Good day, been spending a lot of time at my friends place.  He's big on Citrus.  Got a big Improved Meyer Lemon from him and as I was trying to locate a space inside my garage to house it, I notices 2 trees breaking dormancy in a 50 degree insulated garage!

Unknown Pastiliere and Beall!

My RainTree Pastiliere is just like the one at UCD.  It has not broke dormancy but the buds are swollen on it.  The same is happening to my Black Maderia, Smith, and De La Senyora.

Beall is one excellent tasting fig!  I got 2 big ones but never winterized them.  Every year they would die to ground and be the last ones to sprout from roots.  Well, this year, I've decieded to winterize them both indoors.  And both are trying to put out leaves!!!  I opened my garage door every day to swap out the air this time I left the door up longer to get the temperature down to around 48.  I have to be careful because my big moma Meyer lemon is loaded with blooms.  

Any body else have trees trying to break dormancy?

All my trees spend the entire winter exposed. Both in ground and several hundred in pots. Several already had leaves the size of quarters when the temperature went to 17.5 F. Happens every year. Trees leaf out and get to start over. Usually the in ground Celestes will get 2-3 inch leaves before a frost will get them. Nothing I can do short of putting them under refrigeration. Living in Florida we go from 20 degrees to 80 degrees and back within a week.

Snaglpus-
Those Meyer lemons will significantly drop leaves when exposed to changes in light. If it went into your garage and is dark now and wasn't before, it will likely shed all leaves and won't set any fruit. I had near south facing windows and still had difficultly last year. This year I have lost some leaves but have a 40w cfl on it now and it has leveled off. Mites and scale are also relentless on my Meyer lemon trees (2 of them) when brought inside for the winter.

Citrus are ok under an HID lamp, especially if also near a sunny window.

Ive still got trees that have yet to enter dormancy...strange year...strange year...

Seems like a challenge to keep a meyer lemon tree growing and a bunch of fig trees dormant in the same space.  Seems like the range of acceptable temperatures will be small.  Can a Meyer lemon handle 40 degrees?  If so I think for the figs you'd be better off below 42 degrees.  Up around 50 I think they will start to think spring is on its way. 

My garage stays mostly high 30s low 40s all winter. 

Some say, Meyer Lemons are hardy and so are Kumquats.  They are in my climate if and only if you grow your trees in containers and store inside during winter!  I have 2 Meiwa Kumquats and 1 ML tree last year.  I left them outside and they died to about a foot from the ground.  I chopped them down and repotted in a smaller pot and the darn trees are almost back to their original size.  This winter, I placed them inside.  My new ML is near a window so I think it will have enough light.  I never had scales until I got a Meyer Lemon tree.  I have them under control but one has to constantly monitor and inspect their trees or the scales will take over.

Breaking dormancy?? Not here . though i have 1-2 varieties still pushing out leafs in the cold more than others. I wonder if they are less cold hardy because of that?

Dennis
Three more months to go for dormancy break here.
Coincidently, that is the difference between our zones 8a and 5a !!

Dennis, I have my 2 year old Brown Turkey in garage and it is cold in there. The tree seems to be sleeping still.

 A few of my trees are dormant, but not Borjosette Gris.  And I look forward to the figs.  This purported to be the most amazing fig ever.  More strawberry than a strawberry.  Well, the tree is huge and not having a thought about going dormant.  Sorry, no cuttings.

Not trying to be mean, but when a fig tree is in full leaf, you can't take cuttings.  And Bourjosette Gris is in that mode.  Sorry.  Can't cut her.

What happens when you cut a fig tree in leaf. ?

You shed tears over your mangled tree?  You increase the risk of tree disease?  I'm not sure why you wouldn't be able to take cuttings from an actively growing tree.  All the unknowns I rooted last summer were from leafed out trees.

only 15% of my bay fig trees went dormant, :(

Thats why i was asking. I took a ton off my tree all summer long and winter. They root super fast to. They tree did get ugly lol.

