Wrapping a Fig Tree for Winter

There's not one right way to protect a fig tree for the winter. Seems everyone has a method that works for them. Michele (pronounced Mee-KEL-lay) has devised an ingenious method to wrap one of his very large trees. In the video below, he and his helpers partially uproot it, lowering it to the ground in order to make it more accessible. Uprooting is facilitated by the fact that the tree is planted next to a garage which has prevented large roots from developing on that side, making it easier to sever the roots to rotate it downward. He has other trees that he buries in the ground in deep trenches that he covers with plywood, partially uprooting those as well and lowering them in a similar fashion. If your tree is not as large as Michele's, you can wrap it as it remains upright by using his method of bundling the branches and layering hay, fabric and heavy plastic as shown below. Before wrapping, make sure all the leaves have fallen off and remove any remaining figs that didn't ripen. Mid to late November is usually when Michele and many fig growers wrap their trees.