Hey everybody!

I’d like to share my experiment of fig wintering in the 5th zone. I hope that will be useful for somebody! I had already mentioned that topic in one of my posts: http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1289648412&postcount=18&forum=0

http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/hello-from-russia-7766369?pid=1289692487

Well, choosing a mean of wintering, I leaned on three options:

1.            A plant in the shelter must survive the winter

2.            The shelter should be simple for servicing

3.            The shelter shouldn’t spoil the appearance of the garden

First of all, a rectangular hole was dig. Outward part of that was coated with foam plastic and inward it was bathed with the concrete. There was a drainage at the bottom and I put a ground layer on it. The cover was made from the foam plastic. In addition to that, the fig tree was supposed to be covered with the cover made from insulation.

In the end of June I transplanted in this hole a Brown Turkey fig.

When the temperature was getting to 0C (32F), the hole was closed (15 November). To protect construction from over humidity I put the cellophane on the cover. I left a container with lime and a temperature and humidity indicator inside.

December. The temperature outside dropped sometimes to -25C (-13F) meanwhile the snow appeared just at the end of the month. The temperature inside of the hole was +1C (33.8F), a level of humidity was 40%.

January. The temperature outside was -20C (-4F) - +4C (39.2F). The temperature inside of the hole was approximately +0.3C (32.54F) – +1C (33.8F), the level of humidity was 45-50%.

February. This month was warm and rainy. The temperature outside was -8C (17.6F)- +4C (39.2F), the temperature inside of the hole was  +0.5C (32.9F), the level of humidity was 50%. In this time the batteries in the indicator ran out.

March. Suddenly plenty of snow fell out and then the temperature sharply increased. The snow started to melt quickly and there was water everywhere.  I decided to open the hole on 7 March. The temperature outside was +5C (41F).

Of course, some water leaked inside. The ground and the walls were damp, but my fig looked well. I scraped one of the branch and saw that it’s green inside.

The hole was covered about 110 days. The minimum temperature inside of the hole over considered period was -0.3C. Certainly, one year is not enough, but in whole I am pretty content with the result!

P.S. I hope I described it understandable :)