Put figs directly in the concrete floor of unheated garage or not?

BucksCountyFigs

BucksCountyFigs

Well-known member
So this is my first winter with figs, and I was contemplating extra protection in my garage for my young, mainly lignified figs, since the big garage overhead door is always being opened and closed since this is our primary entrance/exit of the house. (Versus the super baby fig trees which aren’t really lignified, get winter inside the house with the LED grow light that is like a second sun. Think the neon chicken sign in Kramer’s apartment.)

So back to the garage did storage…
I bought a cheapy $15 used plastic zip up greenhouse like the attached pic but smaller. I was planning to put my figs inside that, inside my garage, to help buffer any “warmth” whooshing out when we open the garage door and frigid wind rushes in.

Then I was thinking that the pots should not set in direct contact with the cold concrete floor, but then I came across an allusion to some figgers saying that due to thermal mass, it’s actually better for the pots ot have direct contact with the concrete of my unheated garage.

For reference, I was planning to put the pots in insulated bags (freebies from insulated meal deliveries that I got on marketplace), and then set these on top of styrofoam boxes.

What do you all think and do?

I’m in zone 6b, and I think it’s going to be a very cold winter. 🥶


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I was thinking about asking this very question the other day and I was wondering how to explain the way concrete sucks any warmth out of everything to someone that may not have ever slept on concrete before(I was in the Army). Last winter I only had one fig tree and it was a very cold hardy variety. I'm going to put something under the pots this year.
 
ETXfigs said:
I was thinking about asking this very question the other day and I was wondering how to explain the way concrete sucks any warmth out of everything to someone that may not have ever slept on concrete before(I was in the Army). Last winter I only had one fig tree and it was a very cold hardy variety. I'm going to put something under the pots this year.
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Right, it feels counterintuitive to put the pits directly on a cold concrete floor?
 
I set mine on the floor of an unheated garage...now I say unheated, but we have a room above my garage and heat duct running across the ceiling.
So...it does stay about 15 degrees warmer in there that outside.
When I kept them outside in a pop up green house, the sat on the concrete patio and were fine.
 
I overwinter my potted figs in a metal building with a concrete floor, so very much like a garage. I've done this for several years, and I have lost figs every year. The past 3 winters have been far colder than our zone 8-A should normally be. This past winter, we used pallets on the concrete to get the pots off the cold floor and had much better results.

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2Angels said:
I overwinter my potted figs in a metal building with a concrete floor, so very much like a garage. I've done this for several years, and I have lost figs every year. The past 3 winters have been far colder than our zone 8-A should normally be. This past winter, we used pallets on the concrete to get the pots off the cold floor and had much better results.

View attachment 15133
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Thank you, that is very helpful.
 
I am in central NJ and load my figs into an unheated, attached garage each winter. The largest trees are in direct contact with the concrete floor. Smaller trees are stacked within the larger pots until I can stack no more. I was always told that you do not want cold air circulating under potted trees.

I also use my garage as a primary entrance so the door does get opened frequently. I have rarely lost trees overwintering. Trees that might have been weaker before dormancy have been the ones I have lost in the past.
 
Opiem10 said:
I am in central NJ and load my figs into an unheated, attached garage each winter. The largest trees are in direct contact with the concrete floor. Smaller trees are stacked within the larger pots until I can stack no more. I was always told that you do not want cold air circulating under potted trees.

I also use my garage as a primary entrance so the door does get opened frequently. I have rarely lost trees overwintering. Trees that might have been weaker before dormancy have been the ones I have lost in the past.
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Those are some good observations. Thanks for weighing in. My area is lightly heated when necessary and rarely opened. The figs I have lost in prior winters are more likely due to watering incorrectly. The big pots on the bottom of the pyramid are sometimes too wet, but it's hard to say precisely. I had much better success this year raising them up off the concrete. That could be due to the movement of the warmer air circulating during the periods of deepest cold, or maybe we did a better job with watering. I cannot say with certainty and that should be noted.
 
I have a basically uninsulated, attached garage. I set my figs right on the concrete slab with no issues. While the slab may seem cold, it can actually be warmer than the surrounding air because it retains some of the (relative) heat from the earth.

On super cold days I try to avoid opening the garage door.... not a real problem here as no car has been in the garage since we moved in.

If you're super concerned you can leave a heater in there with a temp controller set to -5C... but I doubt it would come on much if ever.
 
I store mine in an unheated attached garage on the concrete floor against the north wall with smaller pots on the soil of larger pots. The garage air is usually 20° warmer than the outside air. I have not done a temperature check on the floor, but there is a sink on the south (house) side. The pex pipes to the sink have not frozen so I suspect the air on that side of the garage has not been below 32°F long enough for them to freeze. Last winter it was 12°F outside several times. I have not lost any figs.
 
Opiem10 said:
I am in central NJ and load my figs into an unheated, attached garage each winter. The largest trees are in direct contact with the concrete floor. Smaller trees are stacked within the larger pots until I can stack no more. I was always told that you do not want cold air circulating under potted trees.

I also use my garage as a primary entrance so the door does get opened frequently. I have rarely lost trees overwintering. Trees that might have been weaker before dormancy have been the ones I have lost in the past.
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Thanks, that’s helpful.
 
I store half of mine directly on the slab in an attached garage as well. It gets opened daily because I still park a car in there. Haven’t lost one in there yet. Smallest pots are stacked on top of bigger pots and closet to the wall adjacent to house and furthest from garage door.
 
BucksCountyFigs said:
So this is my first winter with figs, and I was contemplating extra protection in my garage for my young, mainly lignified figs, since the big garage overhead door is always being opened and closed since this is our primary entrance/exit of the house. (Versus the super baby fig trees which aren’t really lignified, get winter inside the house with the LED grow light that is like a second sun. Think the neon chicken sign in Kramer’s apartment.)

So back to the garage did storage…
I bought a cheapy $15 used plastic zip up greenhouse like the attached pic but smaller. I was planning to put my figs inside that, inside my garage, to help buffer any “warmth” whooshing out when we open the garage door and frigid wind rushes in.

Then I was thinking that the pots should not set in direct contact with the cold concrete floor, but then I came across an allusion to some figgers saying that due to thermal mass, it’s actually better for the pots ot have direct contact with the concrete of my unheated garage.

For reference, I was planning to put the pots in insulated bags (freebies from insulated meal deliveries that I got on marketplace), and then set these on top of styrofoam boxes.

What do you all think and do?

I’m in zone 6b, and I think it’s going to be a very cold winter. 🥶


View attachment 15127

View attachment 15126
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Just wanted to show you back in 2022 Christmas Eve here’s 2 pictures of the temperature inside my garage and the temperature outside. Outside the lowest was -1°F while the temperature in the garage was 26°F

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