Pruning Fig Trees | How Much & Keeping Them Small
Updated: Dec 12
Pruning is a crucial aspect of fig tree care, yet it is often misunderstood and improperly executed. As an educator of fig trees, I frequently encounter questions about pruning and its impact. Over the years, I’ve discovered that many growers unintentionally prevent their fig trees from fruiting. If your fig tree is lush, healthy, and soaking up plenty of sunlight but still isn’t producing fruit, the culprit is almost always improper pruning.
This guide aims to clear up misconceptions and provide practical advice for pruning fig trees to encourage healthy growth, fruiting, and manageability.
Why Pruning Matters
Pruning affects several key aspects of fig tree health and productivity:
Encouraging Growth: Proper pruning can stimulate new growth.
Improving Fruiting: It can promote earlier fruiting or extend the harvest season.
Size Management: Pruning can keep the tree at a manageable size, making maintenance and harvesting easier.
Misguided pruning can have the opposite effect, leading to poor fruiting and excessive growth.
This guide will cover the when, why, and how of pruning fig trees.
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Common Misconceptions
One significant misunderstanding is the necessity of annual pruning. Mature fig trees generally require little to no pruning unless they are getting too big or are very old (30–50 years) and need rejuvenation. Similarly, young or newly planted trees might struggle to grow well due to challenges like the fig mosaic virus, not necessarily because of pruning issues.
Related: Rejuvenation Pruning Fig Trees to Eliminate Fig Mosaic Virus | Its History, Benefits & Uses
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.
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.
Pruning for Size Control:
To control the size of your fig tree, prune away as much growth as needed but avoid heading cuts. This can lead to excessive growth and make the tree more difficult to manage. Instead, use thinning cuts. Thinning cuts, where you remove the entire branch flush with the growth below leaving nothing behind to reduce the tree's size without stimulating excessive regrowth.
Rejuvenation Pruning for Old 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 fresh, vigorous shoots. Even with severe pruning, an old tree should produce new healthy growth from below the soil. However, this can be done gradually over two to three years to avoid overwhelming the tree.
Related: Revive an Unhealthy Fig Tree
How Much to Prune Young Trees:
Young fig trees don't need much pruning to start. In the first year, top your tree to encourage side branching at the desired height. Remove all but 5-8 well-spaced scaffolds when growing a tree form or up to five to eight trunks for a bush form.
Container-Grown Fig Trees:
Once your tree’s form is established and growth or fruiting slows, consider root pruning. Trim lateral branches by cutting off their tips or removing about 33% of the new growth each year.
Key Tip: Always err on the side of caution when pruning fig trees. Too much pruning can lead to stress, while too little can result in a tree that is overgrown and difficult to manage.
Related: Complete Guide to Pruning Fig Trees in Containers | For Production, Earlier & High-Quality Fruits
Pruning Fig Trees for Better Production & Growth
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.
Pruning for Size Management
To manage the size of your fig tree:
Minimize the number of cuts, as excessive pruning often stimulates vigorous growth and leads to a larger tree in the next season.
Instead:
Use thinning cuts by removing entire branches at their base instead of making heading cuts that only shorten the branch. For instance, removing 33% of last year’s growth can lead to 4–5 feet of new growth next season, while removing 50–90% might result in 7–10 feet of growth in a year.
Keep it Simple:
If you aim to keep your tree smaller, focus on removing a single trunk (for bush-form trees) or scaffold branch (for tree-form structures) each year. A new scaffold or trunk will grow in its place.
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 none or shorter growth left behind.
Keep in mind, that the form of your fig tree significantly impacts its size and manageability.
Understanding 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 space the scaffolds and fruiting branches well, ensuring 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 for balanced growth.
Not enough scaffolds or trunks? During dormancy, prune heavily to stimulate the growth of new shoots from the base.
For container-grown fig trees, structural pruning involves removing the apical bud (tip) during the growing season. This encourages lateral growth and creates a compact structure.
While pruning can help stimulate new growth, staking branches can guide them to create the desired form. A step-by-step guide toward achieving the proper form for your fig tree can be found below.
When to Prune Fig Trees
Prune fig trees during their dormant period, typically after several frosts or consistent cold temperatures. These conditions signal the trees to enter dormancy. In frost-free areas, you can manually defoliate the trees to mimic this natural process. Dormancy ensures that the tree’s sap, containing essential energy reserves, has returned to the roots, minimizing stress during pruning.
Dormancy is the ideal time for pruning because fig fruits form on new growth. Removing new growth during the growing season can reduce fruit production. Pruning at this stage allows the tree to channel energy into healthy new shoots that will bear fruit in the upcoming season.
However, pruning fig trees during the growing season is not off-limits. Some fig trees, especially those in warmer climates, may have completed their fruiting and growing cycles early, making it possible for them to be pruned, a new flush of growth follows, then producing another set of main crop figs later in the season.
When to Take Fig Cuttings:
Fig trees have many propagation methods, but the most common is through rooting cuttings. The ideal time for collecting cuttings is during the dormant season. During this period, the branches have fully lignified, meaning they've hardened and matured, making them more suitable for rooting. Softwood cuttings are more difficult to root requiring a misting setup to prevent quick desiccation.
Like pruning, you can take cuttings at any time. The key to successful rooting lies in maintaining the right environment. Cuttings thrive in conditions close to 78°F. Those unable to provide the necessary conditions often store their cuttings in a refrigerator for several months until spring when they can be planted.
How Pruning Affects Fig Tree Cold Tolerance
Well-lignified fig trees are tougher and better equipped to handle cold weather. Lignification is a natural process where branches harden over time. However, when we, as humans, interfere with this process, fig trees can become more vulnerable to cold damage.
Depending on the variety, fig trees can withstand low temperatures of 0, 5, or 10F reliably. Without proper lignification, a fig tree may take winter damage at only 20-28F. Young potted or newly rooted fig trees are particularly susceptible.
Here are a few rules to help your fig trees prepare for winter better:
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.
The more you prune a fig tree during the winter or the more winter damage it suffers, the longer into the fall it will continue growing the following year preventing proper lignification.
The same logic applies to young fig trees–they require protection from cold the first winter after planting, regardless of their size or lignification in growing zones 8A or lower.
The opposite will occur after one winter of proper pruning and winter protection. The new growth will cease in the summer. In a nutshell, this is how you can make a fig tree hardier.
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 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
