Hi Guys,

Here in Calgary we had a terrible summer this year.
Very rainy and cool.
So my figs started to go dormant at the begining of September.
The leaves fell off and I cut them back and put the cuttings in the crisper.
That being said, I thought that was it.

Well my brown turkey is budding again.
What should I do?
Leave it in the garage in the dark where it has been
or bring it in and let it grow?
I'm afraid if I don't bring it in it will stress and die.

Jerry 

P.S. Anyone want some Kadota cuttings? Akram I think I owe you some?

Young fig plants can be stubborn when its time for dormancy. Like a teen with hormones exploding.
In garage were its cold and no light eventually it will go dormant, if left out to long in cold because its not going dormant can kill the tree when you think it went dormant good chance it wont come back following season.

My older trees i leave outdoors when temps dip into high 20s twice then they come in for good weather they have leaves on them or not.
The young ones ( 1 season old)  come in when temps are in mid 30s as leaves will somewhat curl they come in garage and eventually go dormant, there just juvenile and do this.

Good to know Dieseler, I will leave it in the garage then.

Our temps finally - finally! - dropped into the 70s in the day and are going to be in mid-40s at night soon.  Meanwhile, my in-ground Brown Turkey (4-5 year) is steadily putting on new figs.  Every year it has about 8"-12" of dieback on the tips of all branches because it chooses to keep growing like this.

Yes, that time of the year again in the north. temperatures here are hovering in mid-thirties, sometimes dipping to just above freezing, but the leaves on my plants are shining green except a few plants with yellowish tint on the leaves. The good news is that the figs are still ripening a few every day. Not bad for the northern Zone 5a (just a bit better than Jerry's Calgary). I can't complain this year. Last year this time I had started digging the trees on September 29. It appears that this year the buried pot will be dug out around mid-October.

while taking pictures of everything else, i took a picture of my Monrovia-bought BT.  this is literally what all of the branches look like right now - loaded with (round 3 or 4 now) of figs and new growth.  literally, the 2nd or 3rd wave of figs just came off last week!  geez!!  this tree is on the north full-shade (i.e. cold) side of the house.

Here are some pics of the brown turkey that won't go dormant.
It's been un-seasonally warm the last two weeks.

Well the weather is still mild and the fig buds have opened up.
Does not look like the tree will go dormant.
 
There are small leaves on the branches now.
So do I bring it in and let keep growing?
Will this weaken and kill the tree?
 
I can put it in my bird room where there is plenty
of light all year round.
 
I have my mystery fig cutting in there and it's doing well.
 
Help guys what should I do?

Ah pictures sure do speak volumes Buster.
You can put in that room if warm and lots of light plant wont grow as fast i dont think as it would outdoors of course.
By looking at your plant theres much green to the stems and sometimes these die back in dormancy , its best when the stems are more tan or brown color going into dormancy.

I would like to encourage our in ground figs to good dormant as much and as soon as possible to minimize winter freeze back.

Is withholding water a good idea? 

Or should I go ahead and water, as it's getting pretty dry?

My concern is that if I water, I may encourage more new grow rather than hardening off by the plant.

But if I don't water, I am harming the in ground figs?  Especially the newer ones? 

They aren't wilting, but lower leaves are dropping.  I'm thinking that may be a good sign, but I also don't have much experience with this yet.

Temperatures have been relatively cool (70s day; 40s night) but for the next few days we are going back up into the mid to upper 80s and it is getting pretty dry.

Some experienced advice would be greatly appreciated (by me and the fig trees who rely on me!)  ;-)

Hope everyone is well and that you are having a great Fall.

Best wishes.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

John, in my very limited experience, cutting the water to my two in-ground figs forces them to drop their leaves and go dormant, and I've seen no ill effects.

Thanks Ken.  That is very helpful. 

It seemed to make sense, and that's the way the plants were responding here to, but I am more confident with your confirmation. 

And I was pretty sure that this year, watering them might do more harm than good in the longer run.

It's been unusually warm very late in the season.  Today we have record heat of 85 degrees in October.  Even so, you can be pretty sure that by the end of October, in just a few weeks, we will get our first hard freeze as usual.  The Almanac, which in my experience is a more accurate about long-term forecasts than NOAA (watch the long-term NOAA forecast over the years and you will see that NOAA virtually always "predicts" that the current weather pattern will continue), but the Almanac predicts a cold winter again here.  It's not always correct, but usually is, and that means it's very likely we will have one of those hot them BOOM it's freezing weather changes, without much transition time.

So anything I can do to encourage earlier dormancy will help.

Hope you are well my friend.

Best wishes.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b