Garden Detective: winterizing fig trees
With proper care, your fig tree will survive the winter and bear fruit. Credit: Ed Betz
DEAR TOM: When fig trees die to the ground, that means the cold killed off the top growth but the roots managed to survive. Many gardeners report never protecting their trees over the winter and still having success. Once, I was too busy to cover my trees and they appeared to die, too, but as you reported, new growth came up. Of course, they didn't produce fruit that year because new growth seldom does. And more often than not, unprotected trees simply die.
I suspect that despite your best efforts, your trees are not adequately protected. Maybe it's because of their location, though the fence should offer some protection. It's never advisable to use plastic for wrapping figs, as it holds in moisture, so that could be part of the problem.
To address your second question, small, hard and green describes my experiences with the first year that fig trees produce fruit. And, of course, dying back to the ground each winter sets them back another year each year.
Fig trees should be wrapped up around Thanksgiving. Here's the proper way to do it:
