Video Transcript:
Hey guys, welcome to another chili episode of plant fanatics today. I'm going to be talking about overwintering your figs. So stay tuned. Yeah. So this is a subject that people think I'm totally crazy about. I'm always telling people, mulch your plants, but they don't really understand what I'm saying. They think that I'm talking about a mediocre little tiny, like an inch of mulch. That's not what I'm talking about. So if you come over here, I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about. So you guys can see when I say I mulch my fig trees, I really mulch my fig trees. It has never caused any problems for me as far as rotting or anything like that. If you pick a place to plant your fig, you should never plant it in a place that gets a lot of water or has standing water or anything like that. You should have a decently drained soil. Now they can do well in a lot of different types of soils. However, if you want to protect your fig tree in a colder climate, and it gets really cold, you're going to need a good layer of mulch, something you're going to have to think about you. Can't just put it, you know, in a, in a place that's going to puddle with water and then mulch, you know, a ton of mulch over that because that's just going to hold water. It's going to cause root problems. And, uh, that's not what we want. We want to pick a place with good drainage and a place where we can put a good helping of mulch in order to keep those roots warm. Now in colder climates, figs are going to die back to the ground. They're going to take on more of a Bush form instead of a tree form. So if you guys have watched my videos for any amount of time, you know that I'm not a big believer in tying up your fig trees and covering them and everything because there's plenty of fig varieties for some six and seven, that you can plant directly into the ground and then just let it have that winter die back, let it die back to the ground, mulch it well, and then you want it to grow back and still produce figs for you. That's the kind of figs you want to grow in a Northern planting zone, not the types of figs that you want to cover up. Now, I don't have anything against covering your figs up. You know, if you want more of a tree form rather than a Bush, however, it's just going to add massive headaches, especially when we're having a week like this, where we're having low temperatures here that, you know, we wouldn't ordinarily get. So you just want to make sure that all of your plants, that you're planting can somehow be protected without a lot of input. Okay? Cause when you start having a lot of trees, if you're planting a food forest or something like that, it just becomes a ridiculous amount of work. If you're covering all your plants, we don't want to have to worry about that. So pick fig varieties that can survive in your zone, dive back to the ground and then come back up and give you figs. Now, like I said, you have got to put on a good helping of mulch to make sure that those roots are staying warm. You see a lot of people would say, I'm going crazy with it, but I'm really not. I've had figs in the ground for years here, so, and I've never had any issues. And right now we're getting as cold as it's going to get. And for the people that are afraid to mulch their trees, you're going to run into some issues. You might. I call it the day of death for plants because a lot of people's tender perennials are going to die because they're afraid to put too much mulch. Don't be afraid to put too much mulch, just make sure that you work your soil. If you have a bad soil, make sure that you're always adding organic materials to your soil that can break down and make it better over time and try to not plant your plants in areas that are having puddling issues with water. You always want good drainage with your plants, unless it's a plant that is specifically for a wet area. So right now on our property, we have over 32 varieties of figs. Can you imagine if I had to wrap all of those up in the winter, I do have some plants here that I do have to wrap up. If you guys want to come with me to the food forest, I'll show you a couple of things that we've already done and what you're going to want to try to avoid. [inaudible] This transcript was exported on Feb 13, 2021 - view latest version here. How To Overwinter Fig Trees In Cold Climates (Completed 02/13/21) Transcript by Rev.com Page 2 of 2 Now that we're over here to the food forest, I know that I told you guys that we're talking about fig trees, but I just want to show you a couple of different things that I've had to do with some of my other plants and things that you're going to want to avoid doing with your figs. If you can, if you want to cover your figs, you know, like I said, I have no problem with that, but I don't believe that's the best way. So as you can see here, we have a pomegranate tree and I'm pushing the limits with this. It is a zone seven plant, but I'm teetering on zone six. So it's possible for us to get so cold that this would die. And we're getting into that zone right now. This week is as cold as it's going to get here. Um, so as you can see, um, this was a good amount of work. I've got a couple of plants. If you want to keep following me really quick, [inaudible] Figs are not going to be like this nectarine tree here. I don't have to do anything to this nectarine tree. It can take the temperatures, but your figs cannot [inaudible]. And right here, we have a Mulberry tree. There's another Mulberry tree over there. We had to cover both of those. It's not fun. It's not fun to be out here in the cold doing this. So if you can avoid that, I would highly recommend doing that. The point of this video, if you guys already have figs in the ground, that you do have to win or protect because it's not something that you thought about, uh, all the things that I've just said, um, that's fine. Continue to winter protect that, but we can still learn from things. And in the future, there's a lot of figs that will work in your area that you're not going to have to win or protect. All you have to do is put the mulch that I've showed you and it'll do great year after year, and it will give you fruit. So go ahead, pick awesome figs for your area. If you haven't already subscribed to the channel, give a light to this video and leave any comments, any questions that you have. And then also check out my other video. I'll put a link in the description talking about good cold Hardy varieties that you don't have to win or protect. Thanks for watching the video guys.