I know it's early to consider, but what should be done to young trees to encourage more fruits for next year? I read in an old thread that if you prune figs, you reduce the amount of fruit you will get the next season. This is contrary to most other types of fruits I have grown that thrive on pruning.

Older trees need to be kept in check, but with young fig trees, 1-2-3 years old, what's the best thing to do? Prune a little, prune a lot, or not at all?

Not considering fruiting, what do you do with trees that havent' grown much at all - leave them alone?

i wanna know too, please.

Gina, I am following the guidelines that were discussed on this thread:

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/pruning-and-training-figs-tree-or-bush-form-6388743

Another issue though is climate.  Since you are in California you will probably want your figs to grow as trees with a single trunk whereas I will want a large bush shape with  3-5 trunks.

That's a good thread, but my question was not about shaping or form, but rather how much to prune to get the most figs from my plants for next year. Does one prune a little or a lot. Or maybe none at all.

An experienced fig person here wrote in the past that someone had pruned too much from his trees, and that was why he didn't get many figs the following year. That peaked my interest since I had been planning to do some serious pruning this winter, but now I'm not so sure.

At to trees vs shrubs, to some extent, I think that's an individual matter. I don't particularly want large or tall trees - I'm more interested in ease of picking - and no ladders. :)

This may be helpful, pruning is a bit past halfway down.

http://gardenaginginplace.com/tag/tree-pruning/

Gina,
In answer to your question about pruning a young tree for production, the new plant should be trained to whatever your desired optimal shape, for the 1st and 2nd year, the training and pruning should be the primary emphasis, with fig production secondary. Also The answer is based on your desired final shape. The object is to create the greatest number of fruiting branches in the desired shape by pruning a little.

Figs are always produced at the leaf nodes on the new growth, never on old growth. Breba are the only exception, and they are produced on new growth that has gone dormant (over wintered, or "last year's wood") before producing this years main crop figs. They then become next year's breba crop. To get the greatest number of figs, requires pruning to get the greatest number of new leaf nodes and new branches...

Good Luck

[QUOTE]The training and pruning should be the primary emphasis, with fig production secondary.[/QUOTE]

Well, training is not my main emphasis - producing more figs faster is. Now of course one might lead to the other, but I'm not yet convinced. Hopefully some more experienced people will chime in with their experience.


[QUOTE]To get the greatest number of figs, requires pruning to get the greatest number of new leaf nodes and new branches...[/QUOTE]

That is what I too always used to believe ... until I read something an old-time fig person said. Wish I could find it. And now I am not so sure. It is definitely true for many other fruiting trees.

I could be wrong but I think if you prune each branch tip it will cause more branches to sprout resulting in more figs. That would be main crop figs then that will set the tree up for larger breba crop the following year. Maybe someone with more experience can tell if that is correct or not.

-depend on:

Weather, variety of the fig, microclimate (where the tree is, under other trees, protected from cold drafts, soggy or dry soil, nutrients in soil, mulching  etc...

there is no magic formula for production and each variety seems to have their own necessities.  Most literature from my county talks about 'forming' the tree in first 3 years.  ONLY then, you prune for production.  It is a learning curve for all of us. 

But if you have a Desert King, we kow, you don't prune it if you want to have any figs...

I would say if you only want the most figs, don't prune. then in spring, start pinching after enough new growth happens, and gauge how much time it will take for your figs to riprn. However, if you have mis-sharpen tree, like one of mine where it looks like a shape of a scare crow and all the branches and leaves are at its extremities, i would prune that way down to encourage more branching starting lower on the tree. I was wondering the same question for my 1st year desert king trees. The are already 8 ft and only one trunk, with slight branching near the top.

If you have desert king you need to shape the tree for better production otherwise you will end up with a bamboo tree.  I let mine grow the first year and pinched in fall, just the tips.  This year I should have pinched earlier as during several storms there were 1/2 inch branches that broke off from the base since they grew so fast, so I cut these branches off and the 6 feet that the others grew this year I cut back to 3 feet and they still grew another 4 feet, if they aren't pinched or pruned your production will be up tall and harder to reach, but I imagine after the first 2 seasons on shaping the tree will start to do the rest of the branching on its own and pruning after harvest will be the only thing needed to do for productivity.  Just my opinion.

I have to disagree with the comments about pruning a Desert King differently in the first 1-2 years. All fig trees can be pruned the same in the early years to establish a larger single or multiple main trunk and then the scaffold branches. The branches that form from the scaffold branches would be the ones that are pinched to initiate secondary fruiting branches.

