With Thanksgiving around the corner, tree wrapping is on my mind especially for our fig trees. I recently discovered a padded radiant heat blanket which provides up to 1/2 inch of padding which is covered by a radiant heat reflecting fabric. I believe it is something similar to a padded moving blanket. I bought a dozen of them, and they seem very sturdy and the size is quite handy - 58 x 58 inches. They are apparently windproof, washable and I believe you can ask them to stitch the blanket into a customized cover. They were quite cheap - around $10 and i found them at a website called MoversSupplies.com. Has anyone else had any experience with using these?
I have used blankets on the coldest of winter days. I also mulched over my fig last winter in the middle of the hardest freeze. I don't live in the country and don't seem to have a vole problem, but i'd watch out for that, because they'll nibble up your tree trunk.
John S
PDX OR
The problem would likely be mice instead of voles; and yes, they’d love a nest like that.
If I were to use such a blanket I’d wrap it around a fig tree when extremely cold weather was expected then remove it after that passed. If you left it on all winter it would most likely become a mouse nest - from which they’d definitely chew on the fig.
Also, my figs are allowed to grow in “clumps,†which I recommend, so it would be more difficult to wrap around any ‘one trunk.’ But from what I’ve noticed, after they’re around 5 years old in the Willamette Valley they seem to survive our ‘modern winters’ with only tip die-back at the end of a few limbs.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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