Where are you located (nearest big city, state)? In northern Virginia, fig trees are inevitably bushes due to die back.

I’m in Madison, MS. Right outside in Jackson, MS

Where you are will depend a lot on how this plant will grow. If you live in a zone that is fully hardy for figs, you can remove the side stems and focus on training the strongest and healthiest as a tree. If you live in a climate that has winter cold sufficient to kill off the top growth - as apparently you do - this "bush" will never become a tree.

So cut the fig tree down, and start over with another fig tree?

To my thinking, what makes the only real, tangible, non-arbitrary, definitive difference between a tree and shrub (bush) is that one has its canopy raised above the ground on one or more trunks, and the other does not have a canopy per se, but has foliage contiguous to the ground. A tree can be multi or single trunk. The canes of a shrub are multiple but always hidden, so their numbers are inconsequential. The fig is most often grown in the multi-trunk tree form, once and if it gains size. For it to be a single trunk would mean that its owner is controlling it to the extreme, and this would be difficult because of location and climate, as others have already mentioned. I'm in Florida and figs here, at least what I've seen, are always multi-trunk.

The fig is growing in its natural form. They don’t grow straight up with one trunk like a pine tree. It is supposed to have multiple trunks. You don’t need to do anything to it right now.

Thank you all for the suggestion!

I have a fig tree in the back yard and everyday I check it and these bugs are on the top of the tree and I look at them and I take a stick and poke at it. Right before I poke it they shoot out liquid of there ass! Does know what it is?

Tell us more about what you want, a shade tree or figs to eat. If you want to eat figs, that 'bush' is well formed. I had 4 plants in a 12' x 14' space between 2 driveways in Palo Alto, CA. Each year there is at least the chance of a few days in the mid to upper 20's F.

I learned about controlling height after the largest had grown so that I needed a ladder to reach the top. I used it to test out new varieties by bark grafting fresh new growth on the donor tree.

I'd suggest pruning to restrict the tree to main crop figs; they are the best tasting in my experience. After the last chance of a hard frost I'd cut last year's growth back to 1 bud facing where I wanted the branch to grow. When that reached 6-8 new leaves I'd start pinching out the new growth buds until the season ends. Some varieties only need one pinching, others send up a new shoot that must be removed before it grows to a point that is out of reach.

Do an image search on your favorite search engine for the string "fig pruning" to see the possibilities. Remember, main crop figs form at the leaf nodes.

Enough for now,

baumgrenze

Below are 2 photos, one after pruning in late January 2016 and another in mid-May.

As other have said, Madison and Jackson are in USDA Zone 8a, winter lows 10-15 degrees F.

Try piling up a few bushels of leaves around the cut back plant with a bit of deer net over it to keep it in place. Wait until the frost season is over, then remove the leaves.

Also look at the results of this search:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=japanese+fig+pruning&t=h_&ia=web

http://figs4funforum.arghchive.com/post/espalier-fig-project-japanese-method-7094805__trail_50

See post 1 in the second link. I think you will see how you can prevent freezing on something this close to the ground.

baumgrenze