"Brandon" wrote in message
...
Hi,

We have a 30 year old Brown Turkey Fig and it's time for a pruning.
It's reaching about 12'high and 16'wide. We've not cut it back
since moving into the house 5 years ago, but I'm expecting the previous
owners did from time to time. So my question is would you recommend a
radical pruning or just 3'-4' all around? It produces wonderful fruit
so I'm a little nervous about doing a radical cutting, but our neighbor
says go ahead and whack it back and it'll grow right back.
So before getting out the hand saw I wanted to get some other opinions.

Thanks!

Brandon
http://www.hostaplants.com

Since figs fruit on new wood, it's time to cut the tree back if it's
crowding. You got great advice on thinning crossed branches and lower ones,
and cutting the ones near the bottom will prevent those from rooting (which
is how I got my own fig tree, from a lower rooted branch that barely touched
the ground of the original fig tree at Mary Emma's). I can personally say I
cut mine too close to the ground about five years ago and regretted it a
lot.

It caused me to be a bit lax in the opposite reaction.

This fall, I cut the main branches back hard to five foot tall, so that the
new shoots would grow double on the branches. Last year I didn't prune at
all and let the fig grow unfettered and it scared the hell outa me and grew
to almost 19 foot! To reach delectible figs that were indeed larger than
usual (which made me wonder if it was the age of the roots, or the uncut
stems........hmmmmmmmmmmm, any comments??) I had to gently bend the branches
down to where I could harvest them. Not an easy task when you're only 5' 4"
and the tree has 19 foot branches. Encounters with delirious hornets and
wasps was a careful observation. I had to make sure I wasn't surprising some
feeding frenzy of insect delight and accidentally get stung as I grabbed a
succulent sweet fruit.

And the pecks from birds was a given. I just cut off the peck, and ate the
fig if it was a large one. I even left some hanging on the crooks of the
branches so that the ants and little insects had food. One must not be
greedy with the bounties of nature..........It will be interesting to see
how my fig tree responds to my sheering it back to five foot tall all the
way around. It opened up the southwest side of my yard so much it was
almost scary. Like opening a window! Go with how you want to prune it,
just don't wait too long as it's about time for the dormancy to be over and
new growth will be fruit bearing.

madgardener