Hi all.

As the time comes to winterize my outdoor inground trees, each year I'm always thinking of more modern / easier way of protecting inground figs over the cold months BESIDES wrapping.  The "art" of wrapping is not a sure fire way to protect trees, is laborious, and inconvenient in the early spring when experiencing large temperature fluctuations.  It's not easy to unwrap a fig during Spring heat and later have to wrap it again because of sporadic nighttime freezes.  Especially so if you have multiple trees in-ground.

There has to me a more modern way of doing this that provides deep freeze protection perhaps with the inclusion of artificial heat source (not Christmas lights).  I was thinking in-ground outdoor lamp spikes with heating bulbs that can be flipped on and off easily during freezing temperatures.  Similar to the head bulbs that are used for bathrooms.  Also considering a heater / blower but haven't found any that exist for this purpose.  Also, the safety of each method would have to be considered. 

I'm sort of favoring the first option but looking for input on effectiveness during freezing temps.  How far would I have to place the light from the tree so that it gives just enough heat for protection?  I was thinking one light / spike per tree.  The bulbs state not to use outdoors but my guess is only for purposes of getting wet.  Each bulb is rated for 5,000 which equals 208 days of continuous use.

Any advice in regard to these or any other methods you have tried would be greatly appreciated!  Anything but the darn wrapping!

I sew old sheets together to make a giant bag for my citrus trees with a garden spike and a 100 watt outdoor flood light about two feet from the trunk. I weight down the giant bag with cinder blocks tied to the sheets with twine. We get a few hard freeze days a year in my zone 8 location. I've been thinking about making something with old trampoline frames, someone is always giving them away free on Craigslist.
Good luck

You could try Heat Tape.

Look into the heat lamps they use to heat livestock (ex: chickens, lambs, etc.) they are more heavy duty and are designed to no catch the barn on fire when left unattended ;). http://www.premier1supplies.com/list.php?mode=list&species_id=ALL&criteria=heat+lamps

bump ^^