Does anyone have pix of this process that I could add to the FAQ at Figs 4 Fun?

Sorry I have no photos of burying.I wanted to ask a ? For us in zone 6 and wherever else figs need protection.I was wondering if I wrapped all my branches up and then wrapped my fig tree with carpet and then put a strong tarp over my tree would that be enough insulation?I tried it last year with carpet,plastic,and tarp and my trees died because of too much moisture.Two years ago I used to bury them it was very successful but tree trunks got to thick and were hard to bend.I'd love to hear your opinions.Thank you

Hi Jon.

Sorry but I didn't take any pictures of the process last winter. This was this first time I tried it and it was quite successful.

If it helps, I'll take a stab at explaining what I did:

I dug a trench about 2' deep and long enough to accomodate the trees I had. All my trees were pretty small with none being taller than about 4'.

The trees that were in pots, I left in the pots and simply laid them on their side in the trench. In-ground trees I dug up completely (bare-root) and laid in the trench. I then covered everything with soil and mulch and left them until late March/early April (zone 6).

Things I learned and things I'd do differently:

1). I wouldn't dig as deep of a trench because some of the trees that were in the bottom of it ended up with a little water-log rot on a few of the branches. Although the extent of this was minor.

2). Next time I would dig only a shallow swail and cover everything with mulch only and no dirt. The dirt just made it harder to dig everything out. A draw-back here may be that mice would burrow into the mulch and take up residence for the winter. I've heard of this happening. 

A possible variation to mulch only would be to use all mulch with a thin layer of dirt over top that. May or may not be enough to discourage the mice.

3). By doing this, nearly all of the wood was preserved and started growing in spring right from the branch tips. With only a couple of exceptions.

4). This also resulted in my having ripe fruit earlier on one variety in particular, that a local farmer had given me. As of this writing, most of the fruit on my trees (of this one type) have all ripened while the fruit on the local farmers trees are all still green and under-developed.

There are obviously some good advantages to using this process but it is alot of work. For those thinking of trying it, it does work.

It's interesting to think that we usually reserve the process of 'burying' for things that are dead. It's certainly a different outcome when it comes to live figs trees :) .

Conversely, I'm planning to cover my in-ground trees with cloth and plastic this winter. I hope this works for me as it will be less work than all that digging and mulching.

I hope you get more input on this Jon as I would like to hear/see the experiences others have had with this. 

thread showing a good wrap job:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3093610

thread showing a good bend/bury job:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4092717

I remembered seeing both of this since I've been hitting the forum and managed to (lucky me) locate them using the Search feature.

I wrapped my in-ground the last couple years.
The first year they were young and died to the ground but came back.
The second year I had a big issue with mold so again I chopped them down to the ground again and came right back up.

This Winter I plan on putting a pipe or something for venting. Thinking a half inch diameter should be good enough. I would place it on top and curve down a couple inches. Thinking a 2ft pipe would be good enough.

The other problem might be is that I used the blue tarp to cover the burlap. Too much heat?

Doesn't make sense to cut them down to the ground every year. losing fruit this way. I lost out on the main crop as well.

Jason,

Thanks for posting those links.

I do still plan to bury at least two of my trees this winter. One is a DK in a pot and the other is an in-ground tree that I grafted two varieties onto. I just don't want to lose those two grafts since the two varieties are very important to me.

Rafed,

I would have thought that the blue tarp would have been one of the better choices.

I used to work for a big hotel so I have an excess of old bed sheets and pillow cases that I can use. So, for me it's going to be primarily old bed sheets, pillow cases, and opaque & white plastic. I also plan to stuff some very dry staw in there before the cloth goes on. Hope it works. If not, then I'll likely go with a different plan in subsequent years.  

Bill,

I have moving pads ( 72x60 ).
Just didn't click last year. I will try those.

Those should work great Rafed.

I hope I'm not going down the wrong road with the wrapping thing this year. I figure that the worst case would be that they grow back from the base at least - I hope :-/ .