I’m in zone 7a, middle Tennessee, and i have 3 Celeste figs in the ground.
I buried them in leaves back in the fall/early winter to protect them.
I struggle with knowing or judging when to uncover them. Any suggestions?
The amount of leaves is so huge - i cannot uncover and recover them. It’s an all or nothing, permanent thing until next winter.
I’m in 6b…I guess I could see if mine are alive after the snow melted!
If you want a breba crop leave them covered until the record lows reaches 20F. Figs come out at about the last USDA frost date
For leaves, you just have to go out and stick your arm in there to feel how warm it is. The problems start when the trees begin waking up.
It is probably a good idea to have a temporary protection plan as well, since you will probably have to uncover before the last frost. Frost blanket would be ideal, you can leave it on for weeks, but you can also use a tarp for a few days.
Wanted to add that you should feel around the base of the trunks for vole damage. If voles have been in there all winter they probably ate most of the tree at this point, but it would still be good to check and remember for future years.
well it’s low 60’s and sunny today and tomorrow, following the crazy polar vortex last week.
I’m sure we will have even warmer days well before our normal last frost date (April 15).
It seems like i should probably be ready to remove them within the next few weeks depending on weather outlook.
I had the same thought about needing to have tarps ready to re-cover on any extra-cold nights.
But I guess part of the thing is i don’t know how cold is too cold for them to be exposed at this point.
I will go see how warm it feels in the leaves I guess.
I had not considered voles…i hope they aren’t an issue. 
Once the buds are swollen I think there is a risk of damage for anything colder than a light freeze.
Trees that have been protected well have a hair trigger to come out of dormancy though compared to trees that experienced more cold. The buds will probably swell earlier than what would be ideal.
Hey TTracker…
I am just 35 miles west of you.
My CH Fig is still covered… good thing considering the past week or two. We got down to around 10 degrees a few nights this past week. Hope all that is over…
I had not considered un-protecting my fig yet.
What would it hurt to just leave it covered until April 15 or so ???
Newbie here as well on this subject.
TNHunter
I’ve definitely seen damage on swelling buds in the 26F-30F range. I think when people ask “why is my fig tree so slow to wake up?” the answer is often because buds just waking up were damaged in a light-moderate frost.
yep it was crazy here and very glad i had the protection!
my concern is “cooking” the trees if the leaves are left on during any kind of multi-day warm spell.
Even today and tomorrow at 60 is worrying me but surely the ground got so cold last week (is that a thing?) that it will be ok.
This gives me some info to go on…I guess the only thing better would be “I live in your area and I uncover my figs around XX date every year” 
I do expect the ground temp… and our insulating material… is going to work in our favor… whether the air temp is temporarily little too cold or a little too hot.
Myself… cant do much worse than last year… I did not know it needed protection… and mine died to the ground. But sprouted up from the roots and did great, produced lots of wonderful figs.
Hoping that with the protection I have in place now… it will do even better… and earlier this year.
Good luck on timing the exit from protection.
TNHunter
same thing happened to me last year. I had one plant previously and protected it but got lazy last year with these 3. I thought I lost one totally but it finally resprouted.
I stuck my hand into the leaf mass and pretty cold. So maybe ok.
Of course the branch tips that are exposed (leaf compaction) are a wreck after last week - cracks all over them.
I planted 4 figs in 2003 or 2004, and nothing grew until last summer (2020). This is AFTER I put up a wire fence around each plant, then covered it with burlap and filled it with hay. I never knew that figs needed such care. Anyways, I plan to leave them covered until mid March. We are in Annapolis, Maryland.
I uncovered them on the 16th and everything was good except a couple cracked branches due to the weight of the wet leaves 
It’s supposed to get down to possibly 35 tonight- I may throw a tarp over them just in case.
Other than tonight, now lows in the 30s forecast for the foreseeable future.
Don’t bother. I left some unprotected and they look fine even with a low of 12 degrees this past winter.
Yes I didn’t cover mine either. Even my Russian pomegranate made it through the winter. Green all the way to tippy top.
Well, last winter, which didn’t even have the extremes we saw last month, all three figs died to the ground. That’s why I covered them this winter.
Did you have a late freeze last year? That’ll kill them to the ground if they’ve already budded out. Several of mine struggled to recover from a late April freeze we had.
My potted figs look sad, but they aren’t deceased. Ten degrees was our low. I didn’t cover or do anything to them.
We got to 10 too.
@PharmerDrewee - that’s a good point - yes we had brutal very late freezes last year.
I will say everything that was exposed this winter, above the leaves, was fried.
So I’d assume the entire thing would’ve done the same.
Some of my potted varieties I left out to die survived just fine like last year. I’m sure they were frozen solid including the roots for a few days at a time throughout the winter. My in ground trees all look good.
@TrilobaTracker Are yours planted in a sheltered area or out in a windy, open space? Mine are all planted next to the house or next to some sort of wind break like large evergreen bushes. I chat with a local guy who has his figs out in the open and they appear to suffer much more from winter damage.