Pruning Fig Trees | How Much to Prune & How to Keep Them Small
- Ross the Fig BOSS
- Nov 11, 2022
- 12 min read
Updated: Dec 18
Pruning is a crucial aspect of caring for fig trees, yet it is often misunderstood, improperly executed, and daunting to new fig growers. To make matters worse, I’ve discovered that many growers unintentionally prevent their fig trees from fruiting from improper pruning.
This guide will cover the when, why, and how of pruning fig trees, clearing up misconceptions, while providing easy-to-understand, practical step-by-step advice for pruning fig trees so you can have the best fig tree possible.
Why Pruning Fig Trees is Important
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Common Misconceptions of Pruning Fig Trees
One significant misunderstanding is the necessity of annual pruning. Mature fig trees do not require pruning unless they are getting too big, are very old, or need a boost in vitality. Similarly, young or newly planted fig trees might struggle to grow and establish due to challenges like the fig mosaic virus. Pruning can help cure these issues.
Related: Rejuvenation Pruning Fig Trees to Eliminate Fig Mosaic Virus | Its History, Benefits & Uses
When to Prune Fig Trees
Prune fig trees during dormancy to enjoy your harvest, as figs develop during the growing season.
Dormancy typically occurs after several frosts or consistent cold temperatures. These conditions send a signal to fig trees to prepare for winter. In frost-free areas, you can manually defoliate the trees to mimic this natural process.
Dormancy also ensures that the tree’s sap, containing essential energy reserves, has returned to the roots, minimizing stress during pruning.
However, pruning fig trees during the growing season is not off-limits.
For those who grow fig trees in warmer climates, your tree may complete its fruiting and growing cycles early, making it possible for them to be pruned after the harvest is complete. A new flush of growth can follow, producing another set of main crop figs later in the season.
How Much to Prune Fig Trees
When pruning fig trees, the amount of pruning depends on your goals, the tree’s age, and its overall condition. First, define your purpose for pruning. Here's a handy chart for each goal:
Pruning for Maintenance:
If your goal is basic maintenance, keep pruning to a minimum. Remove only dead, damaged, or diseased branches, as well as any that are crossing or rubbing against each other. This helps improve airflow, reduces the risk of pests like borers and scale, and ensures the tree remains healthy.
How Much to Prune a Tall or Overgrown Fig Tree:
To manage the size of your fig tree, prune as much growth as needed to maintain your desired shape. Whatever amount you feel comfortable with. There's no right or wrong answer. However:
Avoid heading cuts that shorten the branches. This kind of pruning can lead to excessive growth and the formation of watershoots, making the tree more difficult to manage.
Instead, use thinning cuts by removing an entire branch flush with the growth below, leaving nothing behind to reduce the tree's size without stimulating excessive regrowth.
How Much to Prune Old Fig Trees:
Older trees that have become overgrown or unproductive may benefit from more aggressive pruning. In such cases, you can remove up to 50% to 100% of the tree’s growth, focusing on removing old, unproductive wood and encouraging the tree to produce fresh, vigorous shoots.
Even after severe pruning, an old fig tree should produce new healthy growth from below the soil.
Related: Revive an Unhealthy Fig Tree
How Much to Prune Young Trees:
Similar to older fig trees, young fig trees don't mind excessive pruning. More pruning can help:
Encourage new growth to finalize a young fig tree's structure.
Get it to a larger size more quickly. Heading branches back changes a fig tree's hormones to forgo fruiting in favor of growth. This method is even more effective than extra fertilizer, sunlight, or water, as long as the tree's basic needs are met.
Before planting fig trees in soil, one of the tricks I've learned is to prune them way back. This can encourage it to regrow healthy, fig mosaic virus-free, vigorous suckers that are vital for your fig tree's long-term health.
Related: Planting Fig Trees: A Masterclass
How Much to Prune Fig Trees in Pots:
Young potted fig trees don't need much pruning to start.
In the first year, use thinning cuts to remove excessive trunks. Sometimes young fig trees, when grown from tissue culture, grow in a wild and uncontrollable way, producing excessive amounts of suckers starting from the surface of the soil. Use thinning cuts to remove all of these. Keep 1-3 to remain as the permanent structure.
Then remove the highest growth tip(s) of your fig tree branches to encourage side branching at the desired height.
After the second year, limit the number of scaffolds. 5-8 is a good number to aim for. Make sure they're well-spaced and receiving equal amounts of sunlight.
Related: Complete Guide to Pruning Fig Trees in Containers | For Production, Earlier & High-Quality Fruits
Once your tree’s form is established and growth or fruiting slows, consider root pruning to revitalize your fig tree. You can also trim lateral branches by cutting off their tips or removing about 33% of the new growth each year. This will keep a fig tree growing in pots in good annual production.
