For our region, Ive heard anything from Easter to Mother's Day.

I have done it earlier this year(15,of March),because i am trying to avoid getting damage from the fungus that atack the bark because of the warm weather.I will see if it works.Regards

I already unwrapped my fig trees early this week. This is earlier than usual due to having a nice warm weather. You should be fine. Check for the next 10 days in your forecast, if temperatures stay above 25F you should have no problem.
There are risks when keeping trees wrapped while the weather warms up, like herman said, Fungus will attack the tree if there's no ventelation while it's warm out.
I got some die back on the tips of the branches on my largest fig tree. The trees that I was able to bend to ground and covered up, had no problem.

Bass

thanks for the responses - with frost still possible and the temps near 30 overnight are you guys covering the trees at night?

30 degrees is fine, temperatures below 20 are the real danger. Your tree is still dormant, they will break dormancy when the weather stays in the 70s for more than a week. If they're not dormant and temperatures drop below 30 than you may have some die back.

Bass

do I cut the tip after unwrapping? I left the tip exposed to light by covering with a 2 liter soda bottle with punctured holes in the sides for air to get in but not rain

Well, all this talk about unwrapping from those who live in state/region got me out there to uncover my tree. Here are a series of photo's of how I wrapped mine for those who dont know......explain further below.

This tree never survived winterizing above the grade, last winter I laid it down and it survived for the first time in 8 yrs worth of trying. The limbs got pretty thick over the summer last yr so I opted to winterize above the ground.

It survived the deep freeze, HOWEVER, it must of been so warm and cozy in there that it attracted the local field mice. As I removed the foam sheets my heart sank seeing the base of the trunks all torn/eaten up. As I began to remove the fiberglass the lil bastards (3-4 of them) all scattered about.....I would had killed them if it werent for my lil daughter standing there watching me work.

I am sooooo aggravated right now I cant even tell ya!!!

Anyhow, the limbs ARE still alive, limber and green.....but as stated the bark is bitten clean off on the bottom......will the tree die?
Is there anything I can do to bandage the wounds up maybe?

Hopefully Im overreacting but I doubt it, I was always told the bark is what feeds the tree so I dont know.

Im gonna take some pics in a few minutes and post later.

Regards,
Bummed in NNJ

Your tree won't die, but the growth above the girdled bark will. I've had this happen quite a bit with rabbits. If there's still a bridge of bark left, the growth may survive, but considering how quick figs are to grow, I'd rather start over myself, and then use hardware cloth next winter to avoid a repeat.

I would attempt to bridge the gap by making some clean cuts to smooth out the borders that were chewed. Then take some ring bark grafts from higher up, the same size as your trim job at the base of the tree. Place the grafts over the defects and then tape over this to keep them in place. You can also use grafting wax, which you don't have to remove. This should fix the problem.

I would trim off the part that is likely to die and push 1 1/2 - 2 foot sections of it into the ground were I in your position. They are more likely to root than have the grafts take for me (as I have not yet successfully grafted anything, but I have rooted figs for a couple years now)

I was going to wait, but the warnings about mold emboldened me to unwrap my fig. Of 7 1/2 feet wrapped, I think I lost about 6 inches (of course its hard for me at 5'6" to see if there was green at that point, but I know the scratch at 7 feet was green!)

Yeah!

~Chills

Thnx for the tips gentlemen. Im not really too experienced at all this so Im really undecided on how to go about this. Gene had me momentarily excited when I read this, "Your tree won't die" but cringe when I read the folowing words, "but the growth above the girdled bark will" ;(

I was proud of that growth, Ive never had 2 yrs worth of growth and managed to do a good job wrapping it up this past winter that it would of made its 3rd yr. Oh well!

FWIW- I had ZERO die back!
If you look closely at the pics below, the lil critters chewed up the limbs in various points including the tips...so techincally I had a different kind of die back. :o)

I dont have ANY grafting experience so Im leaning towards chopping them off and sticking them into the ground and hope for the best.

Dont hesitate to give me any feedback,advice or opinions folks!!! The more the merrier!

From the pictures it looks like the rats knawed completely around the base of the trees. I think I would treat anything above that as "cuttings" and hope for some roots. with the root structure that you have it will surprise you with this year's growth.

Not rats (or mice) even though it has not been a problem
for me! Maybe rot/fungi or (at bottom) some 'other'
preventative measure (nah)...

