Do I need to restart the fig shuffle?

[FigViking]

While it's been a great summer here on the west coast of Norway, temperatures at night have started to drop now. Over the next few nights, temperatures are forecasted to drop to 45F/7C with daily highs still at around 70F. Also mainly sunny for the next week or so. Of my grand total of 25 figlets across two third-year trees, maybe one fig shows some signs of ripening, with the remainder in various stages of stagnancy (1-3 months).

What I am wondering is - should I start bringing them inside, keeping them outside only in the warm afternoon sun? Naturally I do not want the trees to start preparing for dormancy and drop their leaves etc. just yet. Inside they would get a steady 73 degrees but much less light. At this ripening stage I am thinking that steady heat is more important than light though.

Perhaps some growers in mountainous regions Stateside have similar conditions and can chime in.

[tinyfish]

The fig shuffle would help to ripen a few more figs since the day temperatures are still warm.

[ginamcd]

Sounds like fall weather here in the northeast. Last year I managed to get a few more figs to ripen by moving some trees to the greenhouse for a short time, but these were ones already starting the ripening stage (at least very swollen and in some cases starting to color). In the end I decided the flavor was disappointing compared to earlier figs that ripened in warmer, sunnier weather.

You can try shuffling them in for the night to get any already in the last stage to ripen. This way you can at least sample some fruit before leaving them out to go dormant. If a tree only has fully stagnant figlets on it, it may not be worth the effort.

[bullet08]

typically, i didn't take my trees in till night temp falls below 40-35. reason being, the tree won't get damaged until the temp dropped below 32. and it will help with dormancy. thought that was more important than last few figs.

[cvarcher]

I agree, Id leave them outside and let the natural process happen and maybe you will get to sample one or two at that. BUT next season ID figure out a way to give them a 2 week or one month head start in spring time. Usually older they get the slightly earlier they start producing too.

[TheMick27]

I tried the shuffle last year but the figs were disappointing. It's not worth the effort for sub par figs.