Hello Folks,

I have an overgrown Brown Turkey in my front yard -- 15 feet or more high.  Most fruit is ripening out of reach and the tree is too large to cover.  Any advice on cutting back to a manageable size (6 to 8 feet)?  Do I just take it back on each limb as if I was pollarding the tree?  Do I remove inside branches that are growing up?  A combination?  Thanks.

Welcome to the forum!

I'd suggest doing searches, upper right of the page. Here is one quick blurb on heavy pruning, previously posted by Jon, the moderator of this forum.

You can prune to make the tree smaller (I shorten some of mine by 10 feet every season). You can prune to remove crossing/rubbing branches, open the center, etc. If you are ripening main crop figs, fell free to prune as much as you like. If you are relying on breba figs, pruning is more tricky. You might try pruning half the branches hard and leaving the others to fruit, and doing that on an alternating year cycle.


This link will provide more info as well: http://figs4fun.com/basics_Pruning.html

Also, go up to the control panel, and fill in your name, location, growing zone, etc. in the member profile, this really helps receiving answers from your neck of the woods.

welcome

You could prune back the branches to 2-3 nodes, remove any crossing branches, damaged/diseased or dead branches, you will not likely get a breba crop after these but you will get some strong growth from those nodes and essentially it is very similar to pollarding.  If possible don't let the inside be too crowed, removed branches that are reaching across to the other side etc, this will encourage more sun and air into the centre of your tree, try to make the pruning level even through the tree, ie. don't leave one branch 7 feet up and another 3 feet down all over the tree, to me it is not nice a couple branches is not a problem though.  That is my opinion for it.

What ever you decide...get yourself a good pruning saw!  A regular saw will stop cutting as soon as the teeth clog with sticky sawdust.  A good pruning saw is worth every penny that you spend.



Frank

What I found really works well on the thicker branches(2" and up) is a DeWalt Sawsall (battery powered)...saves a whole lot of wear and tear on the arm.

http://stevec.smugmug.com/Other/Kadota-Fig-Tree/18683631_LsJ2xq/1444845516_bJtssZw#!i=1698913823&k=4MCfwd3

This is a great example of what works for a forum member in California and also gives a good idea of what can be done.

and a set of high quality hand pruners. can't wrong with Felco. No association with felco, just been using them for 30 years.

try tieing a bamboo pole to some long ones and slow lower the tip into a horizontal position. Also, you can tie ropes to lower the branches and  prepare some airlayers on branches you will be removing, that way the new young tree will produce for you next year, while the big tree recovers, also, it is a good time to graft new varieties on branches you cut short.  Good luck.  I am doing the same with my large unknow. Several airlayers, several branches cut, and a couple tied to bamboo to lower the branches.

I use this one to prune branches up to 2" thick, very easy to cut.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SD74/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Chivas,

     Thanks for the great illustrated article by Steve, and thank Steve.

This channel has lots of pruning videos. This is just one of them. Check them out.