I'll have to find the source, but I remember reading the ideal fruiting zone of a tree is 5-6 feet in height. Meaning if you want an eight foot trunk on your tree, the fruit zone will be from 8-13/14 feet. One of my in ground trees is about 14 feet tall now. It is not so easy to harvest the fruit from the top, however this is mostly due to it being in bush form and having to work around the lower branches. I use a small step stool and pull the branches down to harvest. One can prune to shorten the fruit zone to a couple of feet resulting in decreased production. Elder, someone post pics of fig trees which grew from suckers and formed a hedge along the side of a highway in Sacramento(I think) in this forum. Perhaps someone remembers the link to the pics. ~james

Hi Map1e, I'm doubtful that your tree was grafted. Although your tree could've been grafted its more work for the nursery and why would they do that when a fig does fine on its own roots? I would suggest that you try to root some of your cuttings or if you have any suckers come up pot those up and compare them to the mother tree. If its grafted the suckers and the cuttings that you took will be different. Either the fruit color or leaf structure would be different. Would it be a robust plant if you air layered.... Yes, the fig would have a good headstart if you air layered a section of your 10 ft tree and cut it down to 6ft you would have a 4 ft tree instantly...well almost, you'd have to have roots develop first. I guess that your current option for propagating more trees would be to root some cuttings. Good luck, Little John

Lisa, if it was mine, and I wanted it top branch out more and be more bush like, I would cut it off at about 16" above the soil line. Now is not the best time, but will not hurt the tree long term, and will get it headed ion the direction (shape) you want this season. When it is dormant, prune each bra nch back to 2-4 leaf nodes, which will encourage further branching next season. These are inground tress, but give you the idea: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0100594215655.html http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg0101490623831.html

lets try it again I was given this tree last spring when it was 6 inches tall with no leaves. i put it into a 5 gallon containe in june anmd set it out on my deck> I got a few figs on it but they never got vvery big and they stayed green. i was looking for urple fruit. I gooled it nd thought that the type i had was called Conadria and that they stay green all the time. After the leavesfell off in Sept i put it into my unheated garage and covered it with a black plastic bag. i watered it once a month. In june, i put it outside in a 10 gallon container and you can see the results. notice the figs turned purple and i have taken off at least a dozen large purple sweet figs and i have a few more that are almost there. the leaves are still on the tree so what do i do now. do i remove the leaves or leave it out until they fall off. next year i will be moving to Rutland MA whee i will put it into the gtround.