several days ago I read few different threads with subject of Force Fruiting and Branching by pinching the tips of fig trees.
Here's what I decided to try on, my only in-ground trees...As you see, I did not cut the entire crown off of this year's branches. Just scraped off the terminal buds.
I'll keep updating as we go. 

Here they are, before pinching, all healthy and happy, but no fruit or seriously vigorous growth. All three have been planted same time, they are going into the 4th season now and NO FIGS yet!

Bellow Pictures are before pinching the tips. (from 03-27, 2014)
       

Update: Bellow pictures are after pinching on 04-22-2014
                Took these pictures today as update 04-28-2014

This year's branches are already showing signs of new growth terminals, in some cases (if you can see) there are double buds, probably a flower and bud. I might see some figs in future finally?

   

Aaron,

The pinching REALLY helps.......but they are pretty leggy, how much sun do they get there?

I hear you Will but look at the leaf distances, they are growing pretty dense at the tops. almost at a cm apart. The leaf growth distances were more before the plants reached the back wall hight (was only 4-6 hr of sun, because they were blocked from morning sun which is behind the wall)... but once they are as tall as the wall, they see sunlight all day long (8-10 hrs).

Your pix show a plant similar to DFIC 23.
If it is,then it will not keep fruits unless pollinated by fig wasp.

Herman, I don't see flower period! LOL 
Just leaves so far :(

I'm really glad you posted this Aaron. I had been considering pinching for quite some time but was scared to do it. Then I ended up with a whole back yard full of pom pom figs, some approaching 7 feet without branching. I went out and pinched the daylights out of all of them and I am seeing tons of new branches so today I was pinching new branches that were trying to run away.

I am really amazed the pinching works so well. I've done it to flowers forever but never before a tree.

@Tami, maybe you can cut those 7 footers to comfortable hight for you, then they will branch out anyway...? mine are 3-4 feet max, with new growth and all i don't want them to be higher than 5 feet, i'll always trim them to 4-5 feet max. You can't climb a fig tree anyway, they have very brittle branches. Unless they are 60+ years old, lol

Last year I did an air layer on a Sultane that got 7 feet tall. After removing the air layer it shot one branch out near the top and away it went. I will cut them all back to 5 feet when they go dormant but I think I will be doing some air layering this summer.

Now, if I could just grow a set and try grafting. I want to so bad but I'm terrified to try it for some bizarre reason.

You can Espalier the tall branches by bending them,...down, down, down...and let them grow horizontally :)
But if you are going to prune, do in at the end July. And , since it's a vigorous grower, trim it as low as 3-4 feet low.

There is no way I would cut them in July. With the heat already stressing them it may very well kill them. Not to mention I would lose all the crop. I'm going to wait until they are dormant if I still need to take anything off after the air layers.

pinching helps with forcing new branches and figs. but i'm rethinking when to pinch. if you are looking for good number of figs, pinch away. but after pinching some of the trees last time, i realized that my trees won't look like what i have imagined. i think if you are going to certain look to your trees, pinching at certain point after your trees have form the shape would be the best. i'm sure everyone knows this, i'm just not very smart and went pinching looking for figs. now i'll be more careful. 

@javajunkie :
It all depends on your goal.
Here with all the winter die-back, if I don't do it, the winter will pinch the stems for me.
I pinched end of july last year in an attempt to have the tree branch before the winter and have more brebas.
But the stems of the tree only made two or three one centimeter branches - so on those I don't have brebas this year. Now I'll see what the maincrop will be on those.
I pinched only the five higher/longer stems, so there are five shorter stems with brebas on that tree.

Now the five pinched are showing good branching ... So future will tell.
IMO, you can't stress a fig tree by pinching it - I'm writing about established fig trees and not about cuttings !

