From my reading about "pinching" that it was designed to force fruiting in colder zones, say 6 and colder. Is that correct?

If that is the case, should it be modified for those of us in zone 7b? So with a slightly longer growing season should I pinch at 7-8 leaves? 8-10?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Well, our last home was in the flip flop melting hot low desert Southern California, and I pinched at 5 leaves.  From what I understand, pinching encourages branching and more fruit.  If you want less fruit in any climate, then don't pinch or pinch at more leaves.  Me, I like more fruit.  In zone 9b, I'll be pinching at 5 leaves UNLESS I want one branch to grow and form a nice trunk.

Suzi

Gene,

I pinch and I am in 9b...it promotes branching which leads to better structure and more fruit.  

I think I understand better now. So pinching at 5-6 it will be this year! I am looking forward to seeing how this affects fruit production.

what wills said. i pinch as needed. if the tree doesn't set figs, i pinch them. if the main trunk is too tall, i pinch them. if branch is not coming out, i pinch them. it's a nice tool. but most of the time.. pinching is not needed other than to shape the tree, if you are good at it. i suck. 

Hi Genedaniels,
Year 2013, I pinched my "big" "Unknown from the Italian"/ "ufti" fig tree on purpose, and here are my remarks :
Pinching allowed more fruit to ripen, BUT "only" because the season lasted until November . But this is unusual for my location.
We normally get a small frost the 15th of October, and we're done.

So ok what is terrible ? Well the following :
I pinched as of 1st august and the stems did not have the time to branch on year 2013. Some made one or two branch of one cm of length but this is all they did.
So now I'm a bit anxious, as for the brebas in 2014 ... Well I'll see ... But if I loose the brebas of this year, then it was just "move back, to better jump".
Well ok, if I had total die back in winter, still what is taken is taken ... Promises (of brebas) are promises ...
But who knows, that tree might well make brebas on those pinched stems - or make no brebas but make a better maincrop if the season allows for ...

So for me, still some testing to do.

That ufti tree made no edible fruit in 2012 due to the hard winter we had - and I was glad she survived as I lost 6 nearby trees from that strain to the winter ( -25°C ) .
In 2013, the spring never came, we went from Winter to Summer as of 1st of July . Before that the weather was a misery .
So I can't really blame the tree for the poor results - but that was my reason for pinching .

What is your experience with figs ? How many figs did you harvest so far ?
Have they been fruiting correctly without pinching ?

Your other option is to let the branch grow 6-12" longer than you want it and airlayer the extra.

When pinching new shoots will form in general area , here in our zone those are quickly rubbed off so plant can concentrate on
the pinched branch to set fruit otherwise its just more vegetation growth and slower production of fruit which may not ripen by seasons end on those newly emerging shoots.

Its a balance depending on how long ones season is.


PS: if its a white type fig plant pinch to near soil level and keep it that way .
Come to the darkside.

Another thing you can do to go along with the pinching is to remove some of the newer fruit and leaving the older to stay to mature and ripen better and quicker.

Example: If you have five figs on one branch remove the two newer ones. I have found this helps also.

Or you can go with the olive oil rubbed on the ostiole method to speed up the ripening process but you will/might compromise taste and quality over the natural way of ripening.

You options are endless.

Good luck

Well if you do the olive oil rub do so on the white types it may improve them !  ; )

I'm in zone 9b and I don't pinch.  I think it reduces fruit production.  Pinching makes sense if you are in a shorter growing season.  If you're in a longer growing season why kill the main bud on a branch tip?  The purpose of pinching is to force the plant to concentrate its energy on fruit production because vegetative growth has been stunted by killing the leaf bud.  But if you have a long season to work with let the bud grow because more leaves leads to more places for fruit to grow and ripen if your season is long enough.  Zone 7b is borderline and you would probably benefit from pinching if you do it about 3 months before your last fruit ripen.

