About 7 weeks ago I saw a thread from last year in which Ottawan mentioned notching a tree trunk above a dormant node in order to encourage that node to sprout a branch.

Several of my young trees need lower branches, and since pinching the top doesn't help with this problem, I decided to try some notching. Well...it works and it is an absolutely fabulous technique. I tried 4 notches and had a 50% success rate. I was too timid, now wish I had done several more. Next year I'll be much more aggressive.

Following are a notched node, then a close-up, then another notched node.

               

Thanks very much to Ottawan for bringing this technique to my attention.
 

I am going to have to try that. Did you do it over winter?

No, I did it on July 7th. I think the tree should be out of dormancy and growing well when it is notched.

Thanks for the info. Just got a Marseilles that is 5-6 tall, can't wait to try this next year.

need to give this a shot. my Paradiso Gene looks like flag pole with few branches on top. sort of like broom standing upside down.

The knife comes out this week! Too many palm tree wannabes.

Bobby, look closely at the pictures and you'll see the notches. Figure out where you want a new branch (in terms of height from the base of the tree), then find the closest dormant bud that faces the direction you want the branch to grow. I made the notches 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the selected node.

I used a rat tail file, as instructed in the links provided in Ottawan's post of April, 2012.

See post #5 in this thread:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/How-to-encourage-fig-tree-to-grow-stems-5817030?highlight=notching

Greetings

Interesting tip here for sure. Do we think there is still time left in the growing season to give this a go this weekend? Plenty of growing days left until frost. Thoughts?

I'm going for it. Can't do any worse than leave a scar, if it fails to work.

John, will you update when you see some progress? Thanks