Winter Protection for Fig Trees Was Never This Foolproof or Easy

Name: Winter Protection for Fig Trees Was Never This Foolproof or Easy
Uploaded: 2025-10-24T20:48:55.881Z
Duration: 5 min 31 s
Channel: Ross Raddi

Ross Raddi

26 Video Views·Oct 24, 2025

This video walks through how to easily and effectively protect fig trees during winter so they stay healthy and produce fruit on time next season. It starts by explaining why winter protection is so important — if a fig tree dies back to the ground, it may not fruit at all, or will ripen too late. Wrapping trees in burlap and tarps is mentioned as a common method, but it’s also more work and not always reliable. Instead, a simpler and more dependable technique is shared that works even in colder areas, using just a few basic materials: garden staples, cardboard, and mulch (or other insulating materials like straw or blankets).

The method is straightforward — bend a branch down to the ground, pin it in place with a garden staple, then cover it with cardboard and a thick layer of mulch to hold in the natural warmth from the soil. This insulation keeps the tree safe from freezing temperatures all winter long. The timing matters, too: wait until the tree is completely dormant, usually around mid-December, before covering it, and remove the protection in early March once the weather starts to warm. It’s an easy, reliable way to keep fig trees thriving year after year.

The garden staples I use: https://amzn.to/47hi7KV

Companion guides to this video!
Fig Trees in Zones 5, 6, & 7: A Masterclass on Hardy Fig Trees in Cold Climates - https://www.figboss.com/post/fig-tree-hardy
The Ultimate Guide to Wrapping Fig Trees: Protecting Your Trees and Buds for Spring - https://www.figboss.com/post/wrapping-fig-trees-for-the-winter-the-how-why
The Secret to Cold-Hardy Fig Trees: Lignification Explained - https://www.figboss.com/post/cold-hardy-fig-trees

Looking for fig trees or cuttings? Check out the Fig Boss storefront: https://www.figboss.com/category/all-products
For more fig growing tips, check out the Fig Boss blog: https://www.figboss.com/
The Fig Tree Timeline: https://shorturl.at/p5u6q
Need help with your fig tree? Contact me: https://www.figboss.com/contact

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Zone 7A - Greater Philadelphia

Winter Protection Importance (0:18):
Explains that protecting fig trees in winter ensures proper fruiting next season.

Dieback Warning (0:40):
Warns that unprotected trees dying to the ground will fruit late or not at all.

Wrapping Method (1:01):
Describes traditional burlap and tarp wrapping, noting it’s unreliable and labor-intensive.

Foolproof Method Intro (1:17):
Introduces a simpler, more effective cold-weather protection method.

Materials Needed (1:41):
Lists garden staples, cardboard, and mulch or insulation for the protection setup.

Heat Retention Concept (2:20):
Explains trapping ground heat with insulation to keep the tree warm.

Branch Selection (3:04):
Chooses a branch to bend and protect, emphasizing covering roots and base.

Pinning Process (3:28):
Demonstrates pinning branches to the ground with garden staples.

Covering with Mulch (3:53):
Covers pinned branches with cardboard and mulch to block air and retain warmth.

Protection Timing (4:17):
Advises waiting until full dormancy—around December 15 in Philadelphia—to cover trees.

Uncovering Timing (4:53):
Recommends uncovering around March 1–15 to prevent overheating or bark rot.

All right, fig lovers. It's Ross the Fig Boss. Welcome back to another video. I wanted to announce that coming up here very soon when my trees start to go dormant, I'm going to have some fig trees for sale on my blog, figboss.com. If you're interested, check it out. Link in the description. Now, today's video is going to be about protecting your fig trees. probably the most important thing you can do for your fig tree if it's not fruing or if it's fruing but the fruit is being produced too late in the season and they're not ripening in time. If you don't actually protect it and protect it properly this winter, you wasted your whole growing season next year. If they do died all the way to the ground and have to respout from the base in the spring, it's a much higher chance that your fig tree will not fruit. If it does, it will ripen a lot later. Just think about it. Do other fruit trees die all the way to the ground and then actually have the ability to fruit? So, how do we actually protect a fig tree? Uh, there's a number of ways. One of the major ways is actually wrapping a fig tree. People will actually bring the branches together and then they will tie them up really closely and then wrap that whole thing with burlap and then a tarp. So, wrapping is a good method. My issue with it is that it's more work than what we're going to do today. And it actually doesn't always work. In fact, it's so it's just not 100% foolproof. I would venture to say about 40% of you have tried wrapping your fig tree and it didn't work. So today is actually 100% foolproof the method that we're going to use. And I would argue that you can actually use this method in a much colder growing zone. So let's get started. What do we need actually for today's job? These are 9 in galvanized steel rods that allow us to pin the branches of our fig tree to the ground. I'll put a link to this in the description. We also need cardboard. Everyone's got cardboard. Come on. And then the last thing we need is mulch. You can use straw, wood chips. If you guys get the wood chips delivered through chip drop, it's very inexpensive. Or you can use grass clippings. These are u these are just weeds. Just make sure whatever material you use, it's going to cover the cardboard really well. You can also use housing insulation, uh, blankets, concrete blankets are even better. Anything that's going to be insulative. What we're trying to accomplish today is we're going to take the branches of our fig tree. We're going to bend it all the way to the ground, use one of our staples here, pin it to the ground, then we're going to cover it with cardboard, and then we're going to cover it every inch of that with the mulch. But if the air is 0°, you can bet the ground is a lot warmer and heat radiates up. So all we have to do is trap that heat, insulate that heat, and we have a protected fig tree. All right, so let's demonstrate the technique now. First, we're going to begin by selecting the branch that we would like to protect. If you have a number of trunks down here at the base, that's okay. You can protect all of them or you can just protect one of them. What's important is we protect the base, the roots of the tree as well as at least one of the branches. So, we're going to select this one and we're going to bend it in the direction that it's already growing in. So, it's growing out this way. We're going to pin it to the ground and we're going to take our garden staple and we're going to pin it to the ground like so. Now I'm going to take my cardboard. Again, we're going to cover not just the trunk here, but we're also going to cover the base of the tree. Let's assume this other trunk is not here. I would probably extend this a little bit out more to the right to my right. Now, we're going to take the mulch and we're just going to lay it over top. And we're going to pack this on as much as possible. The reason for this is we really don't want any air to get underneath the cardboard. We also don't want any of this to blow away. So, we want to make sure that this material is not going to dry out and blow away. We also don't want to make sure it's going to break down. It's got to be insulative enough. The more material, the better. It's not going to harm your tree. Now, in terms of timing, when do you actually cover and protect your fig tree? You have to wait until your tree is dormant. So, this tree has leaves on it. It's still actually growing here at the top. Do not want to protect this tree just now. This is just for demonstration purposes. The leaves should be falling off the tree and there should be no leaf material left. So, usually for me here in the Philadelphia area, that's about December 15th. And then let's assume it's now March 1st, March 15th when spring has really officially started here. This is going to warm up actually too much and we could create a scenario where the tree is too hot and the bark molds and rots. We're going to move this away. Look how easy that was. We're going to take the staple up here out of the ground. Plop it back up. Maybe I get myself a nice steak. And our fig tree is ready for the springtime. So that was today's demonstration. I know it's that easy. Please hit the like button, hit the subscribe button for me. We'll catch you for the next video. Take care.