Bob, I usually bring my lemons in with my figs and usually keep my garage around 55. My friend that sold me my tree has a plant nursery. He said to just keep the temps around 50 and not to worry if they loose their leaves. His huge lime tree might be mine this weekend! I'll have to take a picture and post it. It's rare that I let my garage get below 50. I keep a heater in there just in case I need to jack up the temp. Glad to see you posting again Suzi!

no... my point was, isn't going to dormancy helps them to fruit better?
I hear some places they use ice cubes to pour under the trees that require many hours of cold, like Cherry trees in LA, if you pour ice under the trees every night for like... 15 days, they bloom like crazy in Spring and fruit set better that year. I don't know...
Yet 80%+ of my figs here in my garden are still green.

I bought 2 smiths from a Fl nursery in Dec. I didnt want to risk leaving them outside so I put them in a cool room. They are not breaking dormancy and I have 4 figlets on them. They are about 3-3 1/2 ft tall and I will let them keep going. I will eat figs next year!!!. I mean this year :).. Also have a couple figlets on an unknown grasa. I will eat those figs as well. I have 3 more of those cutting though that I will pop them off of when they appear so they can do the right thing.

Last year I didnt get any figs so I will have figs this year even if it slows down the trees in other areas. The smiths are already in large containers and maybe mid summer they will need to be up potted.

We had some warm days and I got some green buds on my shed trees. Tips will definitely die as they got done to 12F. Oh well could be worse.

Potted trees are breaking dormancy and I did notice that CDD Grise is unfolding a couple leaves but that is not a good thing.

Three of my older in ground figs (2 Celestes and 1 Brunswick/Magnolia) have swelling buds and 2 early blueberries actually had a handful of open blossoms on them. The other two dozen or so blueberries are showing some bud swelling but not dramatic enough to worry me. I have 2 apricots and one pear with very swollen buds and I am crossing my fingers that the rest of my fruit trees (apples, plums, one more pear, currents & gooseberries) have enough common sense to remain fully dormant for at least 1-2 more months.  These are all in ground. First year baby figs which I buried in mulch are looking good.  They have not broken dormancy and do not appear to have any winter damage thus far. We have had night time temps in the low teens and some of the day time temps have been in the 60's (ugh!).  

Totally OT - Growing a Mexican mint (Yerba Buena) which had not shown any signs of dormancy till we had 11 degree weather. It has freeze damaged leaves along the tops but still continues to show new and undamaged lower leaves at soil level. I am starting to believe that this variety may rival Kudzu in terms of its ability to thrive no matter what nature throws at it. It survived 3 years of drought in an unattended garden in a dry location and eventually colonized half the garden. I was given a bouquet of the stuff last summer and rooted several stems. Good thing because the new owners of the property are going to convert the garden to lawn and everything that is growing there that has survived on its own for the past 6 years is going to be lost.  This includes some low growing raspberries which grow in a row about 2' tall and produce a moderate crop of large berries.  Hoping to score some of those for my garden before they are tilled up. Any variety which thrives in this soil without care is worth saving.

[QUOTE=WillsC]Potted trees are breaking dormancy and I did notice that CDD Grise is unfolding a couple leaves but that is not a good thing.[/QUOTE]

Wills - why is that a bad thing?

Dennis,
  Last winter I had a bunch of trees break dormancy in January (in NJ).  These were potted trees that I kept in a cool part of my basement for winter storage.  I had to put them under grow lights, and then eventually there were so many that I had to bring them upstairs and put them in a sunny south facing window.  The all ended up doing just fine...there was just the hassle of tending to them while they were indoors for many months.
  This year they all seem pretty well behaved...nobody is breaking dormancy early, but I do have on little Olympian that just won't drop that last leaf (even with minimal light, water and heat...)
Cheers,
Jim

Many not dormant, some definitely breaking dormancy. Have an air-layer on the front porch that has grown 8" in the last month. Ate a few figs in the last two weeks, and still have some green ones on a few plants.

