A nice Zone 8 winter

[Kelby]

It's been a pleasantly mild winter here in PA, thanks El Nino! Zone 6 here, so lows of -10F are possible, though I live on a west facing hill that is usually up to 5F warmer. Last 2 nasty winters saw lows of 0F and -1F.

So far this winter it's only gotten to 14F! Long term forecast looks good with only tonight and tomorrow lower than 20F.

I like the lower oil bill, too !

[fitzski]

I hear you Kelby! We just had our first significant snow fall of the year last night.

A whopping 4", a nice light fluffy snow too so it was easy to clear.

Yes lower oil bill is great too.

If the temps stay this way I would hope my breba crop to be better this year.

[GregMartin]

Kevin, do you have figs planted in ground there in MA?

[fitzski]

what trees do you have in-ground?

[GregMartin]

I put a few young plants (some of my doubles) in ground this year and am training them into step over espaliers. I'm looking for my planting map so I can remember, but off the cuff I recall Florea, Nero 600M, Natalina, Latarulla, Lydhurst White....and a couple others. Looking forward to the spring. I covered them in biochar and leaves. They also have a semi decent snow cover on top of that. So far the lowest we've been to is 0F, so it's been a super easy winter to date. (last 2 winters went down to -17F)

[don_sanders]

Sounds like the same temps I'm experiencing this and the last 2 years. Ohio really shouldn't be as cold as Maine, lol.

[strudeldog]

Kelby, Kelby, When will you learn? It's like a no-hitter you don't talk about it until it's over. You are to blame if everyone's figs get zapped. It's Mid-Jan only the 3rd inning

[Kelby]

Hahah, I'm trusting NOAA's forecasting. It's been spot on so far!

[fitzski]

So true, Phil.

I was watching a show this past weekend that talked about the snow in Eastern MA last winter and they say we got 90" of snow in 35 days last winter from the end of January to early March.

[Kelby]

Oops, spoke too soon. Snowstorm headed our way for this weekend! But temps still look good, above average. I'm cool with snow, but I'm not a fan of relentless cold!

[Rewton]

13 deg. F here this morning which I think is the lowest it has been. Hopefully, this will be the low point of the winter. I didn't really protect any of my in-ground trees this year other than heavy mulch (reasons are complicated) so it will be interesting to see which varieties handle the cold the best.

[Kelby]

Same thing here, just heavy mulch. More from laziness than anything else.

[Rewton]

Container trees in the garage were at 25 degrees this morning. My aim is to keep them above 23 deg - so far, so good.

[newnandawg]

19 degrees now. After nearly all my in ground trees were killed to the ground last winter, I only put an additional small amount of pine straw around them. We shall see.

[Iowafig]

It is a heat wave here in Iowa thermometer says -4 F today yesterday was -14 F..... Bring on spring!

[strudeldog]

12F my low for winter here this AM, one day after Kelby jinxed us. Lots of figs and Pomegranates in ground 1st year, no protection, no mulch. last 2 years been right at 0F

[eboone]

Nice Kelby, it is your fault it hit 5 degrees this AM here. But I have the temp up to 37 in my storage area

[Rafaelissimmo]

Kelby, it is bitterly cold all over the Northeast as you know. Still a long way to go this winter, ground hog day still 3 weeks away. It should get a little warmer after this weekend's blizzard. Of course my boiler went down last night, it always conks out on the coldest night of the year.

[Kelby]

Bitter? This is nothing compared to the last 2!

Tough break on the boiler

[Rewton]

Kelby, some models are predicting over 30 inches of snow along the MD/PA border for Friday and Saturday! Lots of insulation for the trees I guess.

[Bluemalibu]

At moments like these, it really makes me appreciate our climate even more than I naturally do... it will be 70* to 75* all week here in Fig Heaven.

[Kelby]

Ohhh, there come's winter! Forecast is down to 3F on Saturday night. And here I was thinking nothing would be damaged.

[Rewton]

6 degrees predicted here Saturday night. That sux. Well, it doesn't look like we will have so much sustained deep cold as we did the previous two winters though I'm not sure how much that matters.

[newnandawg]

That really does suck Steve. Do you have them protected?

We are looking at teens again this week which would be our coldest so far. That sucks down here. LOL

[Rewton]

Pretty much the only protection is 6-12 inches of mulch around the base. However, I will be moving and won't be able to see figs from the in-ground trees ripen this year anyway. It still remains to be seen how many of the in-grounds I will dig up and take with me. I don't think any of my figs will die but some will lose a lot of above ground wood for the 3rd year in a row.

[mountainfigs]

-1 predicted here Saturday night after a Thursday projected low around 3. Ouch. And this with the vast majority of top wood still alive in this heretofore mild winter. Too many to protect and not much to protect with. May throw a cardboard box over a low Improved Celeste by the house. If it's only a brief dip, the damage may not be total. -1 would be lower than -18 Celsius. Any European fig wood survived that?

edit: just like that - now calling for a low of -3 ...

[newnandawg]

-1 could be pretty bad Tony. We had 8 degrees last winter and all 60+ trees died
to the ground. Only 2 did not make it but they were planted when they were
to young. I only had about 6 inches of pine straw around them then. I have
put about 12 inches around each for the up coming teens,

Good luck to you guys. Hope they all survive.

[Kelby]

Survival of the fittest, baby!

[mountainfigs]

Thanks for the well wishes. There is a sliver of hope. 1) Maybe the forecast will change. 2) The lows should be overnight dips, nothing extended. In mid-to-late January we already dipped on 5 different days to 8, 7, 7, 6, and 6 with minimal dieback (apart from 2 bushes that suffered 80 percent dieback). Fingers crossed.

[GregMartin]

-6F forecast for Saturday night here in southern Maine. This will be the first below zero temps of the season for me. Darn, was hoping to stay out of the negative territory this year (has never happened up here in my lifetime...probably in recorded history). Kelby, I think the Arctic air mass got wind of your posts....next time it forgets us we say nothing!

[fitzski]

i hear you Greg. We got 10" on Friday and it looks like another 10" today.

it was fun while it lasted

[DBJohnson]

Ugh! Looks like we're forecast to drop down to 7F on Saturday morning? Bleah!

[Chrisk]

Ohh ,sorry to hear y'all. It's a blistering 32' F this morning and supposed to dip into the low 20s tomorrow but my babies can handle that. We've been blessed here in the Atl area so far this year. Praying for your figs friends.

[mountainfigs]

I noted above that "In mid-to-late January we already dipped on 5 different days to 8, 7, 7, 6, and 6 with minimal dieback (apart from 2 bushes that suffered 80 percent dieback)."

Well, these last four days we've been hit with lows of 4, 0, 8, -4. So don't know what is still alive out there if anything. On the bright side, these were dips, not enduring. Highs those days were 12, 11, 13, 9.

I did try to mound up some snow on the low bushes as their only protection, per the photos, along with a couple semi-snow covered discarded xmas trees on one bush.