Hello all,

I'm becoming a little bit of fig nut as i love the large leaves.  I already have a brown turkey fig and just bought a Desert King Fig which is basically a 3-4 ft long stick shooting straight up.  It has no branches at all and is currently starting to come out of dormancy.  My question is on what to do with it?  Should i just let this single stick grow longer or should i cut the top off now to encourage side branches?  I live in Vancouver Canada and am excited about getting the desert king as its supposed to have a ripe breba crop.  The fig will remain in a container.
 
Btw, the nursery also has a negronne and a lattarulla fig but from the research i've done those varieties are not reliable in our climate.  Are they worth a shot?

Thanks Again

If it was my plant I will cut it at about 1.5 ft height from the soil level so it can branch out. If you had asked this question around last fall, I would have suggested to air  layer it at that height. At spring time now I will just suggest truncating it around that height and use the cuttings to root more plants.
I was not happy when my plants in pots branching out at heights above 3ft. The winds will make it fall easily and fruits were higher for average height

Since you are confessing that you are becoming a fig nut, You can try Negronne and  lattarulla fig too. That will qualify you for a true fig nut. I have not heard any complaint about these two from fig friends in your are

thanks for the quick reply!!!

I've never done this before but will the tree automatically shoot side branches if i cut it now. I am not lying when i say its just a stick shooting 4 ft up in the air. lol  The fig is in a 1 gallon pot at the moment and im going to be transplanting it to a 4 gallon pot.

If it is alive it will branch out. For your satisfactionprun only after you seesome leaves on the stick if not already there. This way you will know it was alive before pruning.
What will it do without branching if it is alive!

You make very valid points!!! Is it okay to prune a young fig tree when it isnt fully dormant?  At the moment the little tree has a bud which is about to break open right at the tip.

I'm thinking of adding another fig tree to my collection.  Which would be a good recommendation aside for the desert king for PNW.

Thanks again

The attached file contains a picture of the tree that i just bought.  I may have underestimated its height and it looks more like 4 -5 foot long stick at the moment.  Should i go ahead with chopping it down to 3 ft or wait.  The terminal bud on this stick is starting to leaf out a bit.

Branching out point height is a personal choice. My preference would be maximum of 2 feet for fruit access and the pot not easily falling in the wind. You can try at 3ft if you wish. 

Cut it now so that new wood growth have chance to harden up before cold sets in by Oct.

Pinch growth tip every 5 or 6 leaves. If possible watch your fertiliser applications. Best not to have nodes more than 3" apart. The more truncate the branches are, the more figs you will end up. Sacrifice now for bigger production via truncation. Lots of reading materials in this forum and over at gardenweb figs. A 6ft to 7ft Desert King that is well truncate will give you over 200 good size yummie figs.

Negronne -- good productivity. Needs lots of heat to ripen. Without GH, you would be lucky to enjoy 5 figs.

Yes cut it now.  Take the part you cut off the top, cut it into 8 inch pieces, stick them in some pots and before you know it you'll have a couple more trees.

Also, what size pot is it in?  If you want it to grow well this summer it needs a large enough pot to support root growth.  If you need to put it in a larger pot, it is also better to do that now then after it has leafed out fully. 

Rob

I've repotted it yesterday and did cut it to about 1.5 ft.  I've repotted to a 8 gallon container so when do you think i'll have to repot it to a larger container.  Btw,  I dont know why i did root pruning for a 1 gallon container but at that moment i remembered something i read about taking out the large fat roots of figs.  I only pruned one large root and hopefully the poor thing survives.

Can i propagate the two cuttings i have now in water?  or by just sticking them in miracle grow potting soil and setting them outside be enough. This is vancouver so they will be getting a lot or rain for the next month or so.  Finally does anyone know how long it takes for desert king cuttings to propagate? 

Thanks again

Good for you for being brave and cutting it low! Desert King is one of the most vigorous, and grows mostly straight up even when it branches.


When I got my Desert King I was too chicken to prune it, and now all branches start at about 3 ft. In a few years it will be taller than I can reach, I'll have to do some major pruning to reshape it (i.e. start an air-layer as a back-up, then cut it off 1 ft of the ground)

If you are new to rooting directly into pots, best to wait till late May when weather warms up. At that time, you can stick cutting into container with bag over it. Leave it in partial sun and it should take. Water it lightly once in 2 or 3 weeks depending on soil dampness.

If you are planning to root now, best bet is to use spaghnum moss. There are lots of info on rooting using spaghnum moss in this forum. Temperature & humidity control are key issues and SM kept just lightly moist. I used a see thru container to root.