pruning a fig
 

My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue

On 2005-09-28, Siouxzi wrote:
My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue

Google 'Prune fig tree' and you will find quite a few hits. One comment
was to prune large ones in stages, but another said they could withstand
heavy pruning.

--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.

Thanks Wes. I did, and that brought me to the Paradise Nursery site
I'd forgotten about--they specialize in fig trees. Delightful people,
too. I'm on their list to get notified when young trees are available
for shipment in the spring. I'm going to get me one of those fig trees
that produce big sweet green figs like I swooned over in the
Mediterranean... And one of those Muscadine vines.
http://www.paradisenursery.com/gourmetfigs.html
For anyone on this list who's never eaten a fresh ripe fig... I'm
telling you, it's ambrosia. Consider adding one to your yard, and in a
year or two you'll wonder how you've survived so far through life
without discovering this wonderful fruit. Ripe figs are very soft and
do not ship well... at all... which is why you can almost never find
them in a market, and when you do, they're just not likely to be ripe
and sweet.

Cheers
Sue

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 16:33:15 GMT, wrote:

On 2005-09-28, Siouxzi wrote:
My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue

Google 'Prune fig tree' and you will find quite a few hits. One comment
was to prune large ones in stages, but another said they could withstand
heavy pruning.

Thanks for the info, Wes. I had the same question about my 15-ft. fig.
Willie

wrote:
On 2005-09-28, Siouxzi wrote:
My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue

Google 'Prune fig tree' and you will find quite a few hits. One comment
was to prune large ones in stages, but another said they could withstand
heavy pruning.

--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.

Sue,

Boy, it's been too long!

Last year when I first planted my fig (from the Farmer's Mkt, probably a
Brown Turkey, or labeled as such), the entire "tree" top was about the size
of a basketball, but it produced LOTS of luscious, medium sized fruits. I
was amazed and delighted and we thoroughly enjoyed the fruit; I use my fresh
figs to make clafouti, a heavy, traditional pudding with fruit on top.

This year, the tree is 5-6 times bigger, but the fruits have been much less
plentiful per branch, small and pale. I have bird netting over the tree, so
birds haven't gotten to it, but there are so few fruits this year! I
worried that the growth of the stems, leaves, and roots of this very young
tree might have been at the expense of the fruit, but it sounds like your
crop is very similar. Maybe something in the weather has affected the crop
across the area.

I fell desperately in love with 3 varieties on the Paradise site, and plan
to order them for spring (subject to the family fig-lover's agreement on my
choices). Oh my, something that may NEARLY supplant my beloved blueberries.
ALMOST. No fair to tempt a person THAT much!

laurie, imagining a full season of delicious clafoutis made with different
colors and sizes of figs!

"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue

On Sat, 8 Oct 2005, laurie (Mother Mastiff) wrote:

This year, the tree is 5-6 times bigger, but the fruits have been much less
plentiful per branch, small and pale....it sounds like your
crop is very similar. Maybe something in the weather has affected the crop
across the area.

I don't think it was the weather. I have access to a friend's huge fig
tree, and this year was even better than former years: lots of big, plump,
sweet fruit.

I like to use these figs for fig-sesame jam (epicurious.com) and for
spiced figs, adding extra lemon peel in both cases.

Donna

Well I don't know what it was either, but that fig tree needs some
pruning for sure, and then I will be more careful next year about
watering and fertilizing... and, Laurie, I am going to order a fig or
two from Paradise (thanks again, Wes...). I also plan to order a
couple as gifts for my neighbor and another friend. So, while I have
very limited areas of sun on my property, I can raid THEIR trees.

For now... well, the (*#)_$+ Japanese stilt grass finally strangled my
lovely circular garden of English ivy (imagine that! What kind of pest
plant is obnoxious enough to kill off ivy?) . Finally I had to Roundup
the whole thing, and so now I've got a big brown circle in the middle
of the sunniest spot on our property. Hmmm, what shall I plant there?
Yeah! A Mediterranean green fig tree.

