I just completed the annual chore of white washing (latex painting) the trunks of my backyard citrus trees. For those not familiar with outdoor citrus in the desert, white washing citrus trunks is a common practice to shield the trunks from sunburn and it also helps a bit with deterring ground crawling insects like ants out of the trees.

I was looking at my new little fig trees I planted in ground back in September. I planted a panachee and a VDB that are both about 3'~4' tall and are leafing out pretty well now. It looks like they will have lower trunks at least as exposed to the desert sun as my citrus do. Is there in any value or harm in painting fig trunks ? Anyone in hot bright climate do it for their fig trees?

nope.

I did it to a kadota and a black mission when we were at Havasu.  I don't really know whether it helped or not.  Others I didn't whitewash seemed  to do just fine. 

The citrus lining the streets here are all painted white.  I never knew why.

Suzi

In areas with bright sunlight and cool/cold winters, it's used to prevent sunscald [the whitewash reflects the sun's heat that causes cell damage on the trunks of dormant trees].  

However, I've also seen it on palm trees in the tropics....probably more for insects [you can see their boring holds much easier].