Today I finished uncovering my in-ground trees.  They were all rooted Spring of 2013 or 2014 and planted in the ground Spring of 2014.   Exceptions are Kathleen's Black and Sicilian Red which were rooted in 2012 and 2011, respectively, and were planted in the ground in 2013.  They are all decent sized tree/shrubs with a height of 3-5 feet with one or two slightly bigger than that.

The results are below.  In addition to the various forms of protection described below, in most cases I used moth balls to deter mice.  I had no mice damage, thankfully.  I judged damage by the color of the wood and by the scratch test to look for green cambium underneath the outer layer of bark.  Last year I discovered this is an inexact science as sometimes limbs are green on one side and dead on the other side and thus have to be removed.  But nevertheless I think I have a rough idea of the damage and will update with more info later. Overall, I am impressed with how well my trees did since several nights we had a lows of around 3-5 deg. F (one or two with fierce wind) and one night a low of 0 deg F.  The only disappointment/surprise was Zingarella-RW which was one of the largest trees but did not fare well in the cold for me.  Bordissot Blanca is also quite cold sensitive but it was rooted in 2014 and hopefully it will adapt. I'll try to post a couple photos in subsequent updates.

Levels of protection:

1. Shredded leaf mulch piled in a 2-3 circle around trunk and about 6 inches up the trunk

2. Shredded leaf mulch around trunk and top of tree covered with tarp only

3. Fencing surrounding trunks 3-4 feet high and filled with leaves; usually 6-12 inches of limbs protrude outside of leaves; I placed black plastic sheeting over the top of the leaves to keep the rain out but this was only partially successful

4. Shredded leaf mulch around the base; surrounded the trunks with a large fabric bag (designed for protecting shrubbery) and stuffed them with leaves; this was topped by a piece of black plastic

5. Combination of 3 and wrapping of trunk(s) with burlap and tarp

6. Shredded leaf mulch around base and wrapping of trunks with burlap followed by a tarp with opening at the top that is covered by a small bucket

7. Shredded leaf mulch around base and wrapping of trunks with carpeting followed by a tarp with opening at the top that is covered by a small bucket

Sal'sEL – protection: 2; status; at least ¾ of top growth is alive

Takoma Violet - protection: 2; status; at least ¾ of top growth is alive

MvsB – protection: 1; about 1/2 of top is alive; however this one as well as Malta Black and Sicilian Red were up against a fence so that microenvironment probably helped.

Malta Black - protection: 1; about 1/3-1/2 of top growth is alive

Sicilian Red - protection: 1; about 1/3-1/2 of top growth is alive

Vasilika Sika (Belleclare) – protection: 3; about ¾ of top growth is alive (pretty much the wood that was covered by leaves is fine)

Zingarella RW – protection: 3; only about 10% of top growth is alive

Socorro Black – protection: 7; about 90% of top growth is alive

Filacciano Bianco - protection: 7; about 90% of top growth is alive; it is hard to say whether the brebas are ok at this point

Bordissot Blanca – protection: 6; this is an interesting case, it is a single trunk tree with four branches coming off of the trunk about 2-4 inches off the ground; in this case 2 trunks died and about 90% of the other two trunks are alive

Battaglia Green – protection: 3; about 1/2 of top growth is alive

Delonibus Black – protection: 3; about 2/3 of top growth is alive (interesting because it seems highly related to Zingarella RW but seems to have way less damage)

Paradiso Gene – protection: 7; about 80-90% of top growth is alive

Ronde de Bordeaux – protection: 4; about ¾ of top growth is alive

Adriatic JH - protection: 4; about ¾ of top growth is alive

Kathleen's Black – protection: 5; about ½ of top growth is alive

Wow Steve!  Amazing records!  You work hard for your figs!

Suzi

Thanks for the report Steve. Which of the protection methods do you think works best?

Nice job. I have a few of the figs you mentioned and used some of the same winterizing techniques. You gave me some hope so thanks!

Steve

Really nice recap of your winter protection methodologies. Who would have thought during last weeks snowstorm that we would be uncovering this weekend. Good luck with those survivors lets hope for a good hot long Summer to ripen those figs.

Well done Steve. I'm sure they will all thank you with an awesome crop of figs! Have a great growing season.

Thanks for all the comments.  I'm sure I will be revising the amount of damage once I see what actually buds out but I am pretty certain nothing totally died! 

Rafael: good question.  I used what I could easily get - leaves, fencing material, tarps.  I also splurged for the shrubbery bags for the two figs in the font yard for cosmetic reasons.  The most effective method seem to be wrapping with carpet, then tarp, with a bucket over the top.  However, this requires having main limbs that can be gathered together into a compact shape.  Some of my figs have a more spreading growth habit though I could have done more pruning to get around this.  Leaves work pretty too well as Mark can attest.  The leaves stuffed inside the shrubbery bag actually worked quite well.  Attached is a photo of my backyard taken March 5.

Carpet, tarp and a bucket-that is the time honored method of all the old-timers in my neighborhood (mostly italians).

Great information Steve. Does anyone know if there is a way to save a post for future reference on this forum. This one would be a keeper for next fall.

Very informative, Dave, thank you. My garage figs look pretty good, I think they all made it, unlike last year.

Donna, my detached garage figs came through just fine as well but it I did add supplemental heat on about 10 of the coldest nights.

Thanks for the info. I will be unwrapping mine in a couple weeks to report.  Will only have a couple

I don't think I will ever put anything inground. For one thing I really don't have the room. Meanwhile, I am going to California the first week of April, I wonder if I should just leave everything in the garage until I get back. This is a little off topic, so sorry about that. Happy St. Patrick's Day!