1. Drive 40 min to the wholesale carpet place and fill up your truck with free carpet underlayment.

2. Tie up your fig trees and take a few cuttings of the taller branches.

3. Wrap with underlayment.

4. Top with plastic contractor garbage bags.

Done.

http://s1079.photobucket.com/user/Adelmanto/library/Fig%20Cuttings%202016

They look cozy! Good idea. Have you done this in previous years? If so do you get much die back?

First year. We'll see.

Please follow up in the spring with a few pictures when you unveil. 

Good luck!

Hi,
Good luck !
Hope you have the mice under control !
Normally, the top needs to breathe and stay dry ... but let's see !

We have outdoor cats. The mice are usually in check. That underlayment is wrapped 6-8x so I'm thinking its insulation from the cold and any heat the plastic may generate. If this is successful the next step will need to be bigger plastic bags. I found some at ULine. They are pallet covers. Basically 4'x4'x6'. That should do it. (50 bags about $220). These are 2-3 yr old trees but it will be the first winter in the ground for them. If there is any die back I would not necessarily blame the method. However if there is rot I would have to re think it. I have PLENTY of leaves, but that process is messy and time consuming. I hope this works. It took about 2 hrs to wrap 25 trees.

My hope is to be so successful this year that next year I need this bag to overwinter:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pursell-s-Christmas-Tree-Preservative-Christmas-Tree-Removal-Bag-377872/202526962

I'm re-covering my biggest in-ground tree this weekend for an overwintering experiment. Will post it with pictures if I can get it all together...

That's a great idea and a decent price. The bag I'm thinking of is 3ml. I'm not sure what the Christmas bag would be. I'm thinking I can get several years from mine. At least that's the plan. Good Luck.

Thanks for posting this.  I'll have to see if I can find a source of the carpet underlayment.  One concern is whether the black bags would absorb too much heat in the late winter.

Something like this then?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Genuine-Joe-Extra-Heavy-duty-White-Trash-Can-Liners-43-Width-X-47-Length-X-9-Mil-229-Micron-Thickness-Low-Density-White-100-carton-Indus/52681102

Nice job Aaron!

Joe I think the width of the bag should be fine. The length may be short as the tree gets bigger. I was hoping to get several years out of the bags so I would want them longer now to accommodate.

Good luck Aaron. Please let us know how they fare come spring.

I picked up some huge bags recently from a place that recycles paint, they line their collection boxes with them(which sit on pallets). I'd be willing to bet they are the same as you mentioned. If so they should last for a couple years easy, very big and the plastic is thick.

Yeah. I think the tree bag would be pretty flimsy. I was looking at drum liners for the smaller trees. They look perfect but really expensive. If anyone knows of a well priced source - please let me know....

Kijiji?!?! - Of course! I was thinking liners and not the drums...Which are everywhere and last forever.   Un buono idea! Bravissimo!

I can get 55 gal drums by me on Craigslist for $10. They will even deliver for a fee. I think they would be fine for smaller trees, but is not ideal for larger ones. Right now I have 25 varieties in the ground. Next year I'm thinking another 20. I think my plan would be to have a total of 75 in the ground on the property. I need a quick and economical way to wrap 75 5-6' trees. If I could spend $20 per tree to have a permanent solution that would be my budget. I don't want to spend $5 per year every year. That would be too much. Keep in mind that these are mostly locally collected cold hardy varieties that were uncovered where I collected them, so covering is just a safeguard against dieback and breba loss. The treed will not die if left uncovered. It does not have to be super toasty.

These are used. As you dig through the pile you can pull out the good sized rolls. You can't focus on what could be in there.

Just be sure to wear leather gloves. There might be staples in the foam, especially along the edges.

The carpet works well too... especially if you can wrap a couple layers and stuff the centre with dry leaves. That is what I use and works well.
Tyler

Update:

I uncovered my 25 or so in ground varieties on Sunday. They looked really good. Most were completely undamaged. A few had 2-3" of tip damage, but that's it. I'd call this method a huge success. Takes 2 min to wrap a tree and about 1 min to unwrap. That's more my speed.

Aaron - You should do a tree wrapping video... Two trees took me the better part of the afternoon...  :-)