We have ~40 fruit trees and shrubs on our property. Most are not mature fruit bearing trees yet. We add a few more to our collection every spring. Of the trees we currently have, only a few are sensitive to the extreme cold weather. Our fig trees flourish in the spring and summer, but they never seem to survive well enough during the winter. In the spring, they start all over from the roots again. We planted an olive tree spring of 2016. That tree did not survive the following winter. Spring of 2017, we planted 2 more. In the spring of 2016 we also planted 2 pomegranate shrubs. They did like our fig trees, in spring of 2017, they came back up from the root.
I'm hoping that in spring of 2018 we will have a different result with these trees.
This winter I am covering them to help protect them. Our winters are not very brutal and we usually only have 1-2 snow and ice events during the winter season. If these trees do well with this type of covering during the winter, I will continue to cover them this way until they are well established.
Here is how I covered my trees to protect them.
You will need:
- Fencing - can be scraps, chicken wire, hardware cloth
- A Bag of Mulch
- Burlap Cloth
- Wire Cutters
- Tomato Stakes - or anything else you have that you can use to keep your cage in place
- Zip Ties
- Scissors
- Gloves
- Plastic Drop Cloth
- Leaves, Hay or Straw
- Bucket or Empty Planter - large enough to place over the cage
First, I laid mulch, one inch deep, around the base of the tree.
Next, I wrapped the tree with burlap and used zip ties to hold the burlap in place. I did not put zip ties around any part of the tree. I simply put the zip ties through the burlap.
Then, I cut the fencing. I cut it long enough to fit around the tree and made the height about 3 inches higher than the tree.
I used zip ties to make a cage with the fencing.
Next, I placed the wire cage around the tree.
I used tomato stakes to hold the cage in place. I went deep with the stakes so that it would hold up better against strong winds.
Next, I used the plastic drop cloth to cover the outside of the cage and used zip ties to attach the plastic to the cage.
Lastly, I filled the cage with leaves to insulate it.
During the event of snow and ice, I will cover the cage with a bucket to keep the frozen precipitation off the tree.