Lampeira Preta Hardiness

[Joe94]

Hi all. I’ve had a scour for information in regards to the hardiness of Lampeira Preta but to no avail. I will be placing the trees in an unheated garage over winter and can wrap in fleece etc, but now I’m wondering whether it is likely to survive. Hopefully anyone with similar winters to the ones we have here in the UK who grows this variety will be able to provide some advice?

[jrdewhirst]

Your winter temps are way warmer than mine . . . . I've stored Lampeira Preta in an unheated detached garage that gets as low as 20 F. The figs trees stored there have been fine. Your biggest risk, paradoxically, is that your trees may not go fully dormant and. may not been fully hardened against cold when your worst temperatures hit. But a dormant LP that has been exposed to a couple months of increasing cold (40s, 30s, 20s) survives without any problem.

It would help to know just how cold your garage gets.

My recommendation would be to delay as long as possible placing the tree into storage. Let it experience ambient temps in the 30's F for weeks, if possible, before storing it.

[Joe94]

Thanks Joe. I reckon it is a little above outside temperature as it is insulated. I think it can get to around -5C (23F) here but thats a guess.

[jrdewhirst]

When I actually measured temperatures inside my garage, which is uninsulated and leaky, I was surprised how warm it was. Over days and nights when the air temperature hovered between 0 F and -5 F, it never got below 20 F inside the garage. I attribute that to warmth radiating from the floor. You have the advantage of insulation. I suspect that your air temperature within the garage will be fairly close to the ground temperature.

[Joe94]

jrdewhirst I will measure the temperature this coming winter and see 👍

[ginamcd]

Like Joe D., mine has survived the last two winters in a shed that stays between 20-30F from December into March.

[Joe94]

Thanks Gina, all should be okay then hopefully!

[Rewton]

I overwintered mine as an in-ground tree last winter and it had no die-back. We got down to around 16-18 deg. F on 3 nights.

[JMF75]

How old is your tree?

[Joe94]

Thanks Rewton. Hoping it should be okay then!

[Rewton]

JMF75 I should clarify that the Lampeira Preta is grafted onto a Grantham's Royal rootstock. The GR is around 5-6 years old and I grafted it in 2019. It was planted in the ground Spring 2020.