Winter growth?

@"SubmarinePete"#105 
Your potted fig trees on the bench look vigorous and healthy. Is it possible to get a couple of pictures of the under bench mechanism you employed to move your benches? You have stated that they move, but not how. I have assumed they roll in some fashion, but I sure would love to have more details on this key feature of your Greenhouse. Also I have been curious if you have any supplemental lighting to keep the figs growing, and out of dormancy? I imagine with the under bench warmth it wouldn't take much supplemental lighting to keep the fig plants from dormancy in the winter. Could we get some bench, and under bench pictures please?
 
@"Figless"#18 
I did a video where I showed the benches and explained the financial justification. It is located here: 

The bench top sits on roll bars, below which is a fixed structure. This enables the bench tops to roll back and forth on one axis. There are a bunch of companies that make the rolling benches. The designs are all pretty similar. The system isn’t cheap and it doesn’t make financial sense in all cases.

I’ve thought of potentially adding supplementary lighting for the winter but I don’t want to add it unless I need it, so I’ll try to get some readings this winter and see if it is necessary or not. Even if it would be helpful I probably won’t add it for a while because I don’t have the budget for it right now.
 
I imagine day length will have some impact on whether you need lighting. There are some massive cannabis greenhouses in Leamington, Ontario.... which is if you can believe it on the same parallel as northern California. The ones I saw have lighting but they succession grow year round.... Not to mention they were heavily funded so money was no object. At the time when it was just becoming legal, investors were throwing money at them. 

This greenhouse was so big they couldn't get enough electricity supplied so they got their own 2MW gas electric generating station. 

[video=youtube]
 
Yeah energy costs here are ridiculously expensive so I don’t want to install extra lighting unless I really need to. I think I’m paying about $.45/kw-h right now, which is crazy.
 
Are you going to limit the growth this winter Pete or let them go crazy in there?
You'll definitely have a lot of cutting wood. :)
 
45 cents is insane! I thought priced like that were just in Europe. I think my peak hour rates are like 17-18 cents. And that's in Canadian, play money.
 
@"ktrain"#2 Well I mostly just want the trees to put in some size before I plant them in the spring. The poms and loquats are quite small. I also have some small mango trees that I grew from seed. Plus there are some tropicals in there. So bottom line is I need to give it some supplemental heat during the winter nights.
 
I'm getting inconclusive google search results. We have a common fruit in Sicily we call Nespola that look similar. Are these the same fruit as Loquat or Medlar?
 
@"TorontoJoe"#1 Yeah that looks like a loquat. Medlar looks different 

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@"TorontoJoe"#1  speaking of loquats, check out this picture from earlier today… loads of fig trees and a couple of loquats sprouting up where I cut a bunch of brush back. I think a lot of the figs might be from the same roots but some of the leaves look different. You can see the loquats with the narrow leaves

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