Cheers
Sue

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 16:06:01 -0400, Donna Maroni
wrote:

On Sat, 8 Oct 2005, laurie (Mother Mastiff) wrote:

This year, the tree is 5-6 times bigger, but the fruits have been much less
plentiful per branch, small and pale....it sounds like your
crop is very similar. Maybe something in the weather has affected the crop
across the area.

I don't think it was the weather. I have access to a friend's huge fig
tree, and this year was even better than former years: lots of big, plump,
sweet fruit.

I like to use these figs for fig-sesame jam (epicurious.com) and for
spiced figs, adding extra lemon peel in both cases.

Donna

laurie (Mother Mastiff) wrote:

Sue,

Boy, it's been too long!

Last year when I first planted my fig (from the Farmer's Mkt, probably a
Brown Turkey, or labeled as such), the entire "tree" top was about the size
of a basketball, but it produced LOTS of luscious, medium sized fruits. I
was amazed and delighted and we thoroughly enjoyed the fruit; I use my fresh
figs to make clafouti, a heavy, traditional pudding with fruit on top.

This year, the tree is 5-6 times bigger, but the fruits have been much less
plentiful per branch, small and pale. I have bird netting over the tree, so
birds haven't gotten to it, but there are so few fruits this year! I
worried that the growth of the stems, leaves, and roots of this very young
tree might have been at the expense of the fruit, but it sounds like your
crop is very similar. Maybe something in the weather has affected the crop
across the area.

I fell desperately in love with 3 varieties on the Paradise site, and plan
to order them for spring (subject to the family fig-lover's agreement on my
choices). Oh my, something that may NEARLY supplant my beloved blueberries.
ALMOST. No fair to tempt a person THAT much!

laurie, imagining a full season of delicious clafoutis made with different
colors and sizes of figs!

"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...

My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue




Just a thought,
I've always read and have practiced planting fig trees in a hole with
barriers which restrict the roots. I dig the hole about 3X3X3 or so and
line it with rocks, chunks of broken cinder block, that sort of thing.
What I've read is that the fig tree will grow large and not produce much
fruit unless the roots are somewhat restriced. I had lots of sweet
large figs, so it must be working. I have 3 fig trees right now and all
three produced nicely this year. Two trees are two years old and about
5-6 feet high, and one tree is about 5 years old and ~15 feet high, had
trouble reaching figs even with a ladder. I've never pruned mine. But
may prune the large one just so I can reach the figs.
Eileen

pruning a fig
 

hack away!

I have seen figs cut down to 4 main branches 2 feet off of the ground and be
over 6 feet by the end of the summer.

Mine was loaded this year as well

Must have been the year of the fig.

Tomatolord

"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
My brown turkey fig is only a few years old, but it's probably close
to 20 feet tall. This year, it produced very small fruits in small
numbers, most of which were out of reach to me (but not to the
birds!).
I'd like to prune it pretty severely, and baby it next spring in hopes
of getting a good sweet crop. Will it be OK if I cut it down to 4 feet
or so and remove some big side branches?
And is this a good time to do it, after the fruits are gone?

Tanks
Sue

pruning a fig
 

My fig was a disaster the last 3 years. (Brown turkey). But THIS
year it was very profuse. My theory is that it wants an arid climate.
Just as my figs were about to ripen, it totally stopped raining. The
blight/mold/fungus (whatever) that has been turning the leaves black
for years, completely stopped (suspended animation... still hanging
there in mid-rot, Nov. 6).
The figs ripened, and the prior years' problem of bugs going into the
opening figs, drooling fermentation, never happened. I got a LOT of
preserves this year, and when I had enough, I picked the high ones and
left them beneath the tree for the deer.
My tree is huge... a mammoth octopus. My ag. agent came out in July
and said, me being in deep woods in Chatham County, I had a really
good fig tree and garden compared to what he would have expected. I
have way too much humidity and virtually no air circulation, being
surrounded by deep woods.
He also suggested pruning off my low branches (which actually lifted
up off the ground when that drought hit).
Enjoy, ye who got a good crop. I have fig preserves with,
respectively, lime, vanilla bean, and ginger-walnut.
Kira