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Pruning Fig Trees to Reduce Height

13 years ago

I have two fig trees which are 8-9 feet tall (I believe an LSU Purple & LSU Gold). They're too tall to cover effectively and the birds get most of my figs. I'm thinking about pruning them to about 6 feet tall at the end of the season and trying to keep them about this height, so that I can effectively put anti-bird screening on them in the future. Is this feasible?

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Comments (9)

genecolin
13 years ago
JoeRay that is a very acceptable practice. Too make it easy to put the netting on, drive a 3' piece of rebar half way into the ground on each side of the tree and put a piece of pvc water pipe from one to the other to make a hoop. Put several of these about 4' apart then run one piece of pvc along the top and tie them all together to make it ridge. Works great.
"gene"
From Houma, La
Joeray
Original Author
13 years ago
Gene:
I followed your advise and made covers for my smaller figs trees using the rebar and pvc pipe. As you said, it works great. I'll have to wait on the big trees and cut them down to size later this year. It'll probably be next year before I can cover them. Thanks for the advise.

JoeRay
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I'm pretty active in the gardening community, and am often called on to give talks/demos about pruning - probably an outgrowth of the fact that experienced bonsai practitioners can prune in their sleep. It's a popular program to talk to a group at someone's home and actually use their trees to demonstrate pruning techniques and explain principles. One of the most oft asked questions is 'When can I prune?' My stock answer is 'Any time you have a sharp pair of pruners in your hand.' For major pruning chores: wounds close fastest if you prune in the spring before buds move. This also prevents the tree's moving stored energy to branches you then remove - thereby wasting it. If you want to avoid excessive suckering and water sprouts, limit your pruning to no more than 15-20% of the above-ground mass of the tree, 10% is better - unless the tree is small and you can also prune roots with a spade at the same time you prune the canopy, in which case you can remove more and avoid the suckering/water sprouts. It's difficult to be specific w/o knowing what your goal is. Are you rejuvenating a multi-stemmed tree/shrub - reducing the height of a single trunk tree - pruning for appearance by removing crossing branches or branches that don't enhance the trees appearance .....? Al
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You can definitely cut the main stem back to any height that you want, when the tree is dormant. I plan to cut about 4+ feet off of one of my Verte figs this winter. You can root the pieces of what you cutting off. Or you could air-layer off the whole top in early spring, and have a semi-mature tree already. But if you choose the air-layer method you will probably not get any fruit of the parent tree that year. The removed top might successfully fruit.
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the term is TOPPING ... and there arent many of us.. who approve of such ...basically you are opening huge wounds at height.. and eventually those wounds will lead to rot and trouble ... of course this all happens in tree time.. which is counted in decades ... perhaps there are other solutions ....how about a few pix .. so we can see the situation ... and perhaps make some suggestions ... ken https://duckduckgo.com/?q=TOPPING+trees&t=ffcm&ia=web ps: mom had a 50 year old maple 8 feet from the house.. that dad refused to deal with ... and at 80 years old.. after he was gone.. a huge branch fell on the house.. right above her bed ... and destroyed the roof ... and some interior plaster ... but she took it all in stride ... luckily the house was habitable ... so we didnt have to deal with moving her around ... it was the storm of storms ...
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is it well established .. rather than recently planted??? ... that would be determinative to how much canopy we wight remove ... it looks like its been there years ... what is your goal ... a pretty tree in a small yard.. and maybe a few figs to make you happy ... or all out fruit production and who cares what it will look like ... lets see what an fig orchard might do with there trees: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=fig+orchard&iax=images&ia=images look at the wide pic.. the panorama... see how they are pruned to max sun exposure all around the tree ... flip to the vids.. and take a tour of such ... when you can express your GOAL ... its rather easy to accomplish your goal ... im sorry i have no clue about timing in TX or wioth figs ... hope other chime in for you ... but i hope i did help you ... ken ps: since it leans so much.. one part of your goal might be to prune it to a more stable form ...
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youngbonner
13 years ago
Hey Gene,

That's a great solution - are you using old shrimp netting or buying something else?
young
genecolin
13 years ago
Shrimp netting would work although heavy. I use plastic bird netting from Lowes of Wallyworld. As Tim warned in another thread, "don't wear a shirt with buttons", right Tim.
fatnsassytexan
13 years ago
Gene, you got it right about the shirt with buttons. I wish I had my trees planted more in a row so I could cover a whole row, like your picture. It would have been easier to set up drip irrigation, too. To me a 6' tree once it grows out again is still going to be too big to cover.I'm going to trim mine back shorter maybe 4'. The nets from Lowes are 14' X 14'. You can order it on rolls too that are larger, but haven't done that yet. Tim
wabikeguy
13 years ago
Thanks for posting the pics Gene. Are those 20' lengths of pvc pipe? What diameter?

Dave
genecolin
13 years ago
Yes Dave, those are 20 footers and 3/4". What you can't see except for the orange tape is the string I have tied between them. I took some heavy nylon and tied it to the bottom of one leg and then ran it over to the next one to where I wrapped the tape about 4' from the ground. The tape keeps the string from slipping. I tied it over the tape. From that point I went down to the ground on the next leg. The I ran one from the bottom of the middle up to the tape on each of the two end legs. This created a criss cross pattern which added a lot of rigidity to it. The top piece is just taped on with good old duct tape. It's very cheap, light weight and can be put up and taken down in a few minutes.
"gene"
wabikeguy
13 years ago
"It's very cheap, light weight and can be put up and taken down in a few minutes."

I like it. Thanks for sharing this with us Gene.
montyandmk_msn_com
13 years ago
I have just purchased a Brown Turkey and a Mission Fig, only about 18 inches high to start. Could I keep it pruned to only 4 feet high and still produce figs?

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