Dennis: I'm curious, do you sell your figs & cuttings or is your orchard just for pure enjoyment?  I'm wondering because I would just LOVE to have an orchard.  Unfortunately, my yard is so tiny that I know I can only grow my fruit trees in pots.  I mean, I do have a few trees in the ground; Meyer Lemon, Dwarf Navel Orange, a hybrid apple & Fuyu Persimmon.  I had two cherries an avocado & papapa in ground but no longer.  Cherries died and Solo papaya I had to remove--too close to the ground.  I also have raspberry & a blueberry in a pot & several small bananas.  My family (3 total) usually just pics the fruit...

I have not sold cuttings but I may one day.  My orchard is a business.  I have or had 66 trees planted on my property.  I live on one acre and the land that the wife and I don't use has fig in the ground, in pots along with pomergrates, jujubes, and pawpaws.  Here in Charlotte, we have "goldilocks weather".  We have 4 full seasons with summers reaching the high 90s and winters in the 20s and 30s.  Figs do well here BUT every 5 years or so, we get hit with a hard freeze or 5 degrees.  This happened in the past 2 consecutive years.  I lost a few trees over the years and I had some that were over 7 feet tall that pumped out a lot of figs.  But the last freeze was too much for some.  About 4 or 5 years ago, I planted 66 trees in the ground.  Back then we had very mild winters and 80 degree weather in October.  I miss those days!  My Atreano, Ronde de Bordeaux, Celeste, Hardy Chicago and other were giants back then.  They got too big to wrap so I stopped.  The tree do come back the next year but not as strong as previous years.  So, Im going back to wrapping then.

If durability is an issue, what would be the downside of making wraps out of tarp material or some of the sil or ripstop nylons which can be bought by the yard?  Gromet kits are inexpensive and once made, they could be folded flat when not in use and simply laced up with something like paracord around a plant in fall.  A lot of the tent making materials come in 4'-5' widths and breathe well. Prices for these materials have come down in the last few years and if you figure you can get at least 10 or more years out of a bag, the cost becomes even more reasonable. Has anyone tried this?

Marianna, I like the grommet kit and tent material idea.  I hadn't thought of that.  That should be much cheaper and easier in the long run.  Hmmmmmm, yeah, I like that idea a lot!  The timely is perfect b/c I'm getting ready to start building my covering.  But where can one get tent material?  Army Navy store?  My wife has a grommet making kit.  All I need now is some tough material in bulk! OK, here I go with another project! 

Dennis, you have to order it online. Had a list of them which I compiled 4 or 5 years ago but I need to check and make sure its not outdated.  You can pick the weight and color of the fabric as well as whether you want the fabric coated or not.

Walmart sells grommet kits as do Home Depot and Lowes.  Harbor Freight and Northern Tools both sell larger packages of grommets with the dyes in various sizes. That is probably the most economical source if you are going to make a bunch.

Joann Fabrics has sil and ripstop nylon locally at times but Seattle Fabrics is the big one that I remember as having everything including special deals on the ends of bolts. Hart, Beacon and Albany international made some as well. Albany international also made thinsulate if I remember correctly which can also be purchased by the yard if you wanted to insulate a bag. Justification for insulating a bag might be to slow down the temperature exchange so that the weather would have to stay below survival temp for more time  and  to retard the breaking of dormancy when its likely to get zapped by a freeze 3 days later.

Bump

Hi snaglpus,
Don't you get snow ? Does the bag crumble to the floor with the weight of the snow on top or does keep its up-shape ?

I'm a few year late answering this question jdsfrance.  To answer your question, we get very little snow every year.  If we do get snow, it melts in a day or 2.  We mostly get ice and a lot of sun.

Very timely reminder! 

Have you tried using this for temporary frost protection of actively growing fig trees, for a night or 2 since it is opaque unless of course you make it out of poly?

LOL