Joe,

Look at it this way.......if you have a tree that has a single limb and you don't pinch it you still have a single limb.  If I pinch that bud the plant responds by making a minimum of two limbs.  If I let those grow out and pinch again I now have 4 limbs, pinch again 8 limbs and again 16 limbs.  I have many more leaves than you do and much more opportunity for fruit.  It is an age old technique.  We do it with our blueberries as well.  If you continue to pinch you will end up with 5X the blueberries you would have had if you did not pinch.  It is the same technique for figs, though not saying 5X :)

In a container they must be pinched trimmed what ever you want to call it or the tree will
eventually start its decline.

Root pruning is also done every so often along with canopy trim without canopy being trimmed
some figs will drop off.

This is for pot culture grown in normal container.

if you don't pinch/trim in container culture, you will end up with ugly trees like i do.

Gene,
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 bud.

Since pinching also induces branching just below the pinched apical bud, which is why rubbing out is required along with pinching, 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 enough if your season is long enough for figs to 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.

I grew a desert king last yr from cutting. I let it grow to about 7 ft, then pinched and it branched in 2 and grew even higher. Now it is just a tall Y and only 1 Breba for all that growth. I pinched the end parts of the y and now a sucker is growing from the base. Hoped for more brebas on this one. It's in a pot. If not a lot of figs, might need to do severe pruning. Perhaps I should have pinched earlier last yr.

On the flip side, I pinched a Conadria several times last yr and despite many branches, very few figs last yr.

Anyone have any good pinch pruning videos? I'm only seeing 1 crappy video on youtube

Hi Figfinatic,
Remove the suckers asap - unless you "need" it for making a new tree or give to someone.
Suckers do delay the ripening of the fruits - so if you're going to remove it, remove it asap ... or the general growth of the tree and the ripening of fruits will be delayed as root-suckers are closer to the resources .
Ok, and keep it in a pot in your leavingroom during the winter ... Why didn't I let it dry... whyyyyyyyyyyyyy ? Well, I'm too softy ... perhaps ... No, I'm trying a pot culture with those 3 root-suckers... At least I'm trying to convince myself that I will do !

@figfan203 : it all depends of your tree ... Any good photo of your tree :=)

I had a Sultane last year that went from cutting to over 6 feet. I air layered it to 5 feet and it shot one 1 branch and went up to over 6 feet again. How do I get it to shoot more than 1 branch at a time? At this point I'm afraid it's just going to be pinch shoot one more, pinch shoot 1 more.

i know there was a post about forcing either branch or the fruit on a tree depends on if you scrape above or below the node. can't remember the detail, but i did google for this sometime ago and it seems this same method is used by other fruit growers. 

my CdDB and CdDN were growing straight up. so i pinched it at the end of the season. it's little taller than what i want, but both of them have started branching out in multiple places.

edit: come to think of it so did all my older trees which i heavily pruned last fall. maybe it has something to do with timing? prune or pinch at the end of the season and let it go dormant. come spring with new growth, maybe it's will push out more vegetative growth? 

Tami,
Pruning 6" - 12" (several nodes) off the branch will remove all of the auxins that inhibit branching and will induce dormant buds along the entire branch.

Pinching leaves some auxins and induces branching only at the apex. Its possible to pinch and only get one or two new branches near the apex, depending on how much of the apical tip is removed / pinched and how fast the new bud gains apical dominance.

<edit> A trick to quickly get new buds (branches) along an entire branch is to prune and temporarily train the branch horizontal, new branches will form at almost every leaf node.

Thanks Pete.

pete s., how do you "train" the branch.. like in bonsai with wires? 

Gene,
This is the simplest diagram I've found for the pruning of blueberry bushes, its applicable to fig bushes also because figs are produced on current season's branches... http://ncblueberryjournal.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
  


Tami,
You're welcome.


Pete,
Tie a bamboo stake,as a stiffener to the upper 2/3 of the branch with regular plastic plant ties, then pull the branch down to the horizontal with a piece of twine or tie to a stake that is in the pot (vertical). Once the shoots have formed, remove the stake and return the branch to its original position.