Spring has sprung here, and is springing elsewhere.  I keep my eye on the growth, and I do pinch all branches at 5 leaves.  Why would I do this?  Simple.  More branches = more figs.

It's early in the season.  Who should control fig production?  You?  or the tree?

Suzi

DesertDance the tree talks to the caretaker in various ways then the caretaker responds .

Martin, the tree talks to the caregiver, and it begs to be pinched.  It needs more branches to be loved. 

The Cherokee Nation has Spoken.

Suzi

i don't pinch unless there is a need... shaping or the trees not putting on the fig.

So, Pete, you just want a tree, and no fruit?  This amazes me.  I pinch for fruit.  The tree listens. 

Suzi

Hi Suzi,

Thanks for sharing.  Do you keep your figs in bush form?  When you pinch does the branch typically put out multiple branches or just 1 more?

Thanks,
Phil

suzi, i'm not really going for large number of figs. just enough to taste and enjoy for now is good. once the selection is made, and the trees are what i want them to look like, i'll be going for quantity.

suzi, please answer phil. i wanna know too.

Tough Love ey Suzi? LOL

Last year I pinched, I did have more fruit but I think it's because the tree was bigger in the first place.  I wasn't thrilled with the fruit production, plus it was later then the year before.

This year I will let the tree grow the way it did the first year, especially since it could go down to 30F tonight!!  I hope the trees new leaves budding out will survive - if not, Mother Nature pinched it for me ;)

It is funny but pinching works best for those that are the coldest and the warmest, for different reasons of course.  It does speed up and delay the harvest....it is funny if you think about it.  For me in Florida a lot of pinching pushes the main crop past our rainy season and produces more figs, a win win.  

pinching forces branching and fig. as to which one will show up, you'll have to wait and see. some trees once pinched will put on new branch right next to where you pinched. some will put on a branch couple of node below. figs will usually come also. I noticed, it's either fig or branch on a node, not both both.... but seen Kathleen's Black putting on both on a node.

Sorry I neglected this thread.  For some reason I didn't get emails with all these questions.

Once a tree gets the trunk I want, I pinch the top branches, if I'm going for a tree, not a bush, but many of mine are bushes and I don't care how many branches they have.  I pinch for fruit. 

Five leaves generally means there are plenty of nodes to produce fruit.  Sometimes I pinch at six.  There is no rule.

It really depends on the variety what happens when pinching.  Sometimes you get multiple fruit bearing branches.  VDB is famous for that.  Sometimes you just get 2 or 3 branches.  I then pinch those too eventually.

I treat my figs a lot like my grapevines.  I want one trunk on my vines to the first set of cordons (branches), but those things pop out new leaves everywhere, so I'm always rubbing them off where they shouldn't be, and with figs, I let the new suckers grow and bear, but I prune them off when dormant.

Aaron.  Tough love!  Yes!

Suzi

wills, bb on other hand is purely for eating. i'll be tipping/pruning/pinching this and next yr.

For those in the warmer zones BB or figs it is exactly the same technique.  I have already started pinching my figs, way too early for the BB.  More branches more nodes more leaves more energy to drive the plants growth.  

Hi DesertDance,
Winter does the pinching for me.
My growing season is shorter than yours. I'm lucky when the maincrop can ripe.
Last year, I pinched one tree because she was going straight and quickly to the sky - that would have been a problem with planes :P flying over my tree.
One thing is sure for me, hadn't I pinched - the winter would have done it. It seems that those high buds get more cold and die-back more easily .
There is a stem that I didn't pinch and the terminal bud is shriveled ...

Ok, now here is my concern : because I pinched and the stems could only make 2 cms laterals -because my season is shorter- I have so to say no brebas on those stems ...
But, if the maincrop get set sooner and ripe this year - I still could win .... Time will tell .

I'm just wondering if Pinching fig trees is used in commercial orchards?

Give them ether first to help with the pain.

See this: http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/video/titles/12151/do-plants-respond-to-pain

I know with the commercial blueberry fields here they don't pinch..just too labor intensive.  

Martin means 10 leaves, he says pairs of leaves. 5 x 2 = 10

I pinched at 5 leaves once and was very dissappointed with the result. 

There seems to always be some confusion about pinching, it can be used for both increased fig production (in warmer zones) and for earlier fig production (in colder zones), I posted this explanation in an earlier topic...
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=6822197
"Pinching is used in conjunction with rubbing out buds to slow vegetative growth and limit the length of a fruiting branch. The tree then puts its energy into the figs. Its basically rubbing out the apical buds.

Pinching also induces branching just below the pinched apical bud (which is why rubbing out is required along with pinching in colder zones) you can easily create new fruiting branches near the apex of a branch, by Simply pinching the apical bud and allowing the new buds that form to grow into new fruiting branches.

The # of leaves refers to two things, the # of figs that can be produce and the amount of time that has passed in the growing season. If you are looking for more figs and more fruiting branches, pinch early, less leaves, more fruiting branches will develop early, and if your season is long enough more figs will be produced on the newly formed fruiting branches. It takes approximately 4 months for new limbs to form and ripen figs, so you can easily calculate the best time for pinching.

BTW, Personally, I prefer Pruning to create main branches, scaffold branches and fruiting branches."

Part of the confusion is that many posts on pinching for colder zones usually leave out or do not explain the "rubbing out" of newly formed buds (shoots), as Martin instructed in his earlier post #21.

Good luck Suzi, your plants are still babies so it will not matter much and you can grow a less weedy structure next season if you want to.