Overgrown figs need special treatment

By Audrey Post
MS. GROW-IT-ALL

Last week’s column on pruning fig trees generated quite a bit of reader response and several more questions on the topic, attesting to the popularity of figs in the home landscape.

Q: I, too, need to prune my fig trees, but my tree already has buds on it. Can I still prune it now or should I wait until after the fruit makes?

A: If your fig tree already has buds on it, you might want to wait until fall to prune it. Although we’ve had several hard freezes, we’ve also had many very warm days and several readers report that their figs have already gone into bud. While the trees will re-sprout and likely bud again in summer if you prune now – the kinds of figs that grow in the Southeast fruit on new wood, unlike figs in California, which fruit on last year’s wood – your yield could be reduced.

Plus, the milky sap, or latex, has started to rise and the tree will likely “bleed.” You’ll have to take off this year’s growth as well as last year’s when you prune in November or December, but these are resilient trees and should recover.

Q: Our fig tree has gone untrimmed for about 20 years. We have had good crops every year. We do no fertilizing. Last year, we couldn’t reach about half the crop. Since I am only 6 feet tall and the fig is on a sharp slope, ladders don't work. We’re willing to do without figs this year if that’s what it takes to resurrect the tree and get fruit next year. Or are the birds destined to get the top of the crop?

A: You have options. You can shorten the tree over the next few years, you can do nothing and leave the top fruit to the birds, or you can bend the tall branches down to where you or a taller friend can reach the fruit. Fig branches will lean with a gentle tug, as the reader who sent in last week’s question noted, because the wood is soft.

Considering how long your tree has gone without pruning and how tall it has become, I suggest you pick a couple of really long main stems each year and prune them back to the point where a younger, thinner side shoot is growing toward the outside of the plant. You don’t want branches crossing back over the plant. Cut the main stem flush with the lower side branch; that side branch now becomes a main stem.

Pick about a third of the main stems to remove this year and repeat the process over the next two years. At the end of three years, you should have a fig tree that’s a manageable size. Annual pruning should keep it in bounds.

You can shorten an isolated stem that has shot up far beyond the rest of the branches by cutting it back to just above a bud or twig that is growing out from the branch.