I know this has been covered on the forum somewhere but I couldn't find it.  I have several interesting varieties that I started from cuttings late winter of 2013.  Some of these are getting decent size now, for example Atreano, and over the past week or so I have started to pinch these larger ones. 

Others haven't grown so fast and I have been cautious to pinch them this year.  For example I decided that Black Madeira and Figo Preto should put on more foliage before I pinch them.  Even so Figo Preto is starting to reveal a few tiny figs and B.M. is probably not far behind. 

Then there are a couple that are somewhere in between such as the Col de Dame Blanc shown below.  This one was a bit taller last Fall but it was a whip and I removed the upper 8 inches or so.  It is branching out nicely now but its overall height is only about 24 inches.  So should I pinch this one or wait one more year? I was really hoping to get some fruit from it this year but on the long run am I better off waiting?  What do you all think about the appropriate age/size before a fig tree should be pinched?

Some people say to wait until the second year, but from what I could find that was based on strictly opinion. So I decided to try pinching from the very get go. I am pinching everything once it hits either 5 or 6 leaves. On my young cuttings I am not so much looking for fruit as I am looking for early branching so I can grow my figs as bushes.

Steve,
IMO, pinching should only be performed after the scaffold branches have been formed (trained and pruned) , and only on the fruiting branches, in the 2nd to 3rd season for colder zones.
Fig trees can be shaped to a Tree or Bush form much easier by pruning instead of pinching.

If my newly rooted plant shows no tendency of branching when it reaches 15~18 inches, I pinch the top bud or two. If it sprouts again at the top & no side shoot, I pinch that new sprout at the top.

However, different people have different experience and plans for their plant so it varies.

I should have specified that at this time my purpose for pinching the CdDB is to produce fruit.  So when I asked the question I was thinking more about pinching for producing fruit rather than to shape the tree (though I will need to do some of this too).  Pete, you are probably correct that I should wait for one more year so that I can really establish those fruiting branches.  Dang, I was hoping to taste one of those figs though!

Steve,
You can still let the tree produce a few figs for tasting without pinching while establishing the main trunk since the figs are produced at the leaf nodes, though most of the formed figs should be pinched to allow for vegetative growth.
 

I've been able to "taste" dozens of different cultivars in their 1st year, by using this simple training / pruning procedure.

Pete, I too was able to taste one or two figs (that I let mature) on some of my first year figs last year.  However, there are a few varieties that didn't fruit in their 1st year and so far haven't developed an figlets in their 2nd year.  They probably could use some encouragement in the form of pinching - the CdDB is one of these.  It is a late variety so if I don't see figs developing soon I assume I won't be tasting this variety this year.  Atreano is another that wasn't setting on any figs in its 2nd year but after pinching it seems to be developing figs now.

Is there a "how to pinch" video on the forum? If not, maybe a diagram of how to do it.
I really want to try it soon.
Thanks,
Marion

I'm in the same predicament. So far this years new wood is only 8" or so but has already produces 5-6 leaves per branch. I want fruit, but I also want more vegetative growth so that in the future, I will have larger yields. I think I'm going to hold off on pinching, and concentrate more on shaping this year. I know I'll still get figs, and if I approach August and the figs appear to be behind on ripening, I'll pinch at that time.

Marion, here is a very long thread on pinching - your question should be answered here:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0611441718628.html?85

I pinch right from the start when the plant hits a foot tall or so.....the resulting branches mean more leaves and more leaves = more energy to the plant and faster growth as well as more fruit but the fruit is not my goal the first year.  

Like Akram said, I like to let the plant get around 1-2 feet before pinching the terminal bud on a young tree in pots (assuming there is no other branching), this is so I can develop the scaffold branches then as ascpete said once I have scaffold branches established around the 3rd year for me, that is when I will do pinching, sometimes it can be done the second year but when I have been forcing fruit from first year plants sometimes I get poor quality fruit that easily sour or fall off.  Most of my trees this year I think I will only letting them grow and no so much pinching just to get branches what I want rather than fruit production, and some of this is because I will have to root prune next spring and I want to try and maximize next years crop after the root pruning and branch pruning.

I recently pinched a col de dama noir because I want to make it an open vase style tree in pot there are leaf buds starting to go open but I can tell they all want to go straight up so I will be tying some down for sure to get my scaffold branches set, once those scaffold branches develop I will let the next branches go out like the diagrams Ascpete has put up many times from the japanese.  I think if I can train the trees like this, minor pruning every year will keep me with moderately vigorous new growth that is even and productive and only do the pinching on the branches when I want to force vegetative growth to stop and figs to form.  This will all depend on how the figs are developing so we will see how it turns out, but I have high hopes for it to work well as it has worked well with other types of fruit trees.