So another winter has passed and it's another winter I've had nearly 100% die back of the top of my trees.  As I see it the problem is two-fold. 

1. Green Trees + Freeze = Nothing good.  Being that I am on the border of zones 8b/9, my trees remain green well into November.  This year, the coolest day before our first freeze was about 65F.  Consequently, the tree is w/leaf when the freeze hits.  This year, my trees pushed new growth between freezes. 
   
2. Wind.  I'm not sure my trees freeze so much as they dry out.  Just about all times of the year, the wind blows pretty good.

As I was pruning off the death off my trees and thinking of how best to protect my trees, I had an idea.  Grow multi-trunked trees low to the ground (or a single-trunk with scaffolding branches starting @ 2') and pollard the end of the limbs.  The advantage being the base of the tree would become more hardy as it ages and the remainder of the tree would be pruned back to the pollard head before the first hard freeze.  Also, the tree would be easier to cover and uncover as needed.

Does anybody have thoughts on this before I try to affect it?

Thanks in advance,

~james

James, that idea makes a lot of sense. Another possible advantage would be that the extra thickness of the "heads" might make them less prone to freezing (it's usually the thinner branches on my trees that get damaged).

James,

The open, multi-trunk form is the recommended shape for us Texans. 3-5 trunks with abt. 4" between trunks if possible. As for the pollarding, it should work fine as long as you are aware that you will be sacrificing the breba crop. Any breba-only variety you do this to will likely not bear at all. Good luck!

Makes total sense to me.







Someone sent these to me a while back.

That is essentially what I do with all my tress. I just leave more growing points, and leave a few more buds. See below.







I experimented with a tree this year. The lady who owns it normally pollards it back to a few branches as in the first pix (for legitimate reasons). When I pruned it this season, I left all of the branches with 2-3 nodes (about 2-4" long). to see if the buds would break dormancy earlier than generating buds from the pollarded ends. The hope is that it will ripen earlier by doing so. In this case I also pruned so all of the buds were facing up and inward, to discourage the growth from being wide because space is the issue.

Ken,

Last year I just gave my trees enough water to survive the drought.  They put on more growth in October (without any irrigation) than they did the entire summer.  I do not have an effective way of getting them to think about dormancy before it gets cold.

Ruben, 

I understand the loss of the Breba crop.  At this point, I'm not getting them anyway.  I was thinking of spreading the trunks out wide.  My vision is something that is about 4-5' tall (at the pollard head) and maybe 6-9' wide.

~james

James,

Won't that make it difficult to protect them (which is the problem you are trying to solve in the first place)? Some of my in-ground trees have died back consitently since 2008. Some died once and have put on good mass in subsequent years. This winter, I had one particular variety that finally made it through a winter. Hopefully last winter (2010) was the last time it freezes back. This winter they had no protection at all. It does seem that every year they come back more vigorous and eventually reach a point where they can survive without protection.  I also do not fertilize my in-ground figs. You and I seem to be in the same USDA growing zones so maybe there is hope for yours too.

My neighbour pulls all the leaves off and cuts off soft growth before she covers hers up for the winter and it's a huge tree, 15 feet x 15 feet (we are zone 6b so it's huge for me)

My other neighbour pulls all the leaves off his pear tree before trees loose their leaves and prunes it back, every year he has lots of big juicy pears but he does it to save on size, he is old and wants to keep it small.  I do not really like do it that way but it has been working for him for about 30 years so it doesn't seem to be doing him any harm.

Ruben,

I'm hoping eventually the trees won't need to be covered. If there is a particularly bad cold spell, the trees could be covered with a 15'X15' tarp.  At that height all the new growth would still be within reach, and I would be able to navigate the tractor between trees.

~james