I'm kind of freaking as usual when something I haven't tried or seen before comes up. I knew this was coming, but now that it's close I am getting nervous. I have two inground trees I am going to have to protect. They are a Hardy Chicago and a Marseilles Black. I know they are more cold hardy then other trees. I feel better about that, but this is their first year in ground and they are still fairly small. I have read through a bunch of topics and I am still reading up... What I am thinking for simplicity sake is to just go buy some rolls of burlap and a tarp. Wrap it up in the brulap, maybe pack some leaves or hay in there and cover it with the tarp. I have been keeping an eye out for other materials such as old carpet, but I have not seen much. I'm in 6b NJ. Do you guys think that should be enough? What do some of you guys in the area do? Thanks in advance for any help.

71GTO, we have had good success with simply bending fig trees to the ground and covering with maybe around 4 inches of soil. and then aluminum insulation held now by rocks.

I am in NJ also, Z6.  Last year was my figs first winter.  What you have described is probably fine, but I would avoid straw - it holds moisture too well.  My protection was a bit involved, but it worked well.  My tree was about 3 feet tall, pruned as a standard.  This is what I did:

Step 1 - mound mulch about 6 inches up.  Get tar paper and put that over the mulch (cut a slit in a large square of paper and place around the trunk, flat on the ground.).  In theory the tar paper can help to keep water out of the enclosure, from wicking up.

Step 2 - wrap tree with burlap.  then tar paper around the burlap.  tarpaper is good stuff, and cheap

step 3 - wrap that with plastic/tarp.  Put a bucket or some coverage on top to keep moisture out.

step 4 - put a wire cage around everything about a foot or so larger.  Fill the gap between the wrapped tree and  cage with leaves.

I think the leaves act as a buffer from keeping the plastic from heating up too much int the sun, or too cold in the wind.  However, I dont think leaves right around the tree would be good, because they could cause rot.  So, its kind of 2 walls of protection!   I'll prob do something similar again this year, but now I have an addl 3 ft of tree to work with!

It may be a bit overboard for a 6b.  There are figs all over by me, some protected some not.  Most that are protected get some sort of tarp treatment.  Most that arent suffer ~half dieback, and are cutback and grow back strong in the spring anyway. 

Thanks guys, I'm still not sure how I feel about bending them down. The trunk on one is pretty thick. Motown tar paper and mulch cant hurt to add to the mix...

the mulch is an important line of defense.  Worse case scenario if all else fails you can dig out the mulch and grow back from there.  You'll be fine though

This works:

See also http://www.treesofjoy.com/content/wrapping-fig-tree-winter

Thanks Bass, your page was pretty much the model I'm going to use. I just can't find any old carpet and I was going to substitute burlap. That should be ok?

Last year was my first year wrapping trees too. My number one mistake was that I did not wrap tightly enough nor put a cage around the wrapped tree.

The wrapped fig acted as a sail in the wind and rubbed all the tips off. Good luck.

I am kinda lazy when it comes to winterizing my figs I trim them to about 18-32 inches high and pile leaves collected from big lowes bags I find on trash day Then cover with a tarp hard part is digging them out in the spring I had one decide to send roots out in the air and one die to the ground but I don't think I covered that one. Pretty simple and seems to work for me in south jersey.

I'm sure new carpet will work just as well. 

I have ready many articles that say to avoid wrapping with a non-breathable material such as a tarp.  Needless to say, I am SO confused.   My l line of thinking would be to use an insulation barrier first (old carpet, burlap, carpet padding, leaves/mulch and then secure with a non-translucent cover, such as a tarp.   Fortunately, I don't have trees in the ground yet, but I will eventually.   
    Question: for a smaller tree could you put a tube, like metal drain pipe, plastic corrugated pipe over the tree AFTER securing the limbs in Jon's example and then simply fill the tube with insulation---whether that be leaves, etc???   And put a "lid" on the top of the tube???
     Great thread....thank you 71GTO for starting.

I think as long as its not black tarp which absorbs most heat, then sun-heat less of issue right? since other people seem to use tarp...
I think I read leaves too close to the tree promotes rot, mold forming too close to the plant or mice nesting in it, maybe?

I was thinking of doing that with the drainage tube as well atleast for the base. I thInk it should be ok doing anything along the lines talked about here. I have heard and read about lots of different ways to do it.