IF I choose to chop off and replant the limbs in the ground, is this something I should do immediately or wait till the warmer weather arrives?

Wait

Also spray some 10% clorox solution, right away...

My suggestion would be to do it now. The limbs currently have the most sap in them that they'll ever have. Waiting will only allow them to dry out more and lose whatever life they have in them. Be sure to bury them up to the top bud.

I second Gene Opinion,despite some other old belief that the limbs should be left on the tree in the event of being dead by freezing or other reasons.
As they are now,the limbs can't feed anymore,so if not cut ,they will die soon.Soryy about your bad luck,this year Frank.
I think the tree will grow with more power this year.

Sorry about your news Frank. I think this is a lesson for us all on how important it is to get the bottom well-sealed. When I was taking my wrapping off last week I was half expecting to see rodent damage since I noticed several places my cover was not touching the ground all the way, but I was lucky .. this year.

BTW my guideline for taking off the cover is when temps are going to stay above 25F. I use an aluminum-coated bubble insulation "tent", and got zero dieback last winter.

Scott

Correction: After I rebooted my computer, the
pictures are better. I do see clearly the
real problem now. Sorry for my misinformation...

Man, what a pain in the ass everyone has to go through with fruit trees in cold climates. I'm glad I live in south Florida where everything goes right in the ground and flourishes. Our biggest worry here is if we'll get enough chill hours for even the low chill Florida Prince peaches to bear. Our figs are everbearing, and have fruit ripening all year, although the ones in late dec, jan and february are rather insipid. I guess they need the heat to get goode and sweet.
Dave

Thnx for the advice and well wishes everyone. I'm gonna chop them off tomorrow and hope for the best.

Im not a 100% positive that I'll stick them back in the ground tho.....Im thinking of maybe placing each one into its own 5gal pale.....what do you guys think?
Will it be deep enough?

Atleast this way if it gets cold I can move it inside for now.

Here's a pic of several others that are growing indoors.

forecast predicts lows of 26 degrees for Thursday and Friday nights.

I am glad I unwrapped because of the very wet weather we have been having for the past 1 1/2 weeks, though I will be watching and praying about those colder nights predicted for this week. Is it worthwhile to drape burlap over the stems those two nights?

~Chills

I had the same thing happen to all the trees I had stored in my garage the beginig of last growing season. I was ready to chop it up as well but then as I mentioned in earlier posts I saved all of my trees.

Use one of the limbs that had the lower section eaten by the rodents. Cut it off at the trunk of the tree. Then proceed with a sharp razor blade knife to score as wide a section of bark that the limb will allow. Make sure you score it long enough to breach the area that was eaten through at the base of the tree.

Carefully peel that strip of bark off the branch. If possible cut two strips from the same branch then discarded it or stick the branch in some dirt and treat it as a cutting.

The next step is to scrape carefully with the utility knife above and below where the rodents chewed the bark off a little wider than your patch strip taken from the branch bark. Just remove the (important) bark down to the green colored wood. A real light hand is needed doing this.
On the very bottom you may have to dig some of the dirt away from the base of the tree and wipe it clean with a damp cloth. That is so the tape you use will stick to the tree trunk.

Now use just plain scotch tape to hold the bark strip sections exactly where you want them placed. After you have attached the two strips of bark with the scotch tape then seal it all up with any type of tape that has good holding power and will take the weather.

I left my trees taped up all through the spring and into most of the summer. After I removed the tape from around the trees I was surprised to see that they had all sealed over with new bark. In fact there where even some very young new roots coming out from the area I covered.

I hope you see this in time and give it a try. My trees where just uncovered a little while ago and are fine and last season with the taped up patches I had many figs on each tree. Did not seem to affect the tree a bit.

Good luck

Lou Ne., PA

Although I've never tried it, I like the idea of patching it. With Lou's success I like it even more.

However, if you are set on chopping them down, I would try stool layering before you cut them. I did this last year with my nephew's tree. I piled mulch around the base so that it came six inches up the trunk, and let the trunks root into the mulch.

George used something to seal some of the cuttings he gave me. I'm sure something similar (perhaps a rubberized undercoating spray) could be used to seal the damaged area from invaders.

Alternately, you can air-layer above the damage as well.

~james

"I hope you see this in time and give it a try."

I'll let you guess if I saw it in time.....LOL!

