Should You Remove Fig Leaves to Ripen Figs? The Fig Leaf Removal Debate, Answered
“Should I pull off the leaves so my figs ripen faster?” Probably not. And if it does help, the improvement is very minimal.
In the world of fig cultivation, there is a fine line between horticultural science and persistent garden myths. I'm Ross, the "Fig Boss," and I've dedicated my life to this amazing fruit since 2014, trialing hundreds of fig varieties here in the Philadelphia area. Every year, especially as the season winds down and the trees are still loaded with green figs, I get these questions a lot:
1. Should I remove the lower leaves to help the fruits ripen?
2. When is it ok to remove the fruits?
Below, I'll explain why stripping leaves doesn't “push” energy into your figs, the few real reasons you might still remove some leaves (a little more sun on the fruit, the way Japanese espalier growers manage their trees for fruit quality, disease, and harvesting the leaves for tea and syrup), and why removing fruit, not leaves, is often the better move.
Does Removing Fig Leaves Help Figs Ripen? The Myth of “Pushing Energy”
No. Removing leaves doesn't force or push energy into your figs. It reduces the amount of energy the tree can make.
Leaves Are the Engine
Leaves are the primary site of photosynthesis. They aren't “draining” the plant; they're the power plants producing the carbohydrates (energy) the tree needs to grow wood and ripen fruit.
The leaves generate energy. Removing them means less energy to put toward growth.
When you remove a healthy leaf, you aren't rerouting a fixed stream of energy; you're simply reducing the plant's total power supply. If there is any “energy diversion” at all, it's marginal, temporary, and usually outweighed by the loss of photosynthetic capacity. That's the same reason fig rust slows a tree down: when a tree loses its leaves, it has less carbohydrate production for everything else, fruit included.
Why It Seems to Work
Figs don't ripen at a steady pace. A fig forms, swells, then sits at the same size for what feels like forever before it swells again and finally colors up and softens, sometimes almost overnight. Pull some leaves during that stagnant stretch, and when the fig finally ripens, it's easy to give the leaf removal the credit.
What actually controls the speed is warmth. Soil temperature regulates a fig tree's metabolism, and I want it as close to 78°F as possible. Late in the season, when the sun is lower, the days are shorter, and the nights drop into the 50s and 40s, ripening slows down, leaves or no leaves. I explain the whole process in why your figs aren't ripening.
When Removing Fig Leaves Actually Makes Sense
If leaves provide the energy, why would anyone remove them? It doesn't push energy, but there are specific, practical reasons to thin out some foliage.
1. A Little More Sun on the Fruit
Brix and color: Direct sunlight on the fruit itself can minimally increase the Brix (sugar content) and improve the skin color. The sun's warmth on the fruit helps it reach peak maturity, even if the leaves are the ones doing the heavy lifting for sugar production.
Ripening speed: Increased light and airflow around the fruit can speed up the ripening process by a day or two, a small but sometimes helpful gain at the end of the season.
If you want to try it, be selective. Remove only the leaf or two that's directly shading a fig that's already close to ripe, and do it late in the season. Never strip the tree. The tree needs its leaves early on to fruit and to produce high-quality figs, and those same leaves are feeding every other fig on the branch.
The far better way to get more light on your figs is to get it from the start: plant in the sunniest spot you have, then use pruning and thinning to open up the canopy so light reaches the center of the tree. That improves fruit set, not just ripening. More in maximizing sunlight to form more figs.
2. Japanese Espalier Growers Do It for Fruit Quality
Here's where leaf removal has a real following. In Japan, fig growers train trees using methods like the “Japanese espalier” or low cordons: low, horizontal arms with fruiting shoots spaced out along them. As the new growth gets tall, it can shade the fruits closer to the ground trying to ripen. Removing lower leaves can increase their sunlight and brix score.