Everytime I think of San Deigo, man I just smile!!!! Man you guys in southern Ca, got it made. I'm sitting in beautiful Charlotte, NC and its 30 degrees outside! It's 53 inside my garage this morning and I see a few more tips swelling on a few more of my trees. Well, I could open the garage door and let the cold air in. If I do, my meyer lemons will drop their leaves. Oh crap! Oh well, in March of 09, it was 90 degrees outside. Maybe my figs know something I don't. I hope so.

Dennis, I can't see putting a tree you want to grow, thrive and produce fruit in with trees you want to stay dormant.  I vote for the lemon to come either inside or into a greenhouse, get it warm and happy and get some fruit.  Then open the garage door so your figs go back to sleep.  March may be a good time to break dormancy in Z8, I don't know.  But Feb certainly isn't   :)

Dennis, to confess my sin, when I first read your very first posting I laughed. "Yeah I wish" I thought but a few minutes ago I went to check on my detached unheated shed that I keep them all and they look awesome! All the scabs from the tips have dropped and the buds look as green and fluffy as ever! The temp here has been in th high 40s to mid 50s during the day and very close to freezing at night with steady light drizzle for the past four days! So all that being said, yes they all look like they re on the verge of breaking dormancy!

[QUOTE=m5allen][QUOTE=WillsC]Potted trees are breaking dormancy and I did notice that CDD Grise is unfolding a couple leaves but that is not a good thing.[/QUOTE]

Wills - why is that a bad thing?[/QUOTE]

Mike,

We still have another 6 weeks of possible freezing weather.....it is just not a good time for tender new leaves.

I have some 1yr old fig trees in my cold room and several have green buds wanting to push out.  The temp in there is pretty well 40-50F so I am not too worried that they will start growing very fast.
I am making sure they don't dry out and will keep the temp cool by opening a window if required. 
I would think at around 50F they won't grow too much on top but may be growing bigger stronger roots so I don't think it is anything to worry about.

I have a few that broke dormancy last month I believe when we had that warm spell, Maltese falcon, hollier, jack lily and a few others, one or two actually put out a couple inches of growth.

Dennis,
  You jinxed me, man!  Everything looked great a week ago.  I just checked on them and at least 3 are starting to break bud and push out some leaves!
  I have to admit that I was only a little saddened by this.  It will be a pain, but it will certainly cheer me up to bring a couple or 3 trees up to a very sunny south window and let them do what they're inclined to do.  The ones that broke dormancy early last year got through the winter/spring indoors OK, so hopefully this year will be no different.
Cheers,
Jim

Hi needaclone,
How did you do that in Zone6 ? During a warm spell ?

I checked my little potted ones, and they are still sleeping... Great !
That is except the 3 pots I got to the flat, because of their youth  - they were late rooted and I let them sleep one month and up for waking up.
It is my first attempt at winterizing small pots in the basement. I'm hoping I can put them out dormant as of 1st of March (No strong hard frosts after that date here ) and let them wake up outside with their mommas .

jdsfrance,
  I keep my potted trees in my basement over the winter.  It is a part of my basement underneath a room that has 3 outside walls.  It is cooler than the rest of the basement, but I think it is not quite cool enough to keep the figs reliably asleep all winter.  There are just some that want to wake up early.  I also gave my figs a drink of water on January1 (actually, some melting icecubes)...maybe that also contributed to some waking up.
  The Christmas Tree will finally be coming down tomorrow, so that means I can bring some of the figs upstairs.  I kept them inside near a very sunny, very large south-facing window.  When it happened last year, I didn't think it would be enough light, so I used the grow lights in the basement.  But eventually enough of them broke dormancy that I ran out of space and HAD to bring them upstairs.  It seemed to work out OK.
  When I bring them up (tomorrow) I'll let you know which varieties happen to be waking up early -- it may turn out to be some of the "early" varieties.
Jim

