I mulch with hay, it's what I've got. I was planting elderberries, and mulching with hay, when that last polar vortex rolled through. When I heard the frost warning I just covered over the ones I had already planted with a thick layer of hay to protect them.

It didn't, they got burned. There was a wild bush right by them that wasn't damaged at all. I thought it was because they'd been inside and hadn't been hardened off properly. But, I was talking to an Amish neighbor and she said that a lot of the Amish are doing a "no till" garden where they put down a thick hay mulch and just keep adding to it every year without plowing or tilling. The mulch prevents weeds and as it decomposes at the bottom that's all the fertilizer they need. They just burrow a hole in it to set the plants in.

But, they've found that a late frost will damage that kind of garden more than a neighbor's garden that's just planted out on bare ground. The hay seems to concentrate the cold.

Okay?  I put my old unknown fig in the ground last fall, and mulched it with hay. I may have killed it. It isn't doing anything while the potted backups that were in a blow-away greenhouse on the porch are putting out shoots from the base. Both were up against a wall outside a room with underfloor heat and I thought leakage from that would protect the roots. I also had the in ground one well wrapped to protect it from the wind so it should have done as well as the potted ones but the hay may have made the difference.

Thought I pass that along. I'll be going to leaf mulch for winter protection from now on.

i don't mulch my figs, and they are all in pot. but good to know, if i try putting some in ground.

I mulch mine with a combination of rotted manure and chopped leaves from the yard. It is dense and a good insulator.

Greysmith,
Soils under thick mulch take longer to warm up in the spring than bare ground.
Soils under thick light colored mulch (reflective) take even longer.

The observed late frost damage is probably due to colder soil temperatures in the mulched gardens

The trees I had mulched with wheat straw survived a very harsh winter for my zone.
Those that had no mulch have either died or are still waiting to sprout.
When I planted fig tree's without mulch, they require double the care and
will die most of the time.
Mulch is a good thing.
45+ growing in ground, 2 year old trees.
Doug

I don't believe the hay "concentrates the cold".  I believe what is happening is something that is well-documented in commercial almond orchards in California which has led to the recommendation to keep orchard soils bare during the winter and early spring.  Almonds typically bloom around the first week in February when frost risk is till very much present.  Bare soil absorbs the heat during the day and releases it slowly at night and this slow release of heat aids in frost protection.  Weeds or, in your case, hay mulch, has much greater surface area and will release the heat absorbed during the day much more quickly so that all of the heat is released before the coldest part of the night is reached.

Bare soil gains vastly more heat from the sun by day than mulched soil. Loss of that heat at night helps reduce frost damage. Hay insulates the soil from the heat gain during the day. So it increases frost damage of fruits or veggies because it doesn't have the heat to radiate back up at night.

The mulched in-ground fig may just be latter getting started due to colder soil.

Hay works well as a mulch for garlic, but garlic is much ore tolerant of frost and cold weather, helps keep the soil looser too and absorbs the water better in a heavier rain, I am talking about 3 inches of hay.  I did it all over my whole garden one year and I realized June is too early and the soil was too cold for quiet some time, around July is a good time for me if I want to mulch, then I would just till the straw back into the garden or use it to protect figs in the fall.

Well I guess I do it wrong.
When I plant cuttings in march they do so much better with straw to hold moisture at the roots
and to keep them cool.
I cant imaging the 2 foot diameter root circle being more than a degree or two colder with the straw on it.
When my trees are older they do not need the straw.
My trees are still maturing.
At this stage Im not worried if I eat the figs this year. I want a growing tree.

When you plant, it goes through shock adjusting its self to environment.
Having hay cover a new transplant cant hurt it. Especially if it keeps the frost off of new growth.

I think different zones do things differently, the need would be different.
Oh well.
:)

Doug

Hi,
Hay will hold moisture at the foot of the tree and for fig trees this is not good.
I would fear to have rodents nesting in the hay...

For insulation, just use compost from a nursery . Put an 80Liters trashcan with no bottom around the tree. Fill that container with dark compost from a nursery.
As for now, it is the more handy and effective winter protection I've seen.
Next year the compost will be spread and used to fertilize the dirt in the garden...

I like your method JDS, I will have to try that, I always am buying the compost or topsoil anything, seems easy enough.

Im sold.
Compost it is.



Doud

I have seen pictures of growers in southern france putting wood chip mulch on top of the pots of their trees, i am assuming this is to try and keep the pot moist for a bit longer, I love straw don't get me wrong but in my zone it just needs to be applied later than other climates from my experience although some may disagree.  Field peppers here for example, are recommended to be planted in red plastic mulch as they found it warmed the soil better and reflected more heat/uv light to plants reducing insects and increasing yields.

Okay, it doesn't "concentrate" the cold... but it doesn't protect from cold either. I have been using it for weed control (and organics) for four years now. I put it on when I start the garden, spring and fall, and till it in at the end of the season. I'm going to try this no till method and just wait a little later to plant. Here I'm bringing it in. There's herbs on the right, underneath the Johnson Grass. I don't know if you can make it out but there's a bed of garlic in back that's already mulched with hay.
 

Two years ago I had a couple of thin spots in the mulch over the garlic where chickweed came up. We had too much rain and the garlic started to rot... but only in the places where the chickweed was. They say mulch holds moisture in. I would say that it stabilizes moisture. I got more rot where it wasn't, and weeds were.

Here it is spread out. It's hard to control thickness unless you shred it first, but I'd have been a week running that much hay through my little leaf shredder. I shred just enough for packing in close to the stems.
 

Some good news! I very carefully cleaned around my one in ground fig yesterday and found a green sprout.