When you're growing figs to sell, the quality of each individual fig is the product, so small gains are worth the labor. In a backyard tree with a dense canopy, I don't think it's worth it. In colder zones, these low, horizontal forms have another big advantage: they're much easier to cover for winter, as I explain in my guide to fig trees in Zones 5, 6, and 7.
If you want to train your own tree toward a more open form, start with training fig trees and shaping fig trees.
3. Airflow and Disease Prevention
Disease prevention: In humid climates like South Louisiana, air circulation is vital. Lower leaves are the first to contract fig rust or other fungal issues. Removing the bottom foliage can keep the canopy dry and healthy. Remove and dispose of infected leaves rather than leaving them under the tree. Here's how to recognize and treat fig rust, and my full guide to fig tree pests and diseases.
4. The Tree Is Already Dropping Them
Shade rejection: Often, a tree will naturally reject its own lower leaves if they're so heavily shaded that they cost more energy to maintain than they produce. Heavily shaded leaves turn yellow and fall. Manual removal simply speeds up that natural process. If the yellowing isn't from shade, check what's causing your yellowing fig leaves before you start pulling.
5. Forcing Dormancy in Frost-Free Climates
Fig trees don't technically require chill hours, but dormancy gives them a real rest. In frost-free areas, where the trees never get that signal, you can induce a “quasi-dormancy” by manually removing the leaves, reducing water, and pruning during the coldest part of the year. This is the one case where removing all of the leaves is the point. More in my fig tree care checklist and pruning fig trees.
6. Harvesting Fig Leaves for Tea, Syrup, and More
The best reason to pick fig leaves? To use them. Fig leaves make one of the most underrated herbal teas out there, often described as coconut and almond, and you can turn that tea into a fig leaf syrup for cocktails or fig leaf ice cream. Anything you can do with a grape leaf, you can do with a fig leaf.
Timing matters for the tree here too. You can harvest leaves any time, but wait until later in the year, because the tree needs them early on to fruit and to produce high-quality figs. By then, the tree has done most of its work, and you're putting leaves to use that would fall with the first frost anyway. Pick the cleanest ones, wear long sleeves and gloves (fig sap can burn your skin), and you're probably not going to hurt your tree.
My exact ratios, the drying methods, and recipes for the hard green figs you couldn't ripen are all in Don't Waste Unripe Figs or Fig Leaves: Fig Leaf Tea, Syrup & Green Fig Preserves. I brew mine in a tea kettle with a built-in infuser.
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Every variety's leaves taste a little different. If you want leaves from the varieties my friend Ale and I tasted, I sell Grise de St. Jean (Loretta) fig trees and Marseillaise fig trees.
The Energy Budget: Why You Should Remove Fruit Instead
While removing leaves is generally a bad idea, removing the fruit is often the best thing you can do for a young or struggling tree.
Think of your tree's health as a simple equation:
Energy balance = (number of leaves × leaf size) − number of fruits
The Energy Deficit
Every fig on a tree is a “subtraction” of energy. If a tree has twenty figs but only a few small leaves, it's running an energy deficit. This leads to stunted growth, where the tree stops putting out new leaves because all its resources are being funneled into seeds and fruit pulp. It's also the same balance that decides fig size: maximize the leaf area and reduce the number of figs, and the figs that remain will usually grow larger.
When to Remove Figs
I suggest removing fruit in these scenarios:
Newly planted trees: The main goal for an in-ground tree in its first year is establishment. Removing fruit allows the tree to focus entirely on root development and structural growth. More in my fig tree planting masterclass.
Stunted growth: If a tree is healthy but simply won't grow (short node spacing), it's likely overloaded with fruit.
How to Thin the Crop
If you find your tree in an energy deficit, don't wait.
Catch them early: Remove the fruit when they're still “buds” or pea-sized.
The 1/3 rule: If a young tree is struggling, reduce the fruit load by at least one-third.
Reassess: Wait two weeks. If the tree hasn't resumed active growth at the tips, remove more fruit.