@bullet08 : Since you don't target brebas as myself, pinching now shouldn't be a problem, if you fertilize accordingly, I mean enough .
IMO, though, pinching would reduce even the maincrop size, as you're making the trees go a step backward by pinching.
I'm this year sort of running that test to see if it works well for me in my zone7.
I have my "dalmatie tree2" that grew last year up to 1.70 meters ( 6 feets ) and the terminal buds didn't go die-back - a little bit but they recovered-, so they would have grown first and the 3 stems would have gone to the moon with
no branching - at least to my experience.
That tree is young, as it was tared apart from my "dalmatie tree1" in September 2012 . So I decided to go shaping and branching.
I cut her three stems at roughly a meter, a bit less. She's branching with 4 buds to stems per old stems right now.
I'll see if I get any fig from that tree.

JD, the stressing in July was in reference to Aarons suggestion that pruning be done in July. I won't prune my trees unless they are dormant.

hard to right into words.. i should have let the branches grow little more, it would look more balanced instead of like a branch keep making for different direction. 1st yr is to have the height that i want. i'll pinch the terminal bud at the end of the season. 2nd yr is to get the branches where i want pinch at the end of season or when the branch is long enough. let some of the branches grow to give nice frame. 3rd yr will be when 2ndary branches will come off the primary branches and will have good number of figs. 

Tami, heat shouldn't stress the fig trees, you should see some fig trees grown in semi-desert areas of mediterranean..they are tough plants.
Almost any Fig Care guidelines you see is going to recumbent pruning in July...I don't know why, I am assuming after the fig harvest?
Also, when fig tree is prunes in July, it has time to shoot new growth for the next year's Breba crop, this is very important for figs that are Bifera.
Here's a perfect example bellow :)


Although Pinching and Pruning are two different Subjects, they can be alternated or use Pinching to prevent Pruning :)
I believe if the Pinching is done at the right time and at the right length of each branch there will be very minimal need for Pruning.
The Pruning can be use just to thin the unwanted branches that crowd the tree too much.
Pinching gives minimal if not Zero stress to the tree, it's an ideal way to control the hight and the shape of your Fig trees. 

Believe me, the sun in July and August does stress them but they aren't old trees either. There have been many threads on here about heat stressed trees. I read what you printed but consider this, seasons happen at different times around the world. Indeed, if I were to prune in July I would get no harvest as most of my figs don't ripen until August and some into October.

stress from sun and heat is real. during the summer, my trees will look stressed. leaves drooping, and drying out quickly. only way to fix that is giving water more than once a day. usually by night fall, with additional water, they will perk up again. best time to give water is in the morning and after my work. talking about which i need to set up drip line.. 

I know, right Pete? I keep thinking I'm going to set up a drip line then I start making a list of everything I need and say forget it!

I'm with javajunkie. Prune only when dormant. Now if you only get a breba crop, like desert king in cool climates, pruning after breba harvest might be recommended. I cant imagine pruning in July if harvest is july or later! Agree with aaron that pinching and pruning are very different.

I notices one thing between in-ground and pot growns in my backyard... in-grund growns have smaller, yet, thicker leaves where the in-pot grown ones have larger and very delicate leaves. Mostly because in-ground grown trees are under full sun and the potted freshly rooted ones are under tree partial shade...look at this pathetic little surviver...I finally stuck a piece of dry bamboo to remind me not to step on it.

 
This little one gets hardly any water from me...being isolated and so small it gets neglected all the time. I don't know how it survived . It was a left behind unwanted cutting that had T-shape, last year's wood attached to even older wood, total of 4 inches and it got buried under freshly applied wood chips and next thing I know it's growing.

It will probably end up being your favorite fig Aaron.

Aaron, your do's and don't' list looks like it was copied from my 12 page Belleclare Brochure that I posted here in January 2013. See link below

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/belleclare-brochurehandout-from-the-nursery-6189106?pid=1276757574#post1276757574

Tami,

Do you grow in pots?  If the plants are in the ground they love heat, more the better as long as the roots are kept cool and moist.  Mulch is the ticket and the hotter the climate the thicker.  Don't think of pinching as pruning.....think of it as making the plant bigger.  If you pinch you will get MORE fruit this year.  It is a real advantage to those of us in the warmer areas.  

Exactly Will...all but one tree of mine are in pots. Most in 5 gallon but 10 or so in really big ones.

Yeah I find pots in real hot weather a problem too.......