Oh well, Ill definitely have to give that method a try at some point, it would of been nice to have tried it on one limb and cut off the other two.

The thing that sold me into chopping them down now was the fact that they're at their healthiest shape right now being dormant. I was afraid of watching them die/bleed out if what ever method I did didnt work.

So now I just hope they 'take' in their new containers.

James said:
>>> George used something to seal some of the
>>> cuttings he gave me.
Although not really necessary for fig cuttings,
it cannot hurt! Sometimes I use it to seal 'cuts',
but it may more useful in bark-repair-jobs, something
I never have done (yet).

Originally I had a tar based? (cleans with mineral spirits)
'Pruning Sealer' by Bonide (NY), usually available at HD.
My old pint being recently depleted, I could not find it
(a winter re-stocking issue). Instead I found a latex
based? (cleans with plain water) 'Treekote' by Walter E.
Clark (CT), at an Agway store. Both are used for wound
dressing and grafting seals and come as a spray or as
with-the-build-brush-applied method (which I PREFER).

I think that any of this products is worthy having around...

George (NJ).

P.S.
Grafting wax should do just as well (never used it yet).
Also, somebody here on this FF had mentioned a very cheap
equivalent way of dipping in 'left-over-latex-house-paint'.
Never used that either, above sealers are black, but any
other colour (latex paint) should do.

For an idea for what the Bonide sealer looks like,
see the top-chopped available picture at the below
below URL (was taken for a very different purpose).

Here is a link that might be useful:

In the late Fall I tie my trees up tight with regular twine, surround them with fencing about four feet tall, then fill this with DRY, whole leaves. So far I have not had a tree die from cold, never had any fungus or mold (the dry leaves will not get wet no matter how much rain), and never had any mouse problems, even though we have tons of mice running around. I do have some die-back on the exposed branches, but not very much.
With this system you can allow your trees to be protected well into warmer weather. I usually wait until mid-April, and sometimes there will be growth on the covered branches.

I re-unwrapped my fig yesterday (as the weather has climbed back above freezing). My fingers are crossed, and a few scratches still showed green.

I hope everyone else is doing as well.

~Chills

Perhaps, you can try to put another donor fig tree nearby, and borrow its roots, and merge the donor tree into the wounded parent tree above the girdled area so that the sap can flow to it.

http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/Bridgegraftingandinarching.htm

By the way, I always thought I had it hard with the mild San Francisco summer weather (being unable to ripen figs), but this freezing cold winter stuff that you guys have to deal with every year sure doesn't look any easier either.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bridge Grafting Girdled Trees

i read the entries with interest - let me tell you about a way i did it that seemed brilliant but did not work:
i made a cylinder from two sections of 4 foot garden fencing about 1 1/2 feet in diameter and put it around the tree (total ht. 5 feet), covered the outside with bubble wrap, filled it with styrofoam packing nuggets and covered with a garbage can lid held in place with plastic ties - seemed very cozy in there to me, maybe i smothered it?

I cover my tress in a similar fashion but use tarpaper instead of bubble wrap; DRY leaves instead of peanuts and tyvek 1406 instead of trash can cover. The clear bubble wrap, allowing the sun to penetrate, may have created an solar oven and cooked them with heat or drenched them moisture. I also pile a little dirt where the tarpaper meets the earth to ward off mice.

Vascular: did the tree rot?

I read a few yrs ago to NOT EVER let any plastic touch the fig tree during winterizing so perhaps the plastic is what did your fig tree in.

I gotta tell ya for yrs Ive been leary about cutting roots on one side to aid bending it over, thinking it may not survive the shock or something.
Well, now that I saw how my uncle has been successfully winterizing his fig trees for the last few yrs Im becoming a believer in this method, this way I wont have to worry about field mice again. He places a wooden board beneath it, another one above it then covers it with dirt. I helped him uncover two of them like this and I got to take them home! :)

His primary fig tree is around 4 yrs old and 4-5" in diameter at the base.

I purchased a fig tree last year and have no knowledge about fig trees. Last fall after the leaves dropped I wrapped the tree in canvas and stored it in my garage. I took it out in April and had green buds. We are now approaching June but still no leaves have formed but I also still have green buds. I am beginning to get concerned. I live in Southeastern PA. When do the leaves typically start forming and is there any fertilizer that would help stimulate them to form. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!