Garden Q&A
Question: Do you have any specific tips on techniques to wrap fig trees for the winter?
- Heather Menzel
Answer: The lengths to which people in cold climes have gone to get a fig tree - so much happier in a Mediterranean climate - through a temperate zone winter are amazing. One elaborate idea is to dig up the fig, then dig a shallow trench large enough to accommodate the entire plant on its side, after which it is covered loosely with soil. And then in spring, the process is reversed. Whew!
One of the positive effects of the mild winters of the past two decades (presumably climate change/global warming) is that figs require less effort to get through winter.
I grow a fig propagated from a tree grown by Italian immigrants in Pittsburgh for decades. Given that Pittsburgh has more severe winters than Philadelphia, I already have an edge.
And indeed, I haven't wrapped mine in years. It helps that I have a site protected from wind and close enough to the house that the soil is warmer than out in the open. Only once in its unwrapped period has there been notable dieback (roughly the top third of most stems), which proved to be no big deal at all.
The first winter, when my fig was quite small and thus much more vulnerable, I put a cage of chicken wire over the whole thing, filling it with oak leaves. Another year I wrapped each stem with strips of burlap - very tedious. Now, I let nature take its course and hope a brutal winter is not in the offing.
But if you feel your setting requires winter protection, tactics depend on size: A young 3-foot fig and a long-established 12-footer are quite different (the older the tree, the less you need to do since even if it dies way back, it should sprout with vigor). In a windy site, some sort of protection is advisable.
After the fig drops its leaves, do any pruning you desire for size and shape; thinning it is a good idea, since next year that will allow more light to the interior. Then use cord (of at least clothesline thickness) and, starting at the bottom, wind it around the branches to get a more compact fig (envision Christmas trees in their wrapped-up shipping state, but don't be quite that rigorous with the fig; it will let you know how tightly you can gather the branches). Then wrap the whole thing in cloth - burlap is classic, but a couple of old sheets will work just as well. Secure the cloth so the winter wind doesn't deposit it in the neighbor's yard. Mulch the root zone well.
When to remove it all is a tricky matter. If you can accurately predict the last hard freeze, you've got it made. The important thing is not to wait too long to remove it. If you dither, it will be sprouting under its shroud and getting cramped and distorted.
Q: What is the best way to save dahlia tubers from year to year? I've had mixed success. - Debby Evans
A: After frost has zapped the foliage, and a day or two after rain or hand watering, dig the plants up, gently so as not to damage them. Presuming you want to keep track and grow them next year arranged by size and color, dig them one by one and attach a tag to the tuber immediately with a rubber band.
Cut the foliage off, shake off soil, and allow to dry for a day or two. In days past, the recommendation was always to trim and divide the tubers at this point, but other than removing any obviously crummy portions, it ends up being less work if you wait to do that at planting time, when you can deal with any ill effects of storage at the same time as division.
The tubers need to be stored in a dry, cool, but frost-free area. A cellar or crawl space that stays about 50 degrees is excellent. A successful technique is to put the tubers in a shallow container separated with dry vermiculite. The container should be substantial enough to keep mice from nesting but need not be air-tight. They should not become desiccated, so check two or three times through the winter. Lightly moisten the vermiculite if the tubers seem to be shriveling.
Send questions to Michael Martin Mills, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101 or gardenqanda@earthlink.net. Please include locale. Read his recent work at http://go.philly. com/michaelmartinmills.
