What Happens If I DON'T Prune My Fig Trees?

good afternoon gardeners it's wednesday february 17th and it's a bitter cold windy day here on the southeastern coast of north carolina and today i wanted to discuss what happens when you do not prune your fig trees especially fig trees in containers about a week ago i posted a video all about how to prune fig trees for cuttings and that video led to a lot of discussions and i had a user make a comment that i thought was a very good comment and what the user said was that they've never pruned their fig tree before and they were afraid to prune their fig tree and they weren't quite sure where to begin and what they should do and that comment really got my mind moving and here's why this fig tree right here is a galicia negra fig tree i purchased cuttings back in the winter of 2020 i rooted the cuttings and i now have this tree that you see in front of me that is taller than i am and this tree basically stopped growing for me last october when winter came along the growth stopped and all this growth is basically over the course of one spring and summer so to anybody out there that is afraid to prune your fig tree first and foremost do not be afraid because all of this growth happened in a seven to eight month time period even if you completely botch your prune job and you have to hack the tree down to the roots the tree is probably going to come back at least this large for you over the course of one season so do not be afraid to prune your fig trees they're extremely forgiving and they're the best tree out there to learn pruning techniques because if you make a mistake they recover so quickly now let me first preface this video by saying there's a difference between growing your figs in ground or in containers if you're growing your fig trees and ground there is no need to prune your fig trees you do not have to prune them the reason why people prune inground fig trees is they are trying to fit the trees in a smaller space and they want to keep the form compact they are trying to prune it to a desired shape for aesthetics because they like the way it looks or they're trying to prune their tree to cut it back to keep the branching low so their fruits form low enough that they won't have to get out a ladder and and harvest figs off the top of their fig tree if you do not prune your in-ground fig trees they can easily grow to be 20 feet wide by 20 feet high or more so that's a pretty massive tree but there's no physical need to prune that fig tree other than fitting it into certain spaces your overall visual preferences or ease of harvest when we are talking about fig trees in containers the game changes when it comes to fig trees and containers my opinion is you absolutely must prune them for not just ease of access of the fruits but for the health of the tree and here is why the overwhelming majority of us are growing figs to eat the main crop figs that form in the spring and are ripe in the late summer or early fall some fig varieties have a crop of figs called a breba crop that will form on the previous year's wood and will get they'll ripen in late spring or early summer not all varieties of figs have a briber crop and the fruit quality is generally considered inferior so we are not going to talk about brebas we are going to talk about the main crop figs that the overwhelming majority of us are growing figs for now main crop figs only will set on the new growth that comes along in the spring so you have to wait for new growth to appear all throughout spring and then at some point in late spring or early summer you'll start at the nodes of the fig trees you'll start getting little little bumps that will become figlets in early summer and you're going to hope that they ripen for you by late summer early fall so for all intents and purposes you are only going to get a crop of figs on the new wood of the tree this fig tree is only one season old as i previously mentioned all of this is old wood so none of this old wood is going to form main crop figs any main crop figs that form on this tree will have to form on new season's wood and that's all going to start all the way up here so this tree is already over six feet tall what's going to happen is the new wood is going to be so high up that if i have any prayer of harvesting the fruit off of that new wood i'm going to have to get some kind of stool or a ladder and i don't really want to have to deal with a tree that is that tall in such a small container the idea behind growing your trees in containers is to keep them small and easy access of fruit is critical in order to make the harvest really worth your time the second thing is once this tree starts becoming really laden with leaves it's going to become a target for wind and what you're going to find is when this tree gets this tall and it's full of leaves it's going to start blowing over on you if you do not have it appropriately staked and when that happens it's going to knock the fruit off every single time it hits the ground and it's a really big problem when these start getting more than about five feet tall or so so it really becomes detrimental to the fig tree if you do not keep them short enough they will require a lot of staking in containers now that brings me to my third point what you see right here in this tree this tree is in this bucket and it is already very root bound after one season it's holding that root ball amazingly well so when you grow a fig tree in containers you are limiting that fig tree to whatever nutrients it can pull out of this little tiny container right here so at some point it doesn't matter how much i fertilize this fig tree you're going to get to the point where the roots are not going to be able to take up enough nutrients to support wood growth and what's going to happen is you're going to have a tremendous loss of vigor over seasons if you do not keep this tree small and compact this root structure that's inside this container is already maxing itself out to try to keep this wood alive so if i expect all new green growth to start growing feet above this tree the roots are simply not going to be able to support that much wood it's not going to be able to support a tree that large so you're going to get a major reduction in vigor you're going to get a reduction in fruit set and the tree is overall not going to perform very well for you so in my opinion when it comes to growing figs in containers pruning them back pretty significantly every single year is absolutely critical for the health of the tree the vigor of the tree the fruit production and your own safety and ease of harvesting the fruit now when it comes to pruning your fig trees i will make sure to link to a video above about how to prune them for perfect form great vigor and excellent production i generally recommend pruning your fig trees down to roughly about 12 to 16 inches in height with your central leaders when they're in containers because it helps keep the fruiting low for ease of access and it also makes them less of a target by wind to blow over every single time you get some kind of storm in the summer and the smaller form is a whole lot easier to manage than when a fig tree gets that tall however feel free to experiment with your fig trees when it comes to pruning you can try single stemming them you can try going with two main stems like this you can even try three experiment with different forms and see how they perform in your environment see which form you like better that that both performs uh better in terms of fruit production and that you like the looks better because fig trees are so forgiving they will come back quickly if you make a mistake with your pruning and you don't like the way they turned out so that's pretty much all there is to this video i don't want to keep it any longer or more complicated than that because it's really a simple concept prune your fig trees in containers you absolutely must for good production and the overall health of a plant when it comes to your fig trees in ground dealer's choice you do what you want just get the desired form that you want i like doing mine in the spoiler form and i'll make sure to link to that video above i have several fig trees that are growing a spoiler in my yard and i absolutely love it so everyone thank you so much for watching this video if you found it helpful please make sure to hit that like button and if you haven't already subscribed to the channel please subscribe for future updates and more videos like these if you're curious about any of the products that i use in my garden they are all linked in my amazon storefront in the video description thank you all again for watching and we hope to see you again on the next video so dale is so smart and observant that he knows that i only sit down and watch tv at night i never watch tv during the day the only time i turn the tv on is when i have to go either grocery shopping or i leave for the gym and it's still daylight out so he knows that if the daylight is out and the tv comes on that means he's getting a treat to go inside his kennel to sit while i'm away so watch this here comes somebody here comes somebody hey buddy what what you doing what you doing you better put pandora on oh look dale's going in his kennel he knows i'm putting music on for him while i go to the grocery store do you think you're getting a treat dale do you want your kong you want your kong okay buddy oh he knows exactly what to do he is so observant

Channel: The Millennial Gardener

Views: 49,690

Rating: 4.9521532 out of 5

Keywords: fig trees, pruning figs, pruning fig trees, how to prune fig trees, not pruning figs, prune a fig tree, don't prune fig trees, reasons for pruning figs, prune fig trees, prung fig trees in containers, pruning in ground fig trees, figs, fig, fig tree, breba figs, main crop figs, growing figs, growing figs in ground, growing figs in containers, growing fig trees in containers, garden, gardening, garden tips, garden tips and tricks, organic gardening, the millennial gardener

Id: 2PBrPHtV9ww

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 20 2021