FROM TWIGS TO FIGS

9.
Growth habits and Pruning.

	Before we discuss pruning techiniques, a word of caution is in order. Some people have an allergy to fig sap or latex. This might just result in very mild rash and slight itch, but for some people it can cause severe rash, welts and blisters. Latex can come from branch cuts, leaf stems and fruits stems.
	As we come to the subject of pruning, we need to make a short digression into the arcane world of botany.
	Breba figs form on wood that grew last season and has been dormant through the winter.
	This shows Vista Black Mission with the breba crop ripening and the main crop still green. You can see the brown color of the previous years growth and the still greenish color of the current years growth.
	Main crop figs form on the new growth that appears this season. Some varieties produce only a breba crop; some have both breba and main-crop figs, and many have only main-crop figs. If you prune a breba-only variety, you reduce or eliminate your fruit for that year. If you prune a variety with breba and main-crop figs, you sacrifice the breba crop. If you prune a main-crop-only variety, you lose nothing. In my opinion, breba-crop figs are not numerous, and mostly of inferior taste, sweetness and quality. MORE
	These factors are important in deciding how to prune your tree. Since I am willing to sacrifice the breba-crop figs, I can take a 10-foot-tall tree and prune it to 18 inches, and be quite happy with my main fig crop. Before picture: this Black Mission tree is nearly 20' tall at the end of the season.
	Since I planted my orchard on a hill, severe pruning of my trees into a more bush-like shape allows me to reach my fig crop without using a ladder. After picture: once again at about 10' at the beginning of the season. Size control is very dependent on pruning.
	The same tree, 5 years later in January 2012. Once again at about 10' at the beginning of the season.
	These pix of fig growing in Japan are courtesy of Ken Love. This illustrates some extreme forms of pruning designed for very intensive fig growing.
	These techniques can be adapted for growing figs in the home garden, as well, where space maybe a consideration. I prune mine this short where I have them planted on a hill, but not in the espalier form.
	Figs can be grown in pots quite successfully. In fact, many figs in the east are grown in pots, so that they can be stored in sheds and garages for the winter, so that they are not damaged by freezing weather. These pots live in the Mediteranean climate of Spain, courtesy of another "figgie". MORE
	I didn't grow figs in pots, but I received these photos only hours after posting a request for pictures of potted figs at the Figs 4 Fun Forum. This kind of community is part of the fun of growing figs.
	These pots live in Orange County, CA at the home of another "figgie", who opened his entire collection for photos in the summer of 2008.
	There are dwarf varieties, or perhaps more accurately, some less-vigorous varieties that seldom require pruning. However, for most varieties size control must usually be accomplished by pruning. This is a 10 year old Vista Black Mission will be pruned to about 4-1/2 feet. The parent tree, at 20 years old, is maintained at about 10', but could have been maintained at a much shorter height with more aggressive pruning in the early years.
	Varieties such as Black Mission and Panachee can grow more than 10 feet in a single year. The finished product of aggressive pruning.
	In many locations, fig trees must be protected from the cold winters. This was one "figgie's" solution to protecting his tree. They can also be winterized by wrapping them in carpets with tarps...
	...burying them under piles of leaves, and even burying them in the ground.
	Thankfully, we Californians do not need to go to these extremes. MORE
	Identifying an unknown variety is usually difficult, and often impossible. The only vivid memory of a seminar on figs by Richard Watts many years ago was this statement, paraphrased here: the size, shape, and color of a fig can be dramatically different depending on soil, climate, fertilization, watering and any other factor.
	I have experienced this many times since. I purchased a Sultane fig tree from Paradise Nursery, in Virginia Beach, Virginia (the nursery closed its doors this spring but is still operating its website for a limited time, to offer fig-growing information). I sent a picture of it to nursery owner Sybil Mays to see if she would recognize it, and she did not recognize a fig variety which she had sold to me.
	When grown in Virginia, Sultanes look very different.
	Often leaf shape is used to classify and identify fig varieties, but fig leaves are extremely variable, even from the same tree. Generally they can be used most effectively to rule out varieties, rather than to make a definitive identification.
	But, this tree, Raspberry Latte, has two different types of leaves: one kind on some branches, and a different kind on others. Many varieties exhibit a wide variety of leaves on a given tree though one style usually predominates. This makes identification by leaves difficult.