Through the kind advice of this forum, I now understand that my in-ground fig needs
winter protection every year to break the cycle of die-back to ground level each
year.  Heavy mulch around the plant will keep the ground from freezing (we do it
every year with certain garden vegetables) but what about the stems that stick up?

What have others used that works on hardy varieties?  Is black plastic useful or
worthless?  Or even fiberglass insulation?

Thank you

Post #4/HarveyC  "In Ground Fig Height" thread, that you posted, might be a alternative growing method for you to consider.  Go horizontal instead of vertical.

A fig tree with very low horizontal branches, growing just above ground level, will probably be easier to protect with heavy mulching.  New, fruiting stems can be grown each season, then pruned back.  The Japanese grow figs in a similar fashion.  I'm sure some forum member will give you a link...I don't know how.

Hope this might help.

Frank

Alan...I'm in zone 6b, and for the last 6 years I have tripple wrapped all my in ground trees(16 of them).
The first layer is burlap, followed by weed cloth, with a final covering of plastic tarps...this is the first winter I lost any trees...the 3 arctic days that we had back toward the end of Jan./beginning of Feb.
killed 6 of them down to the ground(keeping fingers crossed that the root ball was not damaged)...will have to wait 'till spring weather hits to know for sure.  Good luck with your trees, and have a great growing season.

how thick were the trunks Vince? I see so many massive trees in Bronx, NY and none get any kind of protection. These trees must've survived some pretty cold ones in the last couple of decades. I'm sure how mature the tree is has a little to do with it, along with cold hardiness of course.

Welcome to the forum Alan! what part of CT are you in?

All the trees that had severe die back were 2 yrs. old with 1" to 1 1/2" trunks...the older trees 3, 4, & 5yrs.  did not suffer any damage, but I still cover all my trees, even my 7 yr. old Ischia Green.

Thanks to everyone for good ideas; sure appreciate that.

Frank; if the trunks were low growing and horizontal; branches could rise straight
up and would those new branches also bear fruit the same year?  If so, then as
mentioned they could be pruned off before winter and the whole thing be mulched
heavily..........hmmm

Vince; thanks for the idea of triple wrapping.  I'm getting the impression that the
goal is not to keep the branches warm but only protect then from wind, rain etc.
because if it's 0 outside, then it will be 0 even under triple wraps, no?

I'm in Bethany up near Prospect but my son calls it Alaska.

Alan, there's some additional information in this thread including a description of how I protected my tree last winter:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Successful-winter-protection-techniques-5979599?

Thanks Rewton;

Interesting approach.  I'd still like to hear a discussion on whether it's the cold
or the wind/rain/freeze-thaw cycle that causes problems.. Sounds like once they
go into dormancy it doesn't matter how cold they get if they're protected.

If trees are buried, I think that a thick layer of heavy mulch can retain some residual ground heat, and this helps the trees cope with the freezing temps.  Snow also helps prevent the dry, biting winds from desiccating younger, wood.  Storage sheds provide this protective service also, if trees are containerized.  The freezing winds can kill off wood right to the ground.  However in Zone 6b...who knows what will consistently work?  Vince wrapped his trees and still had damages and some trees died.

How about a small, 25 watt, light bulb, down near the roots, at the bottom area of a wrapped tree, or possibly  thermostatically controlled, heated cables included in the wrapped tree, as a source for keeping some heated air around the trees?  Just enough heat to prevent damage, but not enough to start growth?  Just thinking, in print, on an open forum....

What's the answer?

Frank


John...yes, figs grow on new wood...so you can still harvest some figs on the current year's growth.  The more new stems, the more figs.  Then prune them off, and wait for next year.  I'd pinch back the new growth and limit crop size in Zone 6b...and, I'd get a short-season fig for back-up.  "Atreano" will work...as well as a few other varieties, e.g. "Hardy Chicago"..."Brown Turkey" etc.

Frank, I think you're pointing out the difference between insulation which supplies
no heat, and a heat source - like the warmer earth or a bulb.  I agree.  In fact
I just bought a cheap remote bulb thermostat as I have 2 others in service and
they have worked well for many years.

The idea is to run the heat tape up the main trunk inside the insulation, and put
the remote sensing bulb somewhere in there too.  Then set the thermostat for
something like 25 degrees.  As long at the temp. stays above 25, no power is
needed.  But on a really cold night, the thing could cycle enough to maintain
at least 25 degrees, but not affect dormancy.

My calculation of a 12 watt heat strip would mean a couple bucks for the winter!

Frank; sorry I didn't see your helpful note on the bottom about new wood.  Thank you.

Once a trunk has sent up new branches in the spring, they bear figs and are cut off
before winter, will that same trunk send up other new branches the following spring,
or does the trunk need to be extended a little longer each year for that to happen?

My grape has a problem about this......

John...

The original thick branches and "trunk" will send out new stems from dormant buds that did not grow in previous seasons. I don't think it is necessary for the branches to grow longer each season.  Figs can be pruned back hard, and still produce plenty of new stems...provided that the tree is healthy and properly cared for to begin with.  When all the stems are cut back hard, the fig tree "thinks" it's dying, and must put out some new leaves to make food...so, the results: ... new branches each year, and figs.  Pinching techniques will let them ripen sooner in your climate.

