Fruit Trees

August 2010

We have a 15 foot tall by 18 foot wide fig tree. It's produced a marvelous amount of figs this year, but needs to be trimmed back. It's still producing a few small figs. Any suggestions about how much to cut them back and when? We, the birds, and raccoons love it.

Figs bear their fruit on the current season growth. The best time to prune them is right before they start growing in the spring. Figs used to suffer winter damage, and many years were frozen back by one half or more. That hasn’t been the case in the past ten years or so, and now the figs are becoming trees, instead of bushes, but we still want them to get through the winter before pruning. Pruning can be done if they are intruding into other areas, but if there is room for the large size I recommend leaving them tall. Let the top figs go for the birds and you can harvest the lower section.

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