Hi,  I don't have any trees breaking dormancy, but I uncovered my tiny babies the other day to water them and nearly dropped my teeth when I saw that they never went into dormancy yet.  We've have so chilly weather and that should have done it, but it didn't.  Louisiana has some crazy weather.

noss

Hey all,
  It looks like I have 11 trees that have decided to break bud and start pushing leaves out.  These include:
1 LSU Purple (Also broke bud early in mid Jan 2014
1 LSU Scott's Black. (broke bud very early last year..actually in late December 2013!!!)
2 Black Italian and 1 Olympian (These were small "tissue culture" trees I got in April 2014)
The others that are breaking bud are cuttings that I started last year.  These include:
3 Conadrias (from two different sources)
1 Salce
1 UCR160:50
1 Unk Seattle Purple Amber (Grasa)

I was very interested to notice that the first two trees in particular are "repeat offenders."
Cheers,
Jim

Crap! Now my Paradiso is leafing out in the basement!

Dennis,
 If it makes you feel any better, that LSU Scott's Black that woke up so early was one of my better performers last year! 
Jim

Jim, so was mine. But this year I brought one inside. I want to compare the 2. Meaning I have 3 of them----one sits out every year. It's pretty big.

My Brown Turkey started pushing leaves this past week. Conadria has buds swelling. About normal here in Yuma, AZ. Also these two sit in a corner of a south and west facing block wall so seasons are somewhat enhanced.

China Honey (container)
 


Scott's Black (in ground)
 


It's been warm lately.  Hopefully there are no more frosts this winter.

Pops, Joe -- seems way too early, even for Arizona, huh.
We had a terrible spring in NJ last year, and then I had swarming Ambrosia Beetles through mid May. So some of my early risers were awake and growing inside for literally 4 months or more before getting moved outside.  I hope we don't have a repeat of that this spring...
Cheers,
Jim

My Janice-Kadota seedless pushed out some new growth on the main trunk the other day. I'm going to put it in the ground soon so I rubbed them off.

My second year in-ground LSU Gold has started pushing some new growth; there are also a few brebas that are starting swell up. I'm excited!

Joe--Actually is about right for some varieties here in SW Arizona. Friends who have figs a lot longer than I find all varieties leaved out by mid Feb. I picked the last Brown Turkey about Thanksgiving. It went dormant early Dec. Days here now mid 70's and nights mid-40's lower 50's. different world than yours, eh? sdpops

I'm up in Western WA and bought a dormant Desert King that's 3/4 years old from a guy on CL. I'm renting so all of my figs are in pots and I'm pretty new to it so to prevent transplant/frost worries I put mine in the greenhouse. I put it in there the beginning of December and it broke dormancy a few weeks ago and the brebas are already starting :).       

Something strange is happening to my Celeste....

I brought my potted trees in that were outside, because I started to get worried they wouldn't make it with the night temperatures dropping down to the single digits. This was mid-January.

My Celeste now has 8 figlets that are growing rapidly. I presume that this is breba crop (although I keep reading mixed opinions on whether or not Celestes have a breba crop.)

I'm cautiously optimistic since most of the main crop fell last summer....

 

Now I got Red Italian, Gonsalves, Beall and Paradiso are racing!  I need to check on my 4 big Desert Kings.  I need to post some pics.  Maybe later!  The groundhog said, 6 more weeks of winter but tell that to my figs!

Two of my small potted "Dalmatie" leafed out one medium sized leaf each.
But that's not a surprise as each year I find one small toasted leaf on some buds of my in ground "Dalmatie" .
Since I had 2 lights already turned on for other young fig trees, I brought them in the flat near the lights.
Bad move, I know -since now, until the 15th of May, I can't put them outside - , but ... Well, just for fun .
The initial plan being to put them outside dormant as of 1st of March . Ha yea, I had planned to pot them up when outside ... Screwed for now !

Jdsfrance,
  Look on the bright side:  it will really cheer you up to see those bright green leaves on that fig tree all through the rest of the winter.
Jim