Pruning Fig Trees for Better Production
Pruning your fig tree properly is essential for promoting healthy growth and abundant fruit production. Here’s what to do:
Avoid excessive pruning. Fig trees don't require annual pruning unless they are very old (30-50 years). Over-pruning can encourage more vegetative growth at the expense of fruiting.
Use thinning cuts rather than heading cuts.
Focus on removing suckers and water sprouts. These upright, vigorous shoots take energy away from fruit production. Remove them at the base.
Prune to maintain the desired size and shape. You can control the height by removing the tallest trunk or scaffold each year. This encourages new growth to replace it.
Keeping Your Fig Tree Small
Minimize the number of cuts, as excessive pruning often stimulates vigorous growth, often leading to an even larger tree the next season.
Use thinning cuts by removing entire branches at their lowest point instead of making heading cuts that shorten branches, leaving growth behind, therefore creating water shoots. For instance, removing 33-50% of the new 1-year-old wood can lead to 3–5 feet of new growth next season, while removing 50–90% will encourage even stronger growth the following season, potentially 7–10 feet in length. Whereas, if you leave the top 3rd of the growth intact, the growth the following season will only grow 1-3 feet in length.
Keep it Simple:
If you aim to keep your tree smaller, focus on removing a single trunk (for bush-form trees) or a scaffold branch (for tree-form structures) each year.
This recycling process helps maintain a consistent height and size.
With your eyes, follow the tallest portion of your tree back to its origin. At that location, make the cut flush with the lower growth, leaving no growth behind.
You can leave shorter branches behind. It's not required to remove an entire scaffold, let's say. You can simply trace back the tallest branches and cut at a lower point of your choosing. The key is to leave no buds behind that will create water shoots the following season.
Understanding a Fig Tree's Form: Bush vs. Tree
Bush Form: Typically, multiple trunks grow directly from the soil line. These trees are easier to maintain at 6–12 feet.
Tree Form: A single trunk supports scaffolds that start at 3–10 feet above the ground. These trees grow larger, up to 40–60 feet. The lower the scaffolds are, the shorter the inevitable height.
For backyard growers, a bush form is often more practical.
Fig “trees” naturally grow as a bush with many trunks originating from the soil. To convert a bush to a tree:
Select the healthiest trunk.
Remove all other trunks.
Top the selected trunk at a desired height (1.5–3 feet) to encourage scaffold formation.
Pruning for Structure
The goal of setting up the structure of any fig tree is to make sure the scaffolds and, in turn, the fruiting branches are well spaced for optimal sunlight exposure. This improves the tree’s productivity and overall health.
Key steps include:
Limit Scaffolds or Trunks: Maintain 5–8 scaffolds or trunks, eliminating the rest.
Not enough scaffolds or trunks? During dormancy, use heading cuts to stimulate the growth of new shoots.
For container-grown fig trees, structural pruning is limited to removing the apical bud (tip) during the growing season or dormancy.
Pro Tip: Removing the growth tip during the growing season encourages the formation of scaffolds one growing season earlier, leading to a higher quantity and quality of fruit production in the second growing season.
When it comes to setting up the long-term structure of a fig tree, staking will help you reach your goal better and faster than pruning can.
While pruning can help stimulate new growth in the area you'd like, staking branches can quickly guide existing growth to create the desired form. Staking is constantly overlooked as a better technique in a fig grower's arsenal. Check out the step-by-step guides for staking and training fig trees below:
How Pruning Affects Fig Tree Cold Tolerance
Many fig growers rely on hardy varieties like Hardy Chicago for winter survival. However, even the hardiest fig tree will suffer winter damage if it lacks proper lignification. In fact, a Hardy Chicago fig with poor lignification may sustain significant damage at 20-25°F, while a well-lignified tree of a less hardy variety may survive 0, 5, or 10°F.
Young potted fig trees or newly rooted fig trees are particularly susceptible.
Lignification helps trees withstand colder temperatures by reducing the water content in cells, making them less prone to freezing and bursting. Additionally, the increased lignin in cell walls provides structural reinforcement, preventing damage from ice formation and improving overall cold resistance.
Strategies to improve lignification and cold tolerance:
Too many heading cuts can cause fig trees to continue growing late into the season, preventing them from lignifying before dormancy.
Fig Trees suffering from winter damage also experience hormonal imbalances, delaying proper lignification.
Brown or grey-colored branches can withstand the cold better than green ones. This is how you know they’re lignified to the fullest extent.
Fig trees need to stop growing in the summer to lignify properly. The branches will not lignify much further once the leaves fall off and enter dormancy. Lignification will resume the following growing season.
Proper pruning and winter protection allow trees to lignify earlier, cease growth in summer, and become hardier over time. My recommendation: Provide winter protection for 1-3 growing seasons.
Pruning Fig Trees for Earlier Ripening
Someone asked me recently:
Q: “What fig variety do you recommend for zone 6? My Hardy Chicago tree is 1 year old and has lots of unripe fruit in November. I need some that ripen earlier.”
