Pruning a Fig Tree

Q: I have a very large fig tree: 15 feet tall with a spread of 25 feet. Using an 8 foot ladder and a 3 foot pruning hook, I cannot reach anywhere near the figs at the top. I would like to get it down to a manageable size, maybe 8 feet tall. How do I prune it without doing damage? 

A: If you examine a fig tree or bush, you’ll see that most of the figs are produced at the middle and ends of branches where there is a lot of foliage. Your goal should be to maximize the number of leaves on the tree by first pruning away nonproductive wood (dead branches), then branches that point down or grow straight up from the base. That done, take a break and decide how wide you want the tree to be and which limbs will go and which will stay.

Fig trees, unlike fig bushes, do best when shaped with several larger scaffold limbs spaced at gradually decreasing intervals up the trunk. Leave the small twigs growing on the trunk and scaffold branches. The vast majority of your cuts will be “thinning” cuts, where you cut limbs back to 2 to 4 inches from where another limb is growing in a good direction. You’ll have a big pile of branches when you’re finished.

Avoid “heading” cuts, where you simply shorten a limb, although this may be necessary for some scaffold limbs. Your original fig tree has a huge root system, and you’ll get tremendous growth from the branches around where you remove limbs.