Chill hours?

Motherwise

Motherwise

Well-known member
Do fig trees need a certain amount of chill hours? When I was selecting peach trees for my area, I had to keep in mind the number of chill hours needed for that variety to produce fruit. I’m a bit confused about it as I read conflicting info.
How long do fig trees need to be dormant before ‘getting a head start’ on growing season? If they are very young potted plants, do they still need dormancy? I see growing tents with lights, etc which doesn’t seem to allow for dormancy? One source said that defoliation by hand was sufficient.
 
Its not really "chill hours"like a peach tree or blueberries do to actually stay alive and produce fruit. they need to go through a state of dormancy, wether it be frost or just a long pause. Cold forces this, i let mine frost til the leaves come off with no sap leaking behind them then sleep for a few weeks, then bring them in it was maybe 1.5months total, they have brebas and new leaves so it was enough.but i have them under high powered lights til spring. Figgyed on youtube and people in extremely hot climates they just seem to go dormant for a while then wake again.
 
pjmac said:
Its not really "chill hours"like a peach tree or blueberries do to actually stay alive and produce fruit. they need to go through a state of dormancy, wether it be frost or just a long pause. Cold forces this, i let mine frost til the leaves come off with no sap leaking behind them then sleep for a few weeks, then bring them in it was maybe 1.5months total, they have brebas and new leaves so it was enough.but i have them under high powered lights til spring. Figgyed on youtube and people in extremely hot climates they just seem to go dormant for a while then wake again.
Click to expand...
yea I forgot to mention he let’s them go dormant for a period.
 
What happens if figs aren't allowed to go "dormant"?

As a test, six plants were brought indoors while actively growing, then maintained at 70f with grow lights. They have continued adding leaves. Six additional plants were left outdoors until leaves dropped, then brought indoors and placed with the six actively growing plants. 45 days later new buds have swelled and are now breaking.
 
Spectrum said:
What happens if figs aren't allowed to go "dormant"?

As a test, six plants were brought indoors while actively growing, then maintained at 70f with grow lights. They have continued adding leaves. Six additional plants were left outdoors until leaves dropped, then brought indoors and placed with the six actively growing plants. 45 days later new buds have swelled and are now breaking.
Click to expand...
I’m interested to see if it makes a difference in fruiting. Please keep us updated!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ben
The Fig Botany book says the following on the topic:

"
A chilling requirement is necessary for fig
growth and production, but the length of the
dormant period is limited by local climatic conditions
(Flaishman et al., 2008). Fig trees growing
under hot climatic conditions can grow continuously,
remaining evergreen".

An interesting observation of my own:
I started Tia Penya and Cravens Craving very early this year, they both fruited by July, dropped leaves, and grew new leaves and set a new figlets. It's almost as if both did a reset to start over. Can that brief period without leaves in the middle of summer be called dormancy in a way? I don't know.
 
Fig treess don't need to go dormant, and in the tropics they never do (although due to climatic conditions there is usually a short period when they drop their leaves and show no signs of growth). This has very important consequences: if they are not subjected to a chill period they do not produce brebas. Instead there is a more or less continuous production of maincrop figs.
With regard to caprifigs this is very significant, since as profichi can be equated to brebas, no profichi will be produced in areas without any short period of cold (no higher than 5 or 6 degrees Centigrade for two or three weeks). As a consequence it is very likely that no Blastophaga colony can ever be established in natural conditions in tropical climates.
 
Spectrum said:
What happens if figs aren't allowed to go "dormant"?

As a test, six plants were brought indoors while actively growing, then maintained at 70f with grow lights. They have continued adding leaves. Six additional plants were left outdoors until leaves dropped, then brought indoors and placed with the six actively growing plants. 45 days later new buds have swelled and are now breaking.
Click to expand...
How long of continuous growth do you have? Im not saying they wont grow continuously for a very long time but eventually You dont get a choice to not let them go dormant, they just stop growing for a period of time, you can do things to try and wake them like root prune/uppot/over fertilize but eventually they will go dormant no matter what. Ive grown them for 13+months and it was still actively growing but i let it go dormant for a month this year with the cold and pruned it back.
 
pjmac said:
How long of continuous growth do you have? Im not saying they wont grow continuously for a very long time but eventually You dont get a choice to not let them go dormant, they just stop growing for a period of time, you can do things to try and wake them like root prune/uppot/over fertilize but eventually they will go dormant no matter what. Ive grown them for 13+months and it was still actively growing but i let it go dormant for a month this year with the cold and pruned it back.
Click to expand...
Plants started about twelve months ago as cuttings.
 
When I was in SoCal, I had trees that kept the leaves all winter. In spring, they would drop the leaves and restart. That drop & restart seemed to be the dormancy and emergence of it others talk about. It typically took a week to two.

Some trees drop all their leaves (typically the cold hardy ones).
 
Last year we got 7" of snow which did not melt for a week. I noticed all my trees produced fruit earlier than expected. I grow in pots. These trees were early, mid and late bearing varieties. My conclusion is that they benefited from the colder than normal temps we have.
 
Last edited:
LadyGT said:
Last year we got 7" of snow which did not melt for a week. I noticed all my trees produced fruit earlier than expected. I grow in pots. These trees were early, mid and late bearing varieties. My conclusion is that they benefited from the colder than normal temps we have.
Click to expand...
That's a huge weakness to tests we do. Multiple plants of the same variety are needed to control variables but we don't have that sample size.
 
LadyGT said:
Last year we got 7" of snow which did not melt for a week. I noticed all my trees produced fruit earlier than expected. I grow in pots. These trees were early, mid and late bearing varieties. My conclusion is that they benefited from the colder than normal temps we have.
Click to expand...
Would that mean the northern growers have their fruit produced earlier than the southern growers?

Most northern growers' complaint is they can't ripen enough fruits in their season. Their plants typically have longer dormancy in colder temperature than the southern growers.

Have you compared your GDD from last year (you mean 2024 or 2025?) to the year before?

I picked BM on 7/11 this year, which had never happened to me this early before. I didn't do anything except leaving the trees in the hot, dark garage for 2 extra weeks because I didn't have time to move them out.
 
I am just sharing what I experienced last year. My trees typically break bud in March and noticed more fruit being produced earlier. They could have been breba which I didn't have before.
 
LadyGT said:
I am just sharing what I experienced last year. My trees typically break bud in March and noticed more fruit being produced earlier. They could have been breba which I didn't have before.
Click to expand...
I am experiencing similar thing which I reported early. My BM ripened on July 11th, which never happened this early before. I didn't do any headstart except by leaving the trees in the hot, dark garage for 2 extra weeks because I didn't have time to move them.

My thinking is this year, we had an early warm spring which contributes a lot of GDD early in the season. Somehow, my plants benefited even though they were all in the dark as I didn't turn any light on.

If this is repeatable, we can do some simple headstart by leaving the plants in the hot garage for couple weeks in early spring so long as the weather outside is still above growing temperature.
 
Mediterranean areas where most of the world's figs are grown do have winters with night time temperatures below 40f and occasionally down around freezing. Seasonal adaptations surely evolved to conserve resources when temperatures drop. It doesn't follow though that dormant periods are required.

Don't fig wasps over winter insulated within mammoni and mamme crops? Doesn't that indicate that at least some figs keep growing all year?

We know from experience that we can root a cutting in late summer indoors, and grow it all winter to fruit the next summer. How different is that from a mature fig plant not having chill hours?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top