HI Everyone,

I wanted to start a thread asking how people prune and/or shape their fig trees.

I have seen figs trained with just one main leader with a post, some remove all bottom branches and only leave the top to have a "tree look", and some are left alone to just grow,etc.

SO I was wondering what you all prefer to do with your figs?

What are the benefits of a certain technique?

What age do you start pruning?

Do you train differently for Pot/Container vs. Ground?

Thanks in advance! Christy

Hi Christy,

I used to grow in containers (Houston, TX) and now grow in the ground (Austin, TX).  I had planned on shaping my trees roughly the same... tree form into an open vase at about 2 feet.  I felt the advantages, especially when the trees are smaller are:

• ease of watering
  
• ease of maintaining around the base of the tree (e.g. keeping mulch and leaves from building up on the trunk)
• ease of harvest
  
• aesthetically pleasing (at least to me)
  

As it turns out, mother nature has other plans for me.  Despite being in zone 8B, my trees suffer near 100% die back during the winters.  Consequently, most of my trees are multi-trunk from the ground.  I am planning on letting them grow as is until they are old enough (or some formula is found for them to survive the weather) then start removing trunks to bring them back to a more desirable (for me) form.  My other fruit trees (pomegranates, asian pears, apricots, peaches, etc.) which do not suffer cold damage I grow in the single trunk/open vase shape.

As to when to start pruning... as soon as they are big enough to be shaped into the form you want, and prune annually.

~james

Prune your tree annually at the end of the growing season when dormant. Prune out all damaged, and inward growing branches, any branches that cross each other and touch should also be removed. you want an open center tree allowing light and air to get to the center. Open vase shape as james mentioned. Cut just above an outward facing node this will have the new branch grow out away from the center of the tree. Use a good sharp pair of bypass pruners and you will be set. You want to remove 1/3 of the new growth from last season. My in ground trees are more bush form for production of fruit and my potted trees are more traditional center leader trees. Fig trees are real forgiving  when it comes to pruning because of the rapid new growth.

See Pruning

These are a couple of my trees.  I started them from cuttings about 10 years ago.

Chapman, I like what you did. I hope to have my trees look like yours in a few years....

Wow Chapman, your trees are beautiful! I wish I had all of that land I see in the backround or even just a piece of that land!

Thank you everyone for your advice so far!

I have most fig trees in containers due to the ground here. I live on a fresh water lake. It is not a big lake, but the one end of the lake is actually the beginning of the Pine Barrens here in NJ. There is a lot of pine and cedar. The water actually has a red hue to it from the cedars here.

Trees do not seem to get very old by the lake. SInce I lived here the last 5 years, I have had 4 major huge trees either fall or have to be cut down due to them being rotten in the middle. just missed the house with 2 of them falling.

I have drawf fruit trees too in the ground and containers. I planted the same 2 cherry trees, one in the ground, one in a large container. The next year, I got enough cherries from the container tree to make a small batch of preserves. On the same tree in the ground, there were only 3 cherries!

So, while I will put some figs in the ground, all of my rare and special figs will have to remain in containers.

I have a Peter's Honey fig tree that is a Monrovia brand tree. They train it as a tall stick on a stake with no other main branches. I am sure this is mainly for ease of shipping and selling, but now that I have it, I wonder how to get it to start growing outward unless I should let it alone. I wonder if I should prune the top off a bit to help force side branches. Right now, it is about a 4 foot tall single branch tree.

My young figs (in pots) I have just let them be until they get older, but I am wondering if I should stake some of the figs to grow up straight that are growing totally sideways or just leave them alone until they get older.

  Thanks for the nice comments.  I am not an expert on figs, but I think you should prune back the main leader of your fig tree to encourage it to branch out. I think it would be good to stake your young fig trees to make them grow straight. I wish we could grow cherries down here, but it's too far south.  Good luck with your figs.