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sammylamby

Enormous Fig Tree - Please help!

EF Home and Garden Design
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago

It feels like I have read every post on the web, but I still need help...

I have a strong, proud, prolific Mission Fig that does not want to be contained. She is about 20 feet tall now and absolutely beautiful to look at. I live in San Jose. We have long, hot summers and mild winters -- and she loves it here. She has two main trunks -- each about 10-14 inches in diameter. In a good year, she produces 200-300 large delicious figs.


Wonderful, right? Anyone with a fig knows the problem. Not only can I not get all the fruit, but she crowds out other trees in the vicinity (see navel orange at left). Every time I trim her, my wife and neighbors accuse me of murder, but she keeps coming back strong. Nothing can kill this tree. She is too strong. So how can I take her back to a reasonable height and keep her there?

Most recently, 3 years ago, I took her back to shoulder height -- yep, trunk only, no branches (you can see the three flat cuts in the picture below). I waited until the fruit was harvested and then hacked away. I'm trying everything I can. But she came back stronger than ever. We got no fruit the first year (and her shape was beautiful), a little fruit the second year (and she was already getting large), and then a ton of fruit and a gigantic tree this year. A LOT of the growth is straight up. Nothing is going on in the middle of the tree (see picture). Most of the fruit is on lower branches. And most of the branches/fruit are to one side (away from the shade of the giant oak next door).



The fruiting branches are full -- about 10-15 figs per branch (the one below has 17!), but only 1 out of 5-10 branches bear fruit. Interestingly they seem to always come back in the same locations -- i.e. the places where the most fruit grows is always at right about the same spot (on the South side, away from the oak). I'm assuming this is sun related, although the whole tree gets full sun almost all day. Also, one trunk seems to produce much more fruit than the other.


How do I keep this beautiful tree producing while also keeping her to a reasonable size? I have tried pinching, although I'm not always clear about what needs to be pinched since the first leaves often form 4-6 feet down the branch (by which time the tree is already huge). I have tried pruning. I cut the suckers. I leave horizontal branches. I don't know what else to do. Should I cut her back to 3 feet tall and start over? Any help would be much appreciated.

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