a single really hot day, or an extended period of medium warm temperatures? Have you deliberately forced your figs out of dormancy and what did you do to achieve this? Know any old wives tales about this?

This is really just to satisfy my obsession and help tick me over until Spring more than anything. Itll also make me feel a little better about the hours I spent looking at my various sticks in pots over the weekend, trying to decide if the buds were looking a little bigger this hour compared to last!

I believe nature programed trees to response to higher temperatures amd longer lengths of sunlight to wake them up.

Most fruits have a heat requirement to begin growth in spring. The heat requirement of figs is pretty high as evidenced by being late to leaf out compared to many other fruits. Those fruits sensitive to spring freezes (grapes, pecan, persimmon, figs, mulberry, etc) have a high heat requirement. This delays growth until the danger of freezing weather is less.

The heat requirement is expressed as growing degree days above some threshold temperature which varies by species. Heat units begin to accumulate after chilling requirement is satisfied. Chilling need by figs is usually stated as 100 hrs, very low.

What this means is the warmer it is day and night, in spring, the sooner figs will begin to grow. There is some upper limit on temperature. So 40C probably pushes growth no faster than 35C. The upper limit might be above 30C but very likely below 40C. The lower limit of effective temperatures is probably between 5C and 10C.

Thanks for that, that’s interesting. So once the correct amount of chilling units has been satisfied, does the plant somehow swap and begin accumulating  heat units instead, ignoring further cold? How does a tree measure the amount of time it has been cold or warm?

I went for a walk around the neighbourhood yesterday to check out all the neighbourhood trees I know of, and none seem to be breaking bud, although I did see this cherry tree (I think it’s a cherry) in full bloom which makes me think Spring coming early http://db.tt/q6Y5o8Xt

The chilling and subsequent heat requirement are both needed to complete essential chemical and hormonal processes within the plant. So it measures both by the completion of those processes.

generally I have heard the number 100 chill hours for figs a chill hour is a continuous hour below 10 degrees Celsius (please correct me if I am wrong).  For the fig shuffle of bring them back and forth, I would not start until you start to see the buds having a sliver of green, otherwise it can become a chore haul them back and forth, after that I have luck bringing them out when it gets roughly 8 Celsius and above, bringing them inside only if it's 5 degrees or lower over night, I would say error on the side of caution because sometimes they predict 7-7 and it goes to 4 with a light frost.  When I see the sliver of green swelling in the bud I give the pots a good soak until just draining to help promote more growth, after this I water as the pot gets light and if the temperature gets cold I try to be more on the dry side as they wont use too much water, once the leaves start coming I let them not get too dry and try to keep the pots moist but not wet to avoid any roots from rotting.  Once I see the first 2-3 leaves come out I will fertilize them for the first time of the year (usually a half strength) every two weeks until about 5-6 leaves then start once a week at full strength.  This has worked for me, some may have better ideas but I just give my process for you look at, feel free to add suggestions, thoughts, questions anyone.

Thanks for that! I have a feeling that they will take a week or more to wake up, and I will barely need to shuffle them at all by then hopefully...

Any Aussies on the East Coast here with trees waking up already?

In followup, today on my daily walk, I noticed a couple of the figs in the neighborhood waking finally

http://db.tt/Egw9O1e2