A: Considering Hardy Chicago is a fig variety known to ripen its figs early, it’s clear that choosing a different fig variety is not the answer.
Related: Early Ripening Fig Varieties
Instead, the key factors to consider are how much direct sunlight your tree gets, its age, and your winter care and pruning approach.
Like the lignification lessons, pruning can also affect when your figs ripen. Generally, less pruning or winter damage translates to earlier ripening figs.
If the cold during the winter kills your fig tree to the ground, the main crop could be delayed up to 2 months.
If you prune it back 33-90%, expect a 2-6 week delay.
If your goal is to ripen figs earlier, preserving ALL of the growth from the previous year is crucial. However, removing just the apical bud can be an advantage by forcing branching and maximizing sunlight in a given area, therefore increasing production.
Depending on your fig variety, location, and environmental conditions, this is the most common reason why some fig trees don't produce any figs. It’s also very common to see them grow well into the fall, not lignify properly, get damaged by the cold, and then not fruit again the following year, creating a vicious cycle of huge and unproductive fig trees.
Pruning Fig Trees for Later Ripening & Extending Your Harvest
Keeping with the pruning theme, you guessed it, pruning highly influences the extension of your harvest.
Remember, removing 50% of a fig tree’s growth from the prior year can delay the main crop the following year. So even if you had only two trees of the same fig variety, pruning each tree differently can extend your harvest. And don’t forget, pruning this much will result in continuous growth into the fall. The more growth, the more potential for an extended harvest.
Keep in mind:
Each fig variety can handle a bit more pruning than others. Some fig varieties don’t like much pruning at all. Meaning, they won’t fruit the following growing season if you head the branches back by 33 or 50%.
Others will still reliably fruit even if last year’s growth is pruned back by 90%, which is frequently seen in low-cordon training systems.
What’s certain is that fig trees do not require annual pruning to remain productive. Only if your tree is very old and needs revitalizing.
There’s also something to be said about a tree’s base. What I mean is, that fig trees with a structure of growth (trunks, scaffolds & laterals) that’s at least 2 years old can handle more excessive pruning to remain in a mode of reliable fruiting. That’s because the balance of hormones remains at a sufficient level within those trees.
As you can see, pruning has a lot of nuance. Isn’t that also true for most things in life? Sure, I covered hard and fast rules for the beginner, but look at all of the applications mentioned in this article. This is a great example of how a fig tree’s complexity can get you hooked for life.
Pruning Fig Trees for the Breba Crop
The breba crop is often overlooked. Why? The breba crop ripens on last year’s growth; not every variety produces it, and it ripens 30-45 days earlier than the main crop.
If extending your harvest is your goal, no doubt the breba crop must be a part of your strategy, especially including varieties that produce them at different times. It’s also important to consider late-ripening main crop varieties. Before we get into pruning, here’s a handy chart on when fig varieties ripen in Philadelphia to help you understand how choosing fig varieties can extend your harvest.
July 1st - Early breba: Brianzolo Rosso
July 10th - Mid-season breba: Longue d’Aout
July 20th - Late breba: Sefrawi
August 1st - Early main: Ronde de Bordeaux
August 15th - Mid-season main: Smith
September 1st - Late main: Adriatic
September 15th - Very late main: Hivernenca
Pruning fig trees for their breba crop production is just as simple as pruning fig trees for managing their size. However, instead of pruning entire scaffolds or trunks, keep them. They’re permanent. Instead, make flush thinning cuts every 2-3 years to remove 2-3 year old wood, recycling the new and old growth and promoting continual breba production.
To Pollard or Not to Pollard: Understanding This Aggressive Pruning Method
Pollarding is a pruning technique where a grower draws an "imaginary line" at a specific height—such as the waist or chest—and removes all growth above that line. While it is a common sight in some orchards, it is a controversial method that comes with significant trade-offs for the average home grower.
The Pros: Why Consider Pollarding?
Pollarding is primarily used to drastically reduce the height of a tree, making the fruit easier to reach. It is often favored by commercial growers or those looking for a "lazy" approach to maintenance. For growers with very long seasons, pollarding can lead to a longer harvest window while producing fruit that is generally larger in size.
The Cons: The Risks to Your Harvest
Despite the convenience of a shorter tree, pollarding triggers a survival response in fig trees that can ruin a season’s crop:
Explosive Growth: After a heavy pollard, a tree will often favor vegetative growth over fruit production, easily growing 7 to 10 feet in a single season.
Delayed Ripening: Fruit on pollarded trees typically ripens about a month later than usual. In cold or short-season climates, this often means the fruit won't ripen before the first frost.
Loss of the Breba Crop: Because pollarding removes the previous year's wood, you lose the "breba" crop—the early fruit that ripens 30 to 45 days before the main crop.
The Maintenance Trap: Once you start pollarding, you must do it every year. If you skip a year, the tree will quickly become an unmanageable "beast."
