Leaves alone make a really big difference. One year I put leaves halfway up, it was more a random piling than any careful plan. The fig shoots were 100% healthy under the leaves and 100% dead above the leaf line. You don’t need to wrap the fig per se, just get some way to keep the leaves staying there and you are good.
Took winter-protection off on Monday. Surprised to see some green branches. The very top branches, although covered by mulch, look dry.
The plant is very close to the foundation, about 2.5 ft, a bit too close. Oh well!
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I was pretty lazy this winter with my in ground figs. With my smallest, Florea, I inverted a 5-gal bucket (with 1" holes on sides and bottom) over it and then packed some leaves and then finally covered with a woven poly tent. Took a total of 10 minutes.
No die back, and the largest stem was only 10 inches tall (so it wasn’t very large or established )
Granted it was a mild winter, but while we did not have extended days of cold temperatures we did get single digit temperatures a couple of times.
Scott
I did something similar except used burlap.
I tried wilt stop on the figs, Some I didn’t spray, and they look worse than the one I sprayed. My figs in containers are all growing but all the in ground figs are still dormant (pass bark scraping test, green underneath) I think it will not work on everything. yet again though my blackberries pulled through with nothing but Wiltstop. No other protection. It was not that cold only once getting to -1F The boysenberries, and tayberries, pulled through fine. (both died to the ground 2 years ago, but have not since using protection) As Bob said though it is far from conclusive. Also it only lasts so long. You need to use it at the end of December for it to be effective January and February. Some swear by it. If dissication is the problem, and not just plain cold, it should work.
I think though that the thaw freeze cycle will kill anything. My blackberries are in shade all winter, and may be the reason they survived. never thawing out. Two years ago they were young plants. But I’m in zone 5b and boysenberries and tayberries are surviving outside. I have Newberry, Siskiyou, and Marionberry but they are in containers, and were in the garage. I had some dieback on them, strange. I’m getting no useful data here though. I put them out a month ago, and that could have caused the dieback. last year they started growing early so I kicked them out.
So many factors can cause dieback I can’t conclude anything. next year I’m just going to use leaves or straw.
True or False- If I cut off tops of young in ground figs so they fit nicely in a leaf bag that will increase chance of winter die back?
False. In my personal experience, if you stuff the bag well (a few inches) above the top of the tree, no die back.
My problem was when to remove the protection. This past spring, I removed it in early April. All the branches looked good and green(ish). Then, a cold snap came to visit, some of those green turn brown and die back.
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True;False. If you are going to have a foot of winter dieback, your going to have that food of dieback if you prune in the fall or you prune in the spring. ie prune 1 foot in the fall then 1 foot of die back in the spring or prune do nothing in the fall and prune 1 food of die back in the spring. But what you where really asking is pruning improve the results of the wraping. If your warp should look like @mamuang Black foam tubing to protect fig tree over winter? - #3 by mamuang If you need to cut your tree to get it to look like Mamuang’s buy more burlap.
@lordkiwi Sorry I don’t understand your answer. What I’m asking is: does any pruning in December make it easier for cold to cause tissue damage even if the uncut portion of the fig then fits nicely under a deep blanket of leaves.
Sorry, Dieback is going to occur where the branches contact the wrap where they get most exposed to the elements. If you cut in December the same a mount of dieback is still going to occur so dont cut in December.
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I’m not sure how you avoid cutting late, and yes it certainly can make the plant less hardy. Ideal time would be July, maybe cut a foot lower than expected to account for grow back. Although the plant hasn’t fruited or is just starting, and you will sacrifice fruit. So you can’t win. In almost all winter prep posts I have read, people do cut late. You’re asking a very good question. I don’t really have enough experience to give you a good answer.
I can say that if your tree produces breba, fall or spring pruning is removing breba.
Which forms on the tips of old wood for the most part.
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I did that with some of my roses.
The fear about dieback from pruning cuts seem overblown by my logic- sorry not to have experience to back it up. I don’t believe that cutting back renders much of the remaining tissue more sensitive to the cold beyond a short distance from the cut unless pruning was done at a time that would encourage rank growth later in the season than normal. I’ve actually not even found that to be a problem when I’ve had a late growth spurt due to early Sept rain after July and Aug drought- only the late growth was damaged by a colder than average winter that followed.
