It hit about 24F last night on my back porch here in Central Arkansas, that is too cold too early! If this is any indication of the winter, it will be a cold one.

So, I will be taking the next two weeks semi-off from work, and I want to get my figs ready for a hard winter. I have been thinking about different strategies, and then I just saw pics of someone who covered each trunk  of a young bush style fig with pipe insulation before bundling and wrapping with burlap.    (remember this is an internet pic, not mine)





What do you think? Seems to me like it would add an additional layer of protection without a lot of extra work or expense.

Great minds think alike ! ;)

My figs dont need protection because i live in south louisiana but i had extea pipe insulation so i used it on my angel trumpet because it always dies to the ground and put some just on the grafts of my citrus but percect for up north fig protection.

It will probably depend on the length of the below-freezing temps and how well the insulation is sealed. If there is a gap between the branch and the insulation cold air can get down in there and eventually freeze the wood. But if the ends are sealed, the heat loss would be minimized. If there are a few days below freezing, and then warms up again, results would be better.

I think its,a great first layer then protect them as usal.

That would work awsome with no die back. Well at least 90% :) the cold wind really hurts them and everything your doing prevents wind and beliw freezing temps getting to them. Cant wait to see how you make out in spring. I think pipe insulation is the first step to any good method

I tried this method last season and did not see any major advantage when it came to losing branches on certain varieties. I still lost some branches. Overall,  this insulation provided enough protection but perhaps prevented new shoots from forming or full dormancy of the tree. I suspect that I was late in removing it. Keep in mind that we do not have harsh winters in Texas.

 Some of the results were as follows:

The Col de Dame Gris did not yield any fruit this season. All the old wood was preserved.
The Col de Dame Blanc despite being insulated still suffered from winter injuries and the crop was much smaller than previous years, since new growth was at a minimum.
The Black Madeira did not put on any new growth and the original wood remained the same height as previous year. No crop.

You might end up with different results but timing the removal of this type of insulation could be just as important as the timing of its installation.


Good luck.

SAS THAT IS GOOD TO KNOW I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE BUT JUST DID MY ANGEL TRUMPET AND THE GRAFT AREAS OF MY CITRUS BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE Awsome FOR figs. Soon as last frost is done REMOVE ALL INSULATION.

I have been thinking of using pipe insulation as well to provide a little insulation and also deter voles/mice.

The side of the house should provide some heat for the figs so you may be OK.

I hope I am wrong but I think someone reported on using this a year or so ago and said they got condensation and mold inside the pipe insulation - they thought it was because the material did not 'breathe'.  I thought it seemed like an interesting idea...
Hopefully it will work for you.

Tried this some years ago and it didn't work well. The material itself isn't very good (mold etc.) and chiefly it can't protect the branches from the frost - the temperature inside is the same like outside. You need some heat source - bending the branches as close to the ground as possible and covering works much better.

In terms of insulation there simply isn't enough heat mass inside to maintain a higher temperature than outside for more than a few hours. It would reduce heating up in the sun during the day. Reducing diurnal temperature swings might help some. But it sounds like mold and other issues would cancel out any benefit.

You guys are probably dead right. I am leaving it on angle trumpet because it dies to the ground regardless.

AZ Figgy Cactus! I thought this was such a great idea. thx to the forum for this. I just didn't want to have my courtyard garden full of grey pipes for the winter. So I found a case of colorful pool noodles off amazon. > $2ea. Based on the comments here, I'll be giving them some hats and a ground blanket of mulch, leaves n burlap. This one in the pic is a 1 yr old Tx ever bearing, it froze to the ground last year. 7+ feet of growth this year and some very sweet figs ripened with olive oil on their bellies finally! My neighbors love my new yard art. And I'm hoping it will protect the trees from total dieback too. Grateful for all the generous fig lovers here. Happy Gratitude Week. Jodi

That is awsome looking. Doller general over here has pool noodles for a doller. That looks,so cool. Thanks for the picture. What is olive oil doing on your figs by the way.? Are you making,fig salad for the birds ?

I was not getting any ripe figs into fall, with frost coming.  I read about oliefication, where you put one drop of olive oil on the eye of the figs.  It worked great.  5 to 7 days after treatment on the most mature figs I got to eat figs.  I had a friend try it on her huge brown turkey to ripen more figs before the frost and it seemed to wok for her too.  We did not notice any reduction in taste, maybe even sweeter with oiling the belly buttons.  Old Italian tip I am told.  Happy figsgiving.  Jodi

Jodi that is,awsome i have around 40 figs of different types that,are big but green. They are not swelling at all thank you. Nice work reading and finding this treatment

Oh my figpig! How long have u been addicted? I'm less than a year into my obsession w the inside-out flowers! I hope u can coax some of the delightful morsels to swell. I recently read of 2 commercial growers using the oil on the eyes ( I did 1 drop w a Qtip every 5-7 days) to extend the fig season on both ends, earlier and later. Those old Italians used olive oil to preserve their wine and seems put it on everything. I'd love to hear if it works on your amazing variety. How did you get so many? How long did it take? The waiting to acquire and then waiting to produce is really a deep lesson in patience for me! Happy figging! Jodi

It took me a year and a few days to get were i am. Lol. Hard work lots of time and heavy equipment to clear some land.then grew and bought trees. Still growing and buying today. This spring will be a sumner,will be,a good harvest being the trees are,already established. I put them in ground late spring to late summer this year. Cleared a acre of my land just for figs. Also have two greenhouses to grow potted figs during the,winter. They are heated.

Wow that's a lot of figs. Sounds like a great set up. Are you going to take them to market? And just another note on my figgy cactus insulation, I am taking it off in warm days. Back on for the cold nights. If I get any branches to survive this year it will be better than last. A heated greenhouse is in my dreams. Best of luck, Jodi

I live in North Florida, 18 mile from Georgia. My fig trees take our cold nights with no problems. My citrus trees are the problem. This protection method for my citrus may help some of you colder areas with protecting fig trees.

My neighbors like to rake leaves and bag the leaves which I bring to my house. I place three bags around the base of each tree which protects the plant base up about 24 inches. Then in the spring after the weather warms, the leaves are spread around the trees along with fertilizer application. This year I have already brought in 40+ bags.

From reading the replies to this thread I have decided NOT to cover with pipe insulation. It sounds too much risk of mold.

I am just going to wrap with burlap, then mulch in wire cage, finished with a trashcan over it all. I hope to get this done over the next two weeks as I have some time off to use.