Wintering ficus in my unheated garage

[sidra]

I've got three ficus. Benjamina, ginseng, and one that came from Walmart that has smaller leaves than the ginseng. They are currently in my garage under a mars hydro ts600. Low 40s last night and the lowest the garage got was 55. (I'm in north central Texas.) A space heater is an absolute no. Not going to happen. I've spent some time Googling and found that ficus either can't go below 65 or are fine up to freezing temps. I found an old thread here where ficus are good as cold as 40s.

1. Will the trees just go dormant once they are cold enough long enough?
2. What's the absolute coldest the garage can get before I need to move everyone inside the house?
3. A seedling warmer mat will keep the trees warmer and happier in general? Can one of these be used to keep the trees in lower than preferred temps?

Thank you

 

[bonsaichile]

Bring them inside your house for the winter. They might drop their leaves when you do so, but they will be fine. Ficus are tropicals and do not have a dormant period

 

[jandslegate]

Bring them inside your house for the winter. They might drop their leaves when you do so, but they will be fine. Ficus are tropicals and do not have a dormant period

Indoors is definitely the way to go. The only ficus I've lost was due to cold. It was even indoors, just too close to an exterior door and drafts got it. Set them near a window, maybe slap some grow lights on them and you'll be golden. Adding a humidifier would also only help. Mine got through their first 'off season' without one but everything did much better after adding them to the mix

 

[ShadyStump]

Last winter was fairly mild here, and all I had was ficus benjamina. I would two-step them in and out depending on the weather. They handled lows down into the mid to upper 40sF, but that was one or two days at a time with highs in the 60s in between.

My two cents is this: they can survive the OCCASIONAL cold night so long as it's warm during the day, but I wouldn't keep them at those temps for any significant length of time.
If you can guarantee that it stays 50F or better in your garage, I think you'll be ok, but inside the house is definitely better for them.
Any old windowsill will do. I've personally never had a problem with one throwing its leaves when I move them inside, but if it does happen it's fine, just water like you should and they'll recover easily.

If for some reason inside the house isn't an option, some plastic sheeting or one of those mylar pocket size survival blankets can be used to make a tent around your trees. Use your seed starting matt in there and it should provide just enough warmth to keep them happy.

 

[sidra]

oh hell. I forgot to mention WHY they are in the garage.

I have 4 cats and no useful place to keep these inside where they can also get light.

 

[sidra]

Indoors is definitely the way to go. The only ficus I've lost was due to cold. It was even indoors, just too close to an exterior door and drafts got it. Set them near a window, maybe slap some grow lights on them and you'll be golden. Adding a humidifier would also only help. Mine got through their first 'off season' without one but everything did much better after adding them to the mix

Don't have a window that'll work on. And I've got 4 cats. One of them is quite interested in plants when I bring things into the house to water them.

 

[sidra]

Last winter was fairly mild here, and all I had was ficus benjamina. I would two-step them in and out depending on the weather. They handled lows down into the mid to upper 40sF, but that was one or two days at a time with highs in the 60s in between.

My two cents is this: they can survive the OCCASIONAL cold night so long as it's warm during the day, but I wouldn't keep them at those temps for any significant length of time.
If you can guarantee that it stays 50F or better in your garage, I think you'll be ok, but inside the house is definitely better for them.
Any old windowsill will do. I've personally never had a problem with one throwing its leaves when I move them inside, but if it does happen it's fine, just water like you should and they'll recover easily.

If for some reason inside the house isn't an option, some plastic sheeting or one of those mylar pocket size survival blankets can be used to make a tent around your trees. Use your seed starting matt in there and it should provide just enough warmth to keep them happy.

I set up a tall shelf with the light hanging from the top shelf. Seems like it would be pretty easy to hang mylar on all 4 sides.

 

[jandslegate]

oh hell. I forgot to mention WHY they are in the garage.

I have 4 cats and no useful place to keep these inside where they can also get light.

I am blessed that my cat can't be bothered to care about my trees and plants.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I killed all my tropicals my first winter in Birmingham wintering them in a homemade hoop house insulated with bales of straw. Now I just bring my single ficus inside when temps get consistently in the 40s at night. I don’t think an unheated garage will be enough unless it’s also well-insulated and temps stay above 45 or so.

 

[penumbra]

I have 3 cats and several dozen ficus. They leave each other alone.

 

[sidra]

I have 3 cats and several dozen ficus. They leave each other alone.

I mean I guess I could test but at best I'd probably wake up and find them on the floor. The ficus, I mean. There is one window except it faces east and it's pretty close to the neighbor's fence (the hell that is suburbia.) and it's got plenty of room for the cats to get to the plants.

 

[ShadyStump]

They leave each other alone.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong then, because my philodendron keeps trying to jump my dog.



Anyways...

I set up a tall shelf with the light hanging from the top shelf. Seems like it would be pretty easy to hang mylar on all 4 sides.

It should be a cinch.
@Brian Van Fleet does rais a good point about insulation, though. If there's an appropriate spot on the wall shared with the house you'll pick up a little bit of additional radiant heat. Unless it's a detached garage of course.

A bit of training might be your answer, but then we are talking cats here.

 

[sidra]

I killed all my tropicals my first winter in Birmingham wintering them in a homemade hoop house insulated with bales of straw. Now I just bring my single ficus inside when temps get consistently in the 40s at night. I don’t think an unheated garage will be enough unless it’s also well-insulated and temps stay above 45 or so.

At 8:30-9 am it was 44 outside and around that time the temperature in the garage was 55. Right now at 4:45 pm it's 68 in the garage and 64 outside. I have a thermometer that shows temperate range for last 24 hours and it didn't get below 55. But it was warmer yesterday than today. I don't know if the garage will warm to the 60s every day if we have a string of 40s at night.