As far as these schemes for protecting trees, I too have used piled and contained leaves with and without a plastic cover and the cover seemed to cause rot and death to branches. Either method can lead to destruction from voles if they are an issue on the property. Bait stations checked periodically is my prescription for that. I used to make a cylinder around trees with 14 gauge, cheap fencing and fill it with leaves.
An empty cover, like a large box covered with a tarp can also work by trapping heat from the ground- there aren’t many piano stores any more but they used to be a good source for boxes large enough to protect a good sized tree. Understanding the use of ground derived heat is useful. I’m not sure that insulating trees with wrap that doesn’t take this into account is very effective- maybe when the issue is marginal, but if temps get much below 0 F. I am skeptical it would be very helpful.
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Thanks guys, I’ll try the pruning back and leaf burying and report how it works.
Figs are very different from other plants, most of mine will start growing at the hint of warm weather. Many in November were still growing and are going to suffer dieback. We had too many warm days, Plus they come from areas with longer seasons. Some refuse to shut down until they are hit. Tip dieback already occurred on some, glad I didn’t prune them, no doubt would have made it worse. Leave dieback on the plants, it will protect them from further dieback or if another warm spell comes it delays growing. Prune off when you want them to grow and conditions are good.
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Having gardened through the winter for years I can agree with @alan that ground heat is your ally against cold. The further from the ground your vegetation is, the less of your ally you can depend on. In my unheated hoophouse, if the temps go into the low 20’s I pull extra row cover over the lettuces (which we enjoy all winter) to capture more ground heat closer to the plants. If it gets down to even 5 deg F this works but the parts of the plants furthest from the ground will get damaged but the plant still lives/produces.
I prune back figs and elderberries after leaf fall for the more practical reason of ease-of-protection during fruiting in the summer (my figs aren’t the breba kind). I need to be able to get a bird net over it so my branches are no more than 12-18" from the ground.
The advantage of a cover is more protection from dessication or possibly the expansion/contraction splitting that occurs with direct sun on dark wood. The cover should shade and be vented. Piled leaves by themselves are perfect (Nature is that way) but need to be contained or perhaps covered with wood chips to prevent wind loss.
BTW leaves are the best weed control in nature for perrenial beds - the larger leaves, the better. Last year I covered several beds with only fall leaves and others with ~6-8" of only woodchips. MUCH less weeding in the leaf covered beds, whereas the ground ivy ate the woodchips for lunch. 
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I can think of no biological explanation for this statement- I assume you mean, don’t cut into living tissue behind an existing vital bud.
Your experience with figs being more prone to a return to rapid growth from a warm spell than other common fruit species doesn’t mirror what I see in my region or what I used to see in S. CA., although the number of varieties I’ve grown in either location is somewhat limited- at least compared to yours. We could get 80 degree spells in CA in Dec,. but I don’t remember a rush of new growth on figs, and I managed them in our back yard. I’m interested in the experience here of western growers, especially those in CA. Hard to imagine I never noticed that trait. I did grow only 3 or 4 varieties there.
I am protecting a jujube and already had a cage around it. I tied the branches upright with twine first, then wrapped it in bubble insulation leaving about 2" at ground level for air. Then I wrapped it in reflective insulation and secured it on very well with Gorilla tape. Then I piled mulch about 18" tall inside the cage.
I would’ve used leaves instead of bubble wrap but I didn’t prepare myself. The reflective insulation is what I feel to be the best & along with a gigantic pile of mulch around the base.
Protecting figs here we step on them and get them flat on the ground (first they are planted so the trunk is at a 45-degree angle.) then we put leaves or bark on it and then put a piece of reflective insulation on top and hold it all down with several-many 1$ bags of potting soil.
Dax
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It’s to do with physics. It is your standard line from master gardeners. I hear almost weekly in the podcasts I listen to this time of year. Where I got it from. Frost usually forms on tips first, it’s the farthest from the warm ground, and the thinnest tissue on the plant. If you cut it off frost forms on live tissue. it still may, but dieback should be less.
Many also give the reason that buds may still be viable and want till grow out to see what is actually damaged. .
The advice to not prune in fall comes from the possibility that it can encourage new growth… if it is warm enough.
That’s very similar to how I’ve gotten my in ground figs through a couple Maine winters. Bend limbs to the ground, pin with bags of mulch, then dump loose woodchips on top and around the sides of the bags. Oh yeah, and pray for snow before it gets REAL cold! Mine made it through -10F without much die back when they were in contact with the ground.
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