My only thought for the desert king is that you may want to be more aggressive pruning or pinching desert king as the branches for me grew faster than any other variety and made them susceptible to breakage in storms, also they branch easily when pruned or pinched.

For my first year tree it only grew to about a foot and half tall on three branches for this I only pinched the tips.

[QUOTE=Tonycm]I could be wrong but I think if you prune each branch tip it will cause more branches to sprout resulting in more figs. That would be main crop figs then that will set the tree up for larger breba crop the following year. Maybe someone with more experience can tell if that is correct or not.[/QUOTE]

I think this is what I am leaning towards trying - not pruning much at all (unless something is obviously out of place) and mainly concentrating on removing branch tips. Come to think of it, I remember Jon saying something about removing the terminal bud and apical dominance - and when doing that is best to encourage branching vs just another terminal bud taking off. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly what he said.

As for form, it's obvious the trees have variable basic habit so I'll let them do what they do. They know what their genetic blueprint is, I'll let them follow it. If they were going to be ornamentals in the front of the house, I might think differently.

Again, the original question I asked was how to encourage fruit the first few years - not how to establish traditonal form. There are already many good threads about pruning, some linked previously.

edit: I just changed the title of the thread so my basic question is more clear. Sorry if I misled anyone. :)

[QUOTE=Gina]

That's a good thread, but my question was not about shaping or form, but rather how much to prune to get the most figs from my plants for next year.[/QUOTE]

I've been wondering the same thing.  I have an 18-month old bush with 25 'trunks' that are each 3-5' tall.  If the chosen goal is to maximize main crop fruit production next year (don't care about brebas or about stunting long-term production with this plant), what should I do? 

Like Gina, I'm already well aware of the 'just aim for shaping during the first 3 years' line of thinking and am not disputing or asking about that.  I am solely wondering how to maximize the main crop production of that bush plant for next season, as a 2yr old plant.  (I've got plenty of other fig plants, so it's no big deal to experiment with this one.)

To increase branches,

Pinching the apical tip produces branches at the end, just below the pinched tip.

Pruning the apical tip 6 or more inches produces branches along the entire branch, below the pruned tip.

Please post updates as to your final procedure for these plants. Thanks.
Good Luck,

Gina, the last part of your question was "what do you do with trees that havent' grown much at all - leave them alone? "

Make sure the plant is not root bound and the soil not compact but well draining. Generally it has been suggested by many in this forum to give a good dose of fertilizer in early spring and then late spring, keep the soil moist and keep it in good sunny spot i.e. pamper it well. This should make it go unless there is something inherently wrong such ass the plant root system either not taking in the nutrient and moisture or there is problem in the plant nutrient hydraulic uptake system.

We have noticed that when one roots a few cuttings some will grow faster than the other. A few time when a rooted plant will have horizontal growth and would not grow upward or growth stalled, I will cut a healthy branch to root or air-layer it and the new plant will grow much faster than the mother plant.

@ Gina -- Another method is to pull down a branch that is growing upright and make it grow horizontally. I tried it this summer on one tree. I wrapped twine around two branches and pulled them down and attached it to a brick. The two branches pulled down did not have their tips cut but still grew new branches off of the bent branch. ??Would it of grown those branches anyway?? Who knows but either way I am happy with the results. Next Spring I'll try it on a couple more of my other trees and see what happens. I should experiment by cutting the tip on one branch and leave another uncut like I did this year and see what happens.

[QUOTE=ascpete]Pinching the apical tip produces branches at the end, just below the pinched tip.

Pruning the apical tip 6 or more inches produces branches along the entire branch, below the pruned tip.
[/QUOTE]

That's an interesting distinction that I hadn't realized (i.e. the effects of pinching the tip versus pruning 6+ inches back), thanks for sharing :)

Now I just need to talk the branches into making fruit.  The plant currently has ~100' of trunks/branches but hasn't made its first figlet yet.  I got it as a 2" tall tc from wellspring about 18 months ago, so its lack of fruit isn't abnormal (folks in various threads here say it often takes 3+ years for those tc's to start producing).  It is planted in-ground and should already have access to decent nutrition, but would copius amounts of fertilizer perhaps help it to start fruiting at a young age?  I also wonder if it's not getting enough solar energy, since it's in a greenhouse covered by a double layer of plastic film, so the sunlight is getting diffused and partially blocked.