Seriously, you might have some good luck with that thermostatically controlled heat tape.  At this point, experiment and see what will work.  The bottom line is that these trees have to be prevented from freezing, drying, and then, prematurely sprouting, before night temps can support new, green, juicy leaves.  Winters, and not Summers, are the problem for many of us Nor'easters.

Frank

OK, that is now clear that there are plenty of buds so if the tree is pruned hard,
it won't "run out" of them.

Herman told me that when the trunks come up this year choose only 3 or 4 and
remove the rest.  So it should be easy to try the heat tape experiment on one of them 
this fall;  I can still use other methods on the others.  Who knows ?

And, some hardier fig types will require less winter protection than others. Here in central/eastern MD, I built a cage around our Hardy Chicago and mulched root base and then filled with dry leaves. Topped with a tarp to keep rain and winds from penetrating.

Here's a collage of pix contrasting summer growth, with winter protection.

I'm in zone 5 (5a), and have to do winter protection.  There are many aspects to winter protection, lots of variables, and lots of techniques.  A few aspects for you to consider:

One is:  the ground itself is a heat sink.  So depending on how you wrap insulation, you can actually take advantage of ground heat, and thus insulating can actually have some beneficial effect.  Some growers around my town actually use fiberglass insulation (I don't), with wind barriers around that.  

Another is:  yes, protection from cold dry wind makes a big difference (and imo is one of the fundamental things necessary for a winter protection strategy to succeed).

Another is:  temperature might not be the only factor that matters, within certain bounds.  BUT even if a fig tree is protected from the cold dry wind, too extreme a temperature will cause die back.  The temperature where this happens depends on a lot of factors, including what variety of tree you're growing.  If you're planning to grow exclusively in-ground (rather than containerized), then pick cold hardy types, like Florea, Marseilles Black VS, English Brown Turkey (not to be confused with any of the other types of "brown turkey"), Hardy Chicago, etc.

Yet another is:  The soft green tender tips are the most vulnerable, or any soft green tissue.  That means that, generally speaking, the beginning of wintry conditions and the end of them, are particularly critical times.  Because that's when you have soft green tissue on the trees.  (beginning of winter and beginning of spring).

I've buried outdoor trees for years (and it's a lot of physical labor).  But I'm in zone 5, a bit colder than your locale.  Some guys I know actually "bend them down" over a multi-week period by planting a trunk at an acute angle with the ground, and then using weights in the fall, then cover the more or less "flattened down" tree with insulation and a plastic tarp.  Others build structures around them.  Lots of "wrapping" techniques.   In my more extreme climate, I've had better success with burying than with wrapping.

Another is:  protect from the prevailing winds, and plant near a heat source  (a southern exposed brick wall of a building, for example).  I am experimenting with things like this for mature trees of cold hardy types, trying to find varieties that respond successfully to this sort of minimalist protection.  

Probably more can be said, but enough for now.  There is quite a lot posted already on the forum about winter protection... try various search terms to locate some of that info.  And good luck from another cold climate Northeastern fig grower.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

Mike;

Excellent and clear summary; sincere thanks to you.  Every novice grower should
weigh these points carefully and then come up with a plan.

I'm hoping to try a couple of these in an attempt to avoid measures that would be
much more difficult for me (burying; containerizing).  You make a very good point about
the minimal (but probably sufficient) contribution that large surfaces like nearby 
house wall, or the earth itself can make.

Thanks again

YW.  One anecdotal bit of info about combining those strategies -- there's an old fellow in town here, came here from Italy about 70 years ago, who has a couple of very productive trees.  He has them planted right up against the southern wall of his house (which is on a south-facing slope).  In the fall he leans things up against the tree branches to "bend" them against the house, then layers insulating materials (mostly old quilts I think) over that, draping them to the ground, and then a plastic tarp over the whole schmear.  It's kinda scary when he does it, because he gets up on his roof sometimes in the process.  He secures the tarp with ropes (and more recently with bungees).  Those two of his trees are about 40 years old (if I understand his Italian speaking correctly anyway... he doesn't speak much English).  My point?  Combining basic strategy aspects worked really well for him... he gets many hundreds of figs off of each of those two trees each year.   (BTW, this particular guy also has experimented with a bunch of other techniques, and lately he's been unpotting some of his potted ones and using them as part of the mass that he places against the house and under the insulation&tarp covering... those ones seem to survive too, but I think that's a more recent thing for him).

For my sensibilities, that technique is still way too much work.  (I even find burying too much, but it's way easier than all that!).  I'm trying things like careful choice of cultivar, placing against a southern wall but with a "wind block" to the west (a wall).  Also trying a southern facing riverbank, with a windbreak to the west.  Also each of the above with and without minimal wrapping.  I'd also like to try a couple in a "crook of the wall", a concave corner with a wall to the west and another to the north (so, southeast facing concave corner), and build a "temporary shelter", almost like a two-walled greenhouse of removable panels that only go up for the winter, and are taken away as open air for the summer.  Haven't done this yet though... I don't actually have the right interior corner on my house! (at least not yet :-)

The experiments are all rather slow moving, because I want to only use trees that are about 4 years old (or more) for each, and when you multiply by the number of varieties to try?... well, suffice to say that I've only done much of this so far with English Brown Turkey (or an unknown that is probably EBT).  Moderate success, but hoping for greater success with a few of the other varieties that are in the pipeline.

Mike

<edit> I corrected "concave" and "convex" in the above. :-)