On the three most advanced in ground fig trees.
They have 5 leaves on some Branches ,so they were pinched today in order to produce early fruits that will ripe,in our short Summer here in New Jersey.
They are:
Malta Black,Longue D'Out,and Col de Dame Gris.
This trees are ahead because I protected them better with Dry leaves inside chicken wire circle.

Herman in addition to forcing fruit growth, do you find pinching produces side branches? Do you leave those or pinch them too?

This is the first year I have tried your system of pinching. I pinched an "Italian Black" when I bought it two weeks ago, and within days a doz or so little figs appeared:
 
I had a hard time getting the camera to focus o the little figs, so they are a little out of focus, but you can still see they have a dark spot where the eye is forming. I have never seen this before. Does anyone know what this is?

Yes pinching produces side branches too ,but if you do not want some of them in order to keep tree well aerated ,then you pinch the side branches you want out, as soon as possible.

This year of a lot of us have in-ground trees that in which the above ground wood is dead and there are new shoots coming up from the base of the trunk at ground level.  On one hand I would guess that it would be best to get 2-3 new trunks established before pinching (though it might be too late this season to get fruit).  On the other hand these are trees with an established root system so in theory they might be able to make a few fruits and push a substantial amount of new growth.  Anyone have any words on wisdom on whether it makes any sense to pinch new growth on "recovering" trees this season?

Steve:If the tree starts from soil level,you will have something like 10 -20 trunks growing at once.
If you live them all,they will grow slow and produce fruits late,and fruits will not ripe.
In that case we have to reduce to three trunks (as soon as they appear)and let The three trunks, grow and fruit as they please till August 1.
At that point we can pinch the tops,of trunks and take out the half grown young fruits.
This way we get about 2 to 3 dozen fruits that will ripe and a healthy strong tree for next year.

Herman,
if this is an established tree >10 years old would it benefit by leaving a few more spread out trunks so that the tree maintains a healthy growth cycle?

Herman, here are pics of my two in-ground trees: Kathleen's Black and Sicilian Red that had a lot of die-back.  With the KB I have two strong shoots coming from the base and two much younger shoots coming out from the ends of the two old (but alive) branches (mouse over to see the pic labels KB_1 and KB_2).  There were several smaller shoots just starting at several nodes along those old branches which I decided to break off.  This leaves me with 4 shoots for the KB so perhaps around the beginning of August I will pinch those.  Because this is is not an early variety I am assuming the fruits won't get ripe this year though.

The other two picks are of the Sicilian Red which had 4 nice trunks before the winter.  These died back to ~ 18 inch stubs.  There are 8-10 shoots coming out of the center of the these trunks and many green buds starting to leaf out on the trunks themselves.  Should I prune out the shoots in the middle and all but one bud on each of the older trunks to leave 4 new shoots?  Or should I choose 3 green shoots coming up from the center and eliminate the shoots on the old wood trunks?  The advantage with the latter approach is that the shoots in the center are larger.  The disadvantage I suppose is that the old trunks have energy reserves and it might make sense to have new growth coming out of them.

EDIT: because this post is a little off topic for this thread I decided to start a new thread with this post.  Please direct your comments on my question to the new thread - thanks!

Well Pino, in a cold climate like yours .tree needs all the sun exposure it can get, for fruits to ripe.
When more than three trunks are left,they shade one another,and the fruits takes longer to ripe.

How many trunks did you leave on the col de dama gris?  I have a noir in ground, but I protected poorly and it is almost dead to the ground.  Right now it is leaving only 1 shoot to come up but I suspect more will follow and I am thinking after this winter to take more of your approach especially since you have a col de dama in ground at your location.

Well,Col de dame Gris had one foot live trunks,so I left them all,5 or 6,because I intend to make about three layers,to sell on Ebay.
Once I sell the layers,only three will remain.
Of course I pinch them at fifth leaf,except for one leader,left to grow,and eliminate the buds pointing to interior of the bush.

Thank you for that herman, I am assuming then you only let the trunks get a couple feet tall in the growing season then prune back to about 1 foot in the fall before protecting?

It is up to you how tall you want to live them,i left my trees 3 foot in the Fall but this Winter killed,them to soil line ,most of them and a few had one foot left.
It all depended how good the WInter protection was.
As for how tall they will be this Fall,that depends on cultivar,how vigorous it is,some will grow 6 foot in a Summer some will only grow one foot.

That's a clever idea Herman!   Proves winter can be your friend too:)
When do you put them up for sale?

Usually in Oct,Nov,after leaf fall.

Herman, I have a question for you. I have a Texas Everbearing (or possibly Celeste) that died to the ground. It now has 5 new stalks coming up. I have pinched those at 6 leaves and am keeping any new shoots pinched off at the dirt. At each node they are developing new branches, but there is not a single baby fig in sight. Is this just because it is still too early or ???

BtW, the newly planted Italian Black I pinched two weeks ago has a baby fig at almost every node.

Brake off the new branches at the node,and fruits will grow.
At that node there are 2 buds ,one become new branch and one become fruit.
Some cultivars,will not form fruits at nodes when young,the most notorious for that is Alma.
So check with magnifying glass,for new fruit buds next to where the young branches come out.

vasile, glad to see you back in action. always like to read your posts. thanks for the knowledge.
                                                                         stay well, antonio

Thanks Antonio, Things look good for at least three of my trees,and by the way,both cuttings you gave me are alive ,they made it trough the Winter in ground,but of course they start from soil line.

Hello Vasile,
Here is an example of a tree of mine that survived the past winter and is now putting out lots of shoots. With what we were discussing on this thread, do you think that it would be best to only grow a few shoots and then pinch at 5 ?
Always enjoy and appreciate your expertise. I am also appreciating the many cuttings I have received from you and my RdB tree that is looking great
Coop

yes do that

Hi coop951,
Your tree was huge !
For now I would leave a stem every thirty centimeters - in case one breaks you'll have some backup solutions.
You have some stems that are grouped. I would remove some of them - except if you plan to sell those later on ...