Well, now that the fig season is all but dormant, what do you all do?

Here's what I did last January and February...

Using an upside-down, gallon sized pickle jar for a greenhouse, I started a whole whack of fig treelets for my friends using only 3 and 4 inch branch tips. Each small branch was inserted into a film canister of loose, moist potting soil. 6 or 7 of these canisters were put under the pickle jar together (also used short sections of PVC pipe as "pots" which worked just as well as cannisters!). I found that a largish rubber band would hold them all together in a stable manner. A simple flourescent light provided all the light needed to get them growing. They needed about a month of the "pickle jar greenhouse" treatment for them to start growing. I did not water them at all while in the greenhouse as there was really nowhere the water could escape. The insides of the jar were very moist.

A few of them tried to grow mould, so a misting of some fungicidal product cut back on any mould problems.

I did not attempt to aclimatize these new fig trees to room air until I saw roots trying to come out the bottom holes of the film canisters. When I saw roots, I knew it was time to move them to larger pots (use a squirted stream of water to wash dirt off roots if necessary -- beats pulling figs out of cannisters only to break all the roots off!) I had to slowly aclimatize them to room air. It took about a week or so to do that.

By spring, I had lots of fig trees ready to give to friends, who eagerly snatched them up. Makes a very nice gift!

What do you do in the winter?