hi everyone!
hope everyone is well and that folks are ok from all the natural disasters lately!

i'm in zone 7 and was wondering when we need to start taking figs off young plants/etc?  not sure if they'll be ripe before the leaves will fall off?  usually only gets cold here in late october but some of my fig trees have yellowing leaves already.

thanks as always!:)
eun

Eun,

My trees are kept in a similar zone as yours (Z6), so I might be able to help you. You want to start pinching every 5th leaf on each branch and sever the apical bud (on all the branches). Usually by end on July or 1st week of Aug. Doing so, your figs will ripe on time.
Also, all the small figs that you know they will not ripe, should be removed as well.

Attached is a picture taken from one of my late ripening cultivator. As you see, all the leaves has been removed and the apical bud has been cut off (there is new shot/branch forming, please ignore that).


Good luck.

i keep my potted trees oustide until night time temps drop below 35ºF outside and my trees have entered dormancy (the two aren't mutually exclusive)

navid - at this stage now in September we should pinch again all tips and remove all leafs leaving only fruits on?

Don't remove all the leaves, only 20% or so.  Otherwise the tree will use energy to ripen the figs, and without leaves the energy cannot be replaced to the tree.

I've been removing pea sized figs since mid August, and pinching a few of the branches.

I have read about pinching, but I don't think I have seen it mentioned before to remove leaves to help ripen fruit. I have a good sized inground tree it only put on 4 figs. They have not done much. The tree however is growing like crazy and has tons of leaves. I did pinch. Should I remove leaves?

Eli- now, you should pinch off the apical buds (terminal buds), doing so tree will put its energy in ripening the fruits vs. putting on vegetative growth. Also, pinch off every 5th leaf on a branch (VS's technique). Don't remove all the leaves at this time.
However, I do things differently with each one of my trees. On some I remove up to %90 of the leaves, on others only every 5th leaf. It just depends how late that/those cultivators are in my climate. Have never lost a tree doing so.

Here are two pics. taken from my Conadria. As you see, in one I did remove all the leaves from the tree (few weeks ago) and left only %10 of the leaves on the tree. All of its figs ripened and consumed. Second pic taken this morning, you can see that it has put on new leaves. Those new leaves will not be removed, hence no figs left unripe.


Navid.

thank you navid

Eli- you are correct. You can pinch off the tips now to harden the green/softwood. Also, I fertilize my trees (the ones with lots of green woods) with Dyna gro tek 0-0-3 around the second week of Aug. It also helps with hardening off the soft/greenwoods.


Navid.

Thanks everyone!  That is very helpful!