Old Farmer's Almanac.....Snow, Freezing Cold Winter 2015-2016

[BronxFigs]

Old Farmer's Almanac predicts more freezing, bitterly-cold, and snowy winters for most of the country, especially for the North-East and for the Pacific North-West areas.

Not great news for us fig growers.....

Frank

[DBJohnson]

Bleah!

That is all.

[Gene Daniels]

Yeah, I have already started to think about my winterizing strategies. I am in the south, but the last two years have been really hard on my inground trees since they are all pretty young. I will wrap and cover them this year and hope they do better than last - everything died to the ground.

[zone5figger]

Will it be worse than last Feb's -25F? With a mega El nino, I guess anything is possible.

[71GTO]

Maybe it's a good thing I never got a chance to plant any trees inground this summer at the new house...
I am really tired of these brutal winters. Now I just have to make sure I can fit everything in the new garage.

[AscPete]

Hopefully this will be a good test of my in-ground winterization procedures.
Bring it on

[DBJohnson]

So who has the Olympian cultivar in the ground? This should be a good test of its cold hardiness.

[Rafaelissimmo]

Frank, as far as pac nw is concerned, there is NO WAY this prediction will come true, there is a semi-permanent ridge of high pressure over that area that will bring a warm, dry winter, much like their hot, dry summer. This is caused by a blob of abnormally warm waters over the pac nw, which isn't going anywhere. Also, el Niño will also re-inforce the warm, dry trend in that area. The almanac is hogwash. Predictions from climatologists do predict a lot of snow in the Northeast, but not necessarily a lot of cold.

[rusty hooks]

Wait, wait, wait....I'm not quite ready yet......I'll be thinking about yous guys and all your poor figgys...while mine drown in the el nino rain

[WillsC]

What is this "snow" you speak of?

[ako1974]

Um, I just canned fig jam and apricot jam this weekend. And made ghost chile sauce.

(My way of blocking out "lots of snow" talk)

[F. Bennett]

Oh great...here come those zone 9 guys..

[Kelby]

I disapprove of this thread.

[Snaglpus]

Frank what does it say about the Southeast? I need to get an almanac from Walmart this weekend.

Pete, what is you new method? All of my in ground trees suffered badly. the only ones that fruited this year were Improved Celeste, Hardy Chicago and Texas Everbearing. This year, I will be wrapping them with frost blankets stuffed with leaves.

My new greenhouse is up with the top off for now. I'm building a pot belly stove out of a 30g 18gauge steel barrel to help keep it below freezing inside. I got the heater kit and accessories. This weekend the build will begin.

[AscPete]

The one that I've been posting about, insulating with Pine Shavings (Pine bedding). All the limbs that were below the pine shavings suffered very little damage over the past 2 winters. I'll be constructing cages out of welded wire fence and filling them with Pine Shavings, similar to the enclosures filled with leaves... The limbs will be pruned back to form 'Low Scaffolds' and buried under ~ 12 inches of this insulation.

[Ripple]

I like the Old Farmers Almanac and I find it makes good light reading. I take it's forecast as a best guess and maybe not built around the best of science nor is it claimed to be.
I tend to agree with Rafael as to the upcoming winter. I think a lot has to do with the water temps of the US coast in the Pacific (the blob) and the so called El Niño and the impact it might have. Perhaps it's just a flip of the coin.
This past February over half the days here saw temperature below 0°F, so what's a few more or less cold days.
My more immediate concern is whether or not I get a frost before the end of September and end up with a bunch of unripened figs.
As for my 30+ figs trees, winter really is not a problem regardless what happens, they just move indoors and spend the winter with me. They're happy.
I guess that my winterizing strategy. ☺

[chuckell]

Frank what does it say about the Southeast? I need to get an almanac from Walmart this weekend.

Pete, what is you new method? All of my in ground trees suffered badly. the only ones that fruited this year were Improved Celeste, Hardy Chicago and Texas Everbearing. This year, I will be wrapping them with frost blankets stuffed with leaves.

My new greenhouse is up with the top off for now. I'm building a pot belly stove out of a 30g 18gauge steel barrel to help keep it below freezing inside. I got the heater kit and accessories. This weekend the build will begin.

can you tell me more about the frost blanket and leaves ,it sounds like a plan last year i wrapped my two inground trees so tight and warm that they 1/2 rotted away >??

[Harborseal]

If you look at their promotional material they pull phrases out of context to show they were "right". If you dig out last year's almanac you'll see each regional prediction has a mix of right and wrong. For my region they were almost completely wrong for the last 2 years - the only years I've checked.

[BronxFigs]

Hey guys-

Thanks for the interest. Just reporting. Just speculation. Old Farmer's Almanac is due out in a few weeks. Then, you can read all about it...or, not.


Frank

[Snaglpus]

Frost blankets are green insulated blankets. They reduce the outside temp by 10 degrees. They did very well in my climate last year. I did not do a good job wrapping my trees but those protected with blankets had little die back even in 5 degree temps. I didn't even stuff them with leaves but I will this year.

[Taverna78]

No need for fancy expense protection. See tis how I explain. Very cheap easy and effective

http://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home/2835-fig-growers-in-zone-5-or-lower