Embothrium-- we're pruning it due to it not seeming to grow right. The leaves are sparse, and mostly growing on the tops of the branches, not sprouting branches from the sides like it should. The tree is in the ground in our yard, so enough room is not an issue. :)

" Since the fruit forms on terminals of wood from the year before, prune your fig only to maintain the preferred size. If you choose to prune, do so only after the fruit ripens, early in the summer; a heavy winter pruning has the potential to eliminate the next year's crop. " Source: Figs by UF/IFAS

You can get lots of other info on growing them on that page too.

dirtygardener - thank you so much for this information! I still am so confused-- I want fruit for next summer, but the exact mistake I made last year was pruning in the winter. Maybe the very frosty temperatures in Florida last winter really hurt fruit production, or maybe I did prune at the wrong time...

Those of you who have fig trees in their yard: how much do you prune, and when? I'd love to hear experience stories!

Nope. Figs can withstand very, very cold tempeatures. I had figs in Z7a in SC that survived every winter we had, even down to 0 degrees one year. Fruit only forms on year-old wood, which is why you have to prune as soon as the fruiting is over.

Just don't prune this year at all, and you'll have fruit next year.

One winter I cut my black dwarf mulberry and fig way back and I hardly had any fruit the following spring. The years I dont cut them, I get heavy fruiting.

It's the same with azaleas. You can only prune them as soon as they stop blooming, or no blooms the next year.

Janna

I have a very productive fig tree and I keep it trimmed so I can harvest the fruit. I grow it as a bush and right now I am getting another crop of figs, hopefully they ripe before the cold comes in. If not is okay since I dried and freeze the fruit from last season.

I trimmed the fig anytime that it needs it, of course not when is fruiting, otherwise I would loose the fruit on the pruned branches.

If planted in the right spot and using a lot of organic material, figs are indestructible and very productive but if not they can be susceptible to nematode damage.

My fig just now

I don't prune except to propagate my figs.

>The leaves are sparse, and mostly growing on the tops of the branches<

See above photo - open growing, with leaves at branch tips is how they always are.

It's actually better to have the plant open to air circulation, or so I thought. I'm not a fig expert by any means, but that's the case with most fruit trees.