Pruning fig trees - Ask Extension
Can I prune my fig trees now without damaging their ability to fruit? We moved to our property about 1.5 years ago and it has about 40 Greek fig trees...
Knowledgebase
Pruning fig trees #858814
Asked February 09, 2024, 12:50 PM EST
Can I prune my fig trees now without damaging their ability to fruit? We moved to our property about 1.5 years ago and it has about 40 Greek fig trees that produce but are severely overgrown and crowded together. There are 3 parallel rows with trees roughly 10-20’ tall (middle row is tallest as the trees are trying to get sunlight), too tall for us to reach the fruit. I don’t see many green buds yet but there are a few. Any tips for pruning beyond best time to do so are appreciated
Charles County Maryland
Expert Response
Pruning now will risk diminishing the first (breba) crop of fruits, which forms on old wood, but since they are considered less reliable in most Maryland gardens compared to the main later crop (which forms on wood that will grow this spring/summer), and because a heavy breba crop can deprive a plant of resources for a full main crop, sacrificing them by pruning in late winter or early spring would be fine. Therefore, pruning now should still let the plants fruit late this coming season like they normally would, and you'd only miss the more minor early crop.
The branch tip in the close-up with no prominent bud appears dead, but it's hard to say for certain. In your location the winter hardiness of the wood might be less at-risk, but this may vary from year to year, especially when we experience mild periods followed closely by a cold snap to near-freezing or below. (Unprotected fig plants are often injured by very cold weather. Sustained temperatures below 10° to 15°F kill above-ground wood.) If that occurs any given year, those dead tips or branches will need to be pruned off, though it might be difficult to determine what is dead versus still dormant until the leaves begin to emerge later in spring. At that point, bare tips can be trimmed off. Otherwise, carefully scraping the bark on suspected dead branches can reveal live or dead sapwood, but it's not a foolproof technique since damaged-but-alive wood could still die after the "scratch test" was performed.)
In the event of lots of dieback or a heavy pruning, new shoots will emerge readily from the roots, but are rarely capable of producing mature fruits that same year. If winter injury to or pruning of the main stems is minimal to moderate, the plant will produce a modest crop the following summer. If winter injury or pruning is severe, the plant may require 2 to 3 good growing seasons to return to normal production.
Typically, figs are reduced in height to make winter protection simpler, so while not quite what you were asking, this might provide some guidance for late winter pruning as well. For overwintering, it's suggested to cut stems to a 4 to 5 foot height before covering plants up with a wind barrier, and in spring, trim off ground-level suckers and remove all dead or weak wood. Mature plants usually have 3 to 8 main stems, so extras can be removed if needed so they don't crowd foliage and use-up resources for growing low stems too young to fruit.
A fairly basic and brief pruning video is included on our Growing Figs page, which is in line to be revised soon along with other fruit pages. Since you have so many plants, you can do the pruning in stages if it's easier, to allow some plants to fruit normally while others recuperate from pruning for a year or two (if you remove lots of the older, tallest stems, for instance).
Given how large the plants are and how long they've been established before you moved in, we'd guess the prior gardener did not regularly prune them. That's okay if a tall size isn't bothersome and the plants don't routinely die back in winter, but as you noted, it can make harvesting difficult, so it's fine to begin a pruning schedule for future years to help keep the plants a more manageable size.
Miri
The branch tip in the close-up with no prominent bud appears dead, but it's hard to say for certain. In your location the winter hardiness of the wood might be less at-risk, but this may vary from year to year, especially when we experience mild periods followed closely by a cold snap to near-freezing or below. (Unprotected fig plants are often injured by very cold weather. Sustained temperatures below 10° to 15°F kill above-ground wood.) If that occurs any given year, those dead tips or branches will need to be pruned off, though it might be difficult to determine what is dead versus still dormant until the leaves begin to emerge later in spring. At that point, bare tips can be trimmed off. Otherwise, carefully scraping the bark on suspected dead branches can reveal live or dead sapwood, but it's not a foolproof technique since damaged-but-alive wood could still die after the "scratch test" was performed.)
In the event of lots of dieback or a heavy pruning, new shoots will emerge readily from the roots, but are rarely capable of producing mature fruits that same year. If winter injury to or pruning of the main stems is minimal to moderate, the plant will produce a modest crop the following summer. If winter injury or pruning is severe, the plant may require 2 to 3 good growing seasons to return to normal production.
Typically, figs are reduced in height to make winter protection simpler, so while not quite what you were asking, this might provide some guidance for late winter pruning as well. For overwintering, it's suggested to cut stems to a 4 to 5 foot height before covering plants up with a wind barrier, and in spring, trim off ground-level suckers and remove all dead or weak wood. Mature plants usually have 3 to 8 main stems, so extras can be removed if needed so they don't crowd foliage and use-up resources for growing low stems too young to fruit.
A fairly basic and brief pruning video is included on our Growing Figs page, which is in line to be revised soon along with other fruit pages. Since you have so many plants, you can do the pruning in stages if it's easier, to allow some plants to fruit normally while others recuperate from pruning for a year or two (if you remove lots of the older, tallest stems, for instance).
Given how large the plants are and how long they've been established before you moved in, we'd guess the prior gardener did not regularly prune them. That's okay if a tall size isn't bothersome and the plants don't routinely die back in winter, but as you noted, it can make harvesting difficult, so it's fine to begin a pruning schedule for future years to help keep the plants a more manageable size.
Miri
