Your trees will almost surely freeze & die because the temperature will get so warm it will stimulate the onset of growth, which all but eliminates the trees resistance to freezing temps. The new growth will then freeze .....

Al

Ok so what should I do to get them through the winter

I over-winter more than 100 temperate trees, evergreens and deciduous, in an attached, unheated garage. You could also bury the pots against the north foundation wall of a heated building & mulch. If you do, wrap the upper part in burlap as a hedge against dessication. Move the plants to the greenhouse only when night lows inside the greenhouse are sure to remain above freezing.

Al

mttdgs,

I live about 60 miles north of you in the Catskills at about 1000 ft. and I overwinter my figs in my unheated basement. Our winter temperatures can dip down to -11 F here so leaving them outside is not an option.

Sorry, but I would offer the observation that over-wintering a tree at temperatures above 42* is a distant second choice to keeping them colder. It's doubtful that an unheated basement would ever see temperatures much below 50* because of the large amount of geothermal heat conducting through and radiating from the floor. That said, if it is your only choice, you work with what you have ......

Al

Thanks, Al. In my case the "basement" has a ground-level entry and sits right on rock ledge. Only the back is below ground level. I have to monitor it constantly during the winter to make sure that the pipes don't freeze.

The only other alternative is an unheated barn which hasn't worked very well in our more severe winters. This coming year, I am going to build an insulated space in it for the figs where I can control the temperature. If anyone out there has suggestions for temperature controls, I am all ears.

C.J.

Al
What is the lowest temperature observed during the winter in your unheated garage?
I have an attached uninsulated unheated garage in Zone 5 where I observed -23C (-10F) inside the garage last year using min/max thermometer. I am not sure if just insulating it will help without a heating souce.
What should be the minimum night temperatures inside the garage during the gradually falling temperatures in the fall that the plant should not be allowed to stay in the garage and taken to a safer cold storage?

Al, I also have an unheated sunroom which I can use to extend the season by about a month. Tapla's comments were right on. It gets too warm during the day in winter for a tree to survive the cold nights.
This year I am following five options to protect my figs as I live in a much more severe climate than you.

First, I have buried eleven of my trees (mostly celeste), along with about 50 cuttings of many other trees in a deep and very large (about 20 truck loads of mulch) old mulch pile. They are covered by about a foot of wood chip mulch which I will add to as the temperature falls. I will post photos sometime in the future and disclose what spring brings.

Second, I buried a 9 foot desert king and a north Carolina fig in my garden in a 1 foot deep trench, covered by a layer of mulch, covered by fabric, covered by more mulch and I will add more mulch to about 2 feet or more as it gets colder. Unless it snows a lot to add protective depth that way. I Buried two small trees horizontally last year with much less protection and they were frozen into the ground under three feet of snow but survived and re-grew. I had to release them gradually over a couple of weeks in the spring from their frozen tomb.

Third, I brought 20 trees into a 4 by 8 foot plastic greenhouse set up between the garage bays in an unheated, but insulated garage, that is about 45 to 55F at the moment and generally stays well above outdoor temps. The more tender of these trees I will bring into my cold room in the house when my cold room gets below about 50F (November, early December). The others I will protect perhaps, by putting a 100 watt incandescent light in the tent and shining on the floor (its covered mostly by wood to keep plants off the concrete.

Fourth, my cold room in the house. I had 20 plants survive there over winter last year, and the temperature was between 40 and 45F.

Fifth, also in my house. I intend to bring dormant plants (maybe 5 or six) that I value much more than the others, from the garage, into the main part of the house early, and before the temperature gets possibly very low in my garage. They will join my fifty or so, cuttings that I am rooting now. I always have a few trees overwinter in the warmth of my office in the very bright and sunny south side basement, along with my thriving citrus plants.

I will update this in spring, with photos, even if a disaster unfolds. We all need to know the bad with the good, in order to avoid others' mistakes. Winter temps here can be minus 25 to an extreme minus 40F at times (very rare), but typically get to well below 0 F in Jan and Feb.

John.

Sorry, The above comments were directed at mtddigs. I should pay more attention.

John.

Thank you all for your input, I now have a better understanding of the wintering process. I have a large attached three car garage that is unheated that will work out nicely. I have been reading alot of the posts and it seems that the diffacult issue is wintering imature plants, and having the figs ripen. That part seems frustrating to have the trees growing and set fruit but then run out of time in the season before the figs can ripen. I am Itlaian American and now wonder what variety of fig my relatives grew in the Bronx when I was a child. Those figs ripened! I can remember so many backyards with fig trees all ways wraped in the winter with the bucket on top. They were common in the bronx. My son is a college student in New Rochelle NY renting in a neighborhood that was once very Italian and I see fig trees in the backyards growning there now. I wonder what type? Im going to take some photos and post them Im still looking for a Hardy Chicago to add to my group of fig trees. Maybe someone can tell me how to post photos thanks MTD

In the top right is a "search" tool, you can search posting pictures there! There is a ton of info to help you on that subject!

Cecil

mtddigs,
Here is a good thread on posting pictures provided by xgrndpounder.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0700384424943.html?10

C.J.