Good evening, 

I have a question about pinching. I've done some research on this forum and the web regarding pinching. Attached are photos of my Kadota and each branch only has about 4 leaves attached to them with about 15 or so figs total on the tree. Would pinching each branch encourage the tree to spread more leaves? I know that it would encourage the figs it has to ripen and produce more. I also read on this forum that you should pinch when there is about six leaves on the branch. What exactly should I do? Would it be bad to pinch with only four leaves on a branch? And how exactly would I encourage more leaf growth? Especially with the branches that are bare. (if there is anything I can do of course).

Thanks, 
Mike

Some trees do not need pinching.
If a tree puts on a few leaves and sets fruit then there is no need to pinch.
some will naturally do that
some are naturally inclined to put on a lot of green growth before setting fruit.
those are the ones you want to pinch.
pinching is done to encourage the tree to set fruit.
if it does it without pinching, no need to pinch.

pinching also encourages branching.
might not have much of an effect on your tree now, since green vegetative growth tends to slow down when there are figs on the tree.

Looks great Mike! I'm with Grant on this one. Your tree has set fruit and as long as you have 90 or so days to ripen most should be fine. Consider air layering a few branches too, you could have several fruiting trees next year and can encourage more branching earlier. I'm still pinching to encourage lateral growth and fruit set on my pokey trees. Good luck and post photos of them babies ripened up.

I wonder who recommended Kadota for zone 5,because it does not ripe properly in my 6B zone!.

Thanks Vince and Grant for the information! I appreciate all the help I can get! and Herman2 the Kadota was one of the trees I found at a local nursery. I will hopefully be moving to warmer climates in the future so if it doesn't ripen here then hopefully it will ripen in that zone! 

Thanks, 
Mike