I thought I'd share this somewhat isolated but seemingly clear observation I've had on the effects of pruning. As most of you know, I sell a lot of cuttings as well as quite a few trees and for that I must prune my mother trees. I've trained my trees on a low wire after discussing this method with Ken Love in Hawaii who shared his observations from growers in Japan (commonly referred to by others as a "stepover" design, though I find it pretty hard to step over my trees during the growing season). This method requires a lot of pruning, essentially removing all growth down to the wire every year (though I've left some growth for breba fruit).

I have two Col de Dame Noir trees, both rooted in March 2013 and planted in my orchard in early 2014, I believe (my new orchard was started in August 2013 but I don't believe I started this third row that year but may have). In January 2016 when pruning for cuttings I had enough after pruning one tree and stopped with plans to come back later but work never slowed down and I never pruned the second tree this year. When picking fruit for my fig gathering on August 20th I had Gary P, Dan W, and Ross helping me and one of them asked me if I was sure both trees were Col de Dame Noir since one tree had a lot of ripe fruit on it and the other was obviously later. Yes, they were both Col de Dame Noir, the later tree was the one that was pruned. I've since noticed that I was getting some larger Col de Dame Noir fruit than I had in the past and have looked closer and noticed that the fruit size on the tree that wasn't pruned was larger than the one that was pruned. I still get some very large fruits on some varieties of trees that have been heavily pruned but maybe they would be even larger if not pruned.

Most of us don't want to climb ladders to pick our fruit so pruning will be necessary. Also, some of us with longer growing seasons might like the benefit of one heavily pruned tree producing more fruit later in the year. During the Sacramento CRFG scion exchange we had Ernesto Sandoval, Director of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, speak to us on the effects of hormones and plant growth and fruiting, etc. I don't recall all the details and it was a busy time, but I recall the changing concentration of hormones due to pruning which leads to increased growth. I'll follow-up with him to get his thoughts on this. I also recall an old radio show program (Dan Pratt, "The Garden Doctor") from 25 years ago or so where the host drilled into us that we should not prune off more than one third of our trees or bushes and maybe this might be a valid guideline when pruning figs.

The 1/3 removal when pruning is quite normal procedure on peaches plums and apples and grapes.
Something my grandfather taught me as a kid.
On figs I get the largest production leaving only 3 main trunks per tree.
When suckers grow from the base it slows down fruit production and size of fruit produced.
My best producers have been kept at 4-6 feet tall. I'm nearing 40 pounds
of picked figs this year. Less than half of my orchard was mature enough to
produce this. I'm going to be over run next year.
Not sure if I am even taking cuttings
until spring, not to give away, just that pruning in very early spring has shown best fruit size
and earlier fruit picking.

I have been picking figs since july 4th this year, nice long extended fruit season.

Just what I'm observing this year.

Doug

Just as a point of reference, my tree that wasn't pruned is approximately 10' tall, 12' wide within the row, and 8' wide towards the aisle.

Great post, thanks for sharing this information. I always have questions when it comes to pruning. Harvey do you have pictures or your orchard that you could share? I would love to see what a fig trained on low wires looks like.

Very informative post, Harvey. I have been reading about pruning. Since I only have a few larger trees, I want to prune for the most benefit in fruiting. Maybe i need to look at the options with regard to which trees have brebas? Thanks for the great info!

Nice espalier Harvey ! I thought about those for greenhouse growing.

Great looking espalier, Harvey! I had thought to try a espalier for my apples but had not thought about doing it with a fig. Unfortunately in my current grow zone, above ground fig wood rarely survives winter even with the best insulation I have attempted to provide, the rodents get into the insulation from below and girdle the trees. Your pictures, however, really make me want to try one anyway and see if I can figure out how to get the wood to survive from one year to the next....

Thanks,
T

Tony ,I use poison for mice it works,, put it next to trees when you cover them

Harvey, what zone are you in ? How do you protect your trees?
I just looked! You're in California, you don't need to cover!!! LUCKY YOU !!!

Harvey, I also noticed something that may by be related to your observation, I usually start two cuttings of a new plant when ready I will repot the better one and leave the second one in smaller pot , the bigger pot will grow more vegetation the smaller one will grow fruit and less vegetation. I think it's nature way to grow when it can or produce seeds to survive when it can't

Mario... I did exactly that and when I uncovered my figs, I found a stinky mess of mouse bodies and girdled stems... Don't know if I simply didn't use enough poison or since I live next to NYC reservoir property, there are just so many of the little buggers around... mice, voles, moles, chipmunks, everything burrows down and seem to find the protection afforded by the wrapped figs an attractive spot to den in. I have a friend in town, who buries his figs in the ground in a trench and he claims that the mice don't touch his figs over the winter and he gets most of his wood to survive by mulching his leaves over the trenches. I haven't tried that although I did try putting a large and tall shipping box around the fig and then filling the whole thing with dirt and then wrapping the box up as I would a fig with tar paper, etc. The net result of that attempt was that the stems up to about 8 inches survived and anything above that died back anyway. I did get an earlier start on the plant but still not anything like a thick caliper trunk at seasons end.

T