hello friends,
 i've always unwraped the fig trees in the middle of april
i live on long island, friends have been telling me that is
better to unwrap even earlier, even as early as
st.joseph day march 19th.
my grandfather would say march 25th which is annunciation feast day.
yet even say early may.
i would think year to year would be different.

any advice

marcantonio

Ciao Marcantonio,  We always dug up the fig trees at the date you mentioned,  St. Joseph Day,  March 19.  I told many people that, they Never heard of that before.  Always worked for us.  Ciao,  Maggie

I allready did mine but,i think March 19 is a very good,time tu uncover them.
I am trying to avoid fungus on the bark,but i might have frost Damage if done so early.
Best Regards

hi maggie and herman
   maggie , you know its funny we italians plant things by
saints days , we would plant fennel on our lady of grace july 2cnd
and the early figs that ripened in late june were i fichi di san pietro
saint peter feast being june 29th.
herman the only time  i ever had mold on the fig tree was when i used
leaves that touched the tree itself , i eliminated the leaves and
now used straw but not touching the tree after its wrapped
ipile straw two feet up from the base. also around now
i cut some air holes at the top and bottom in the tar paper to
circulate air. it seems though that certain late maturing figs
do better if you unwrap later. well i think i'll
compromise and do things my tatanonno's (grandpa's) way . march 25th.
when do you think the risk of frost damage is less severe?

marcantonio

hi every1,
i live in buffalo, n.y. i've learned through all the old italians around here not to unwrap fig tree's until aroun memorial day. it's the safest way not to kill them around here.

Memorial Day,  That is really long time.  I would wonder down in this area if you wrap them up, they would probably be a leafed out mess by the time you unwrapped them then.  Probably alot of rot too.  I guess it depends on where you live.  Its funny, where I live here in Pennsylvania, I get the same kind of weather as Philadelphia, which is 2 and a half hours away,  but if you go to Johnstown, which is 42 miles south east of me,  they are in a complete gardening zone lower.  I"m in the valley, they in the mountains.  I would litereally hate it if I had to wait till memorial day.  Since doing gardening avidly,  I have actually considered me and my husband moving to a warmer climate so I can keep my hobbies going with my WARM weather plants.  I get the eebee jeebees waiting for winter to pass.  I've been watching the weather channel every hour hoping it will get warmer up here sooner.  I hate the Cold,  never liked it, never will.  Looking for that ranch in Florida someplace.  Ciao

hey maggie , the reason for memorial day is the frost. here in buffalo we are right in lake erie and get the cold jet stream from canada. so we get a late frost. and the frost will kill any chance of a brebra crop but not the main crop. however , if one has a garage than the tree's don't have to get wraped but probably should this way if the start to wake up they can be unwraped and the frost wont get them since there is no moisture inside. also some guys that are retired and have all the time in the world bring out there tree's from the garage on warm sunny days and put them back in when frost advisery comes from the news. hope this info helps.

thanks maggie and joe,
   maggie i would love to move to a warmer climate too
the best would be california so we could grow olives
like in italy. but maggie i'm reluctant to move
because out of this area there are not many italians
and we may find it hard to find fresh mozzarella
and good parma prosciuto.
and imagine a year passing with no feast of ol of mt.carmel.

well i decided march 25th to be the date.


marcantonio

Ciao Joeysquared, , Yes I figured you have pretty cool weather longer, thats what I meant about the different climates.  There are some old Italian men around me who also shift their trees in and out a little early,  some are already doing that now,  then bring them in at night.  I took my little Abruzzese fig out the other day for some sun,  then brought it in immediately when the sun went  down,  I think it really enjoyed  that.  I think I am partial to this little fig as compared to my others,  I didn't take any others out for Sun!!!!  

Ciao Marcantonio,, that was my problem with visiting the Southern areas,  the Italian population dwindles down,  and we HAVE to have an Italian store to buy our ingredients to make our good food,  No Ragu store sauce here!!! My Uncle Sal just moved not too long ago to Miami,  alot of Italians moved there,  he has Italians on both side of him he said,  and there is a store there to buy Mozzarella, Provolone, Sausage, real Ricotta ect.  He is glad to be able to buy a hunk of Pecorino Romano,  which he had to look a while for when arriving from Italia.  He does share hot peppers with his very dominant Cuban neighbors though. Ciao  Maggie 

Did you guys unwrap your trees already?
I might wait until April. I'm looking at our forcast and it looks like some nights are dropping into the 20's.

Bass, I might do mine this weekend, the 10-day low is forecast to be 28F here. I tend to unwrap mine about the time the apricots bloom, and they are starting to bloom now.

Scott

Unwrapping a fig tree is much easier than wrapping it. I don't need to plan to unwrap my trees.
I have about 5 trees in ground, all of them are wrapped except for the one that I'm trying to kill, and it has survived every winter without protection.
It took me a few hours to wrap them, it will probably take 15 mins to unwrap them.

hi guys,
  i think anytime from late next week til april 1st
should be ok, now is probably not bad either.
but just for that extra security.

marcantonio

I live on Maryland's eastern shore and am unsure of when to unwrap my little fig tree. Any help would be appreciated.