if you live anywhere in North America North of North Carolina,
(that did make sense, read it slowly!
and your plants have been outside all summer and autumn, then they are already "going dormant" naturally..and might already be fully dormant for all you know..
here in upstate NY we are due for a cold and rainy spell thats going to last all through the weekend!
PERFECT weather to move the process along! (the process of going dormant..)
we are going to have nightime lows in the mid 40's..maybe even high 30's!
I wont bring my plants in at all unless there is a chance of frost..
(im talking about VFT's and Sarr's only)
my plants are probably dormant right now..I dont know if they are or not, and honestly it really doesent matter..
I will put them in the fridge only when nighttime temps drop below freezing..
they will probably remain outside another week or two..
exactly when they go into the fridge is totally unimportant..
they still come out in mid-February regardless..
if they went into the fridge today, or 3 weeks from today, it makes no difference as to when they should come out..
"going dormant" is a slow gradual process..it cant be timed to the day..
"dormancy starts today, because today is the day they go into the fridge"
nope, cant do it that way..
your plants should still be in full-swing growing through all of August and into mid-September..
sometime in mid or late September the process of going dormant beings to slowly kick in..we dont know exactly when it is, and we dont need to care..
by right now, mid-October, the plants are just about fully shut down..maybe not quite fully dormant, but almost there..
So the way I look at it, my plants take a solid month to "go dormant",,they do it naturally outside from approx mid-september to mid-october..
(actually, it begins even earlier than that..plants start to get "dormancy cues" in July and August! even as they are still growing.. they "sense" the slow decrease in daylight, and the process begins..)
Nature does all that for me, I dont need to do anything..
then, by late October or the beginning of November (whenever nightime temps warrant it) they go into the fridge..
THEN the "3 months of dormancy" begins..
realistically, dormancy should be all of November, December, and January..
mine usually stay in until mid-February, just because spring doesent arrive until April around here, and there is no real need to speed up the process by bringing them out extra-early..
So! if your plants have been outside..leave them outside a little bit longer..
unless temps are going to fall below freezing..
40's is perfectly fine (and GOOD!)
middle and high 30's is also pefectly fine..
just let nature do the job for you!
then put them in the fridge (or wherever you put them) when nature gets too cold for them to remain outdoors..
So that would be a "no" from me..
scot