I keep my potted figs in the cold (40F) and dark during winter.  Every year when the temps start to go up in March the figs start pushing out elongated growth and yellow leaves.  Forcing me to start the fig shuffle.
Not sure how the daylight hours could cause this since they are in the dark?
Is the increase in temperature to 50F waking them up? 
Maybe the figs have some kind of internal clock..lol?

I think it is primarily temperature and not daylight hours that triggers spring growth.   For years I would overwinter my potted fig (zone6) by wrapping it thoroughly in an old  comforter and moving it to my unheated garage.  In  March I would pull back the comforter to check it and find growth starting.  There is no way any material amount of light came thru the comforter, but the temperature in my unheated garage did change  with the seasons.

Then why do dormant figs without leaves start growing as soon as they are under LED lights?


Doug

This would be an interesting experiment. To take two similar dormant trees...Introduce light to one and heat to the other but not both. Then see what happens.

Those two trees I pictured above came out of my friends basement last spring. (A cold concrete cellar under his shop - Not heated at all) It was very much dark but the temps were jumping up and down in early spring. He said he hadn't watered them at all to try and keep them down but still there was about 6 inches of new growth that was yellowish-white and very translucent. Kind of creepy looking. That weird growth eventually hardened off and kept growing but the trees remained all lanky and sparse like this for the rest of the season. I should have trimmed it back early on.

Pino - I wonder if that's what going on here? That you're getting just enough heat during the day to kick-off some (unusual) growth.....But not enough light or heat to start them growing properly?

What's the "fig shuffle"?