I have several figs that were started last year that just grew upwards and now look like the tall and long sticks. The one on the photo is about 6 ft tall.

Is there any way to encourage the side branching? I know I can cut the tree half way and than it will send several side shoots and so on but I do not want to cut it if possible.

I am sure I am not the only one with this question. What do other people do? 
As a side note, I would like to keep the figs in pots.

I don't like to head back my trees either. I have about 20 apple trees that were up to 6 feet tall with no side branches. I had them all neatly staked up like your fig tree. I un-staked some of the trees and bent them over. Sure enough, they developed side branches. It would be even easier for you because you could just set the pots on their sides or at an angle for a few months.

There is a method that both enhances branching and earlier (main crop) fruit production.
Simply, pinch the very tip of new growth after the 5-6 nodes with new leaves... 

Thank you, guys!

I see how the Paul's method could encourage the lower part branching, esp. if I play with light access / shading.

George, if I pinch the very top (6 ft high), will it encourage the branching 2-3 ft below? 
I know that when I prune the top of a tree/fig, that usually encourages the forking near the cut tip, essentially making the Y at the end with the new growth.
What is the mechanism of the lower branching while pinching, why would this happen?

after at the height you want, you should pinch the terminal bud. that will force branching and fig production. i usually pinch at 3 feet or so, some lower. not sure where it will branch. there is another method which i haven't tried... you can cut/scrap below or above the node.. not sure which is which, but one promote branching and an another fruit. there was discussion about on the forum sometime ago. 

Ah! I've tried the cutting / incision above the node with citrus. So you are saying it may work with the figs too?
As I understand, by the cut you prevent the nutrients to move upwards and redirect them into the node that becomes a new branch.
I think this would mostly promote the branching, not the fruit.

Anybody has done this?

why not do an airlayer at where you want to top off the plant? Then you would reduce trunk height AND get a new tree started at the same time.

You may consider making an angled cut just above an axial node near the top. By removing the terminal growth, this will encourage branching and the top node will become you new central leader.

I thought he wanted a way to encourage side branching WITHOUT cutting the tree. A heading cut or pinching the central leader would be the simplest and surest way to encourage side branching. I just thought the goal was to avoid cutting the central leader. 

you can air layer, but it would look ugly in the end. i topped most of my old trees. i'm not exactly looking for "beautiful" tree with those. i'm keeping them as back up and producers. but new trees i'm growing are being grown for the "keeps". meaning, i'm trying to make them look better. 

igor, that's what they were saying, something about preventing hormone from flowing in certain direction. one of them will induce fruit and other will force branch. i don't remember any reports on if that worked or not. i pinched my CdDB and CdDN and few others since they were all growing like a flag poles. but will have to see what happens. 

all my old trees are now putting branches on every node there is.. they are looking rather wild. 

Does pinching the terminal bud have the same effect as making a heading cut?

You can do some reading on training grapes, figs seem to react similar. The more I think about it, most fruit trees react similar. It's just that grape vines stay flexible for a couple years sometimes more, versus fruit trees which are easily flexible for only 1/2-1 year.

A lot of these issues were previously discussed here:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/pruning-and-training-figs-tree-or-bush-form-6388743

Sometimes a fig tree has apical dominance and without grower intervention one can wind up with a whip looking plant.
Best to manage the tree as it grows and severe the top at desired height and keep it in check from there on
in with pruning.

Not a botanist, but. . .

The leading/highest bud releases hormones that inhibit growth of the potential buds further down, establishing dominance.  Cutting the leader will induce one or several buds lower down to awaken and grow.  Bending the tip so that is below the other/preferred buds will also help, though not as aggressively as breaking it "green-stick" wise, leaving on the broken tip.  Alternatively, you can score the bark in a crosswise/nonlogitudinal fashion just upstream to the bud you want to have grow. 

Brackishfigger exactly , the posters plant is an example displaying apical dominance.
Severing top of plant will make it branch out .

Pruning a potted fig plant before it gets out of hand is must to keep plant in check.

Thanks all for your input.
Since I have several of those 6 footers, I am going to severe the tops of the plants in some  and leave the leader on the others while scoring the bark above the buds. Will see how they respond to this treatment.
This year I am going to pinch the very tip of new growth after the 5-6 nodes with new leaves.

keep us informed, great experiment!  I hurts to do that early pruning for shape, but it pays off in the end!!

Hi Greenfig,
Because you plan to keep the tree in a pot, I would make it smaller or the first wind blow that comes will make the tree fall to the ground.
I would cut it by the middle ... :°°) ... Well to be honest, I have the same case with my Dalmatie number2. It grew up to 1,80 meter ... Just 3 sticks from the ground cuttings.
Mine are in ground in a 80 Liters pot . I'll let it go to see if it makes brebas.. If it doesn't ... It will be cut by the middle !

In 2013, I pinched my biggest "unknown from the Italian" fig tree as of 1st of august, and only the one or two upper buds turned into a 3 centimeters new branch . The branches had figs all the way up, so I "couldn't" shorten the tree more than that.
I'll see this year if those small branches are able to produce brebas .

that's true... potted trees do fall down often unless the potting soil has some weight. even then with full top, they catch wind and fall often. i usually tie mine to rails.

as to branching, as long as you have 3 main branch off the trunk, that should be fine. i'll have to see how my trees work out this yr.

I checked online for the older fig photos to find out how they were pruned and found 2 I liked. One was from the Bill’s website and another from the Colombia Exotic Figs. They clearly were cut while young at 20-24” height.
The size/shape is quite manageable. So I think those examples + the Japanese style of Y-pruning give me an idea on what to do with my babies.

this is my VdB. i know it's still ugly, but the idea is to have two tier of branches. one low and one high. you can see that lower tier has 3 strong branches to have more branches at the end. the top is still forming what i would like to see. i'll be taking out the cuttings to balance it to go where there isn't branches under it. this still gives ok air circulations and sun penetration.