Pruning of a tree after a root pruning is necessary to create a balance between root mass and top growth - branches. Disclaimer - I am not an expert in pruning, I learn more every year, and my opinions can change based on experience.
Very interesting, am new to gardening,but I always loved biology in school and my Mama never understood why I went to study physics and not biology. Thank you again for your explanation and your commitment to teach people.❤
Wow, very informative videos ! I am also from Michigan. I started to grow my figs from Aug 2022, now I have 6 varieties 18 baby trees! Very glad find someone like you live in same hardness zone to guide me. I watched all your videos, will definitely use the techniques learned from your videos. Please let me know when you sale your cuttings or when you throw out your trimmed off branches which you are not going to use, I will be glad to collect more varieties. Thank you so much!
Hi. I am planning to root my cuttings and sell young plants next year. Not sure if I will offer cuttings for sale. Thank you for watching, nice to hear of another local grower.
Thank you- very well exp,aimed. I m new to figs and pruning does my head in. It's a learning process for sure. I wonder if someone prunes a tree incorrectly , it can be rectified down the track.
Hi, I am of opinion that almost any tree can be corrected. Figs especially, since they are a vigorous growers. And as long their buds are not completely damaged, new branches can regrow, even on old branches. In extreme case, trunk can be cut below, almost to the ground, and new trunk can be re - grown. Also, more technical way is by grafting. I will make many videos on pruning, I think that it is important part of growing, and very little understood. If you can send me a photo of your tree, I could make a drawing of what I would do to correct that tree. Correcting poor tree form is a job that I enjoy.
Hello and thank you for this very helpful instructional video. I was wondering about what you think about pruning the fig tree if they are in ground, would you use the same style and technique to keep the in ground trees smaller and more manageable? A follow-up question, are you worried that if a fig tree is vigorous in pot or in ground that if I prune it back it will keep trying to send out more branches, and if it does will you keep pruning those off during the growing season to maintain the preferred shape? I have a few trees in ground that I want to let go and get big but I also have a few trees that I planted in ground close together only a 4' apart (Smith, Dauphine, Black Jack) and I was wondering if I should just aggressively prune them the same. The Black Jack I found out is a dwarf or has a lot less vigor which I placed in between luckily. Can't hurt to try cutting the inground down to 6'.. Now I'm not as afraid to give my potted trees a good shape pruning to mimic what you have done. I think it makes a lot of sense to root prune and keep the potted tree shape smaller. I appreciate your time. Thanks!
Wow, those are great questions, I will have to make a video to answer them properly. I'll try to be brief here. You should absolutely keep your trees smaller if you don't have enough space, but even if you do, they should be properly pruned. Since they are in ground, what zone are you in? Do you need to give them winter protection, and are they close to the house? What is the position of your trees ( facing south, etc.), are they that close to each other because of the lack of space? My answer will wary greatly based on that.
@@backyardfigs Hello I live in AZ zone 9B. The in ground trees where I'm trying to manage the size on is because I don't have a lot of space in these two locations I picked. 1) next to my house facing south, 2) in the backyard facing west in a line bisecting the yard. I started these trees from cuttings in Aug 21' and judging by their size already I'm starting to realize it will be fine to reduce down. ..I decided to aggressively prune them back (a little painful haha)! I used your tips for the desired amount of branches and looked over each limb to visualize the future shape and made the cuts so that a bud was facing the right direction. I shaped them away from each other taking out the adjacent branches between them. I used your principles and removed extra branches.. And reduced the length of the remaining. I'm thinking they are scaffolding branches now and I'm a little proud lol. Thank you very much for all advice, tips and tricks ;) I needed this video to get me to take the plunge and just do it!
@@darthficus You welcome. One more tip I could give you is to take time when making decision on what to prune. Some cuts are obvious, and some require more thinking, almost like puzzle solving. If in doubt, wait till tomorrow or so, to decide. And, if you make a mistake, that's ok, it's a part of learning process.
Excellent presentation, bud selection for potential branch formation was very helpful, I have 75 fig trees that I have to consider how I want them to grow, however I am concerned about not allowing the roots to fully mature before starting the pruning process.
Hi. You didn't mentioned how old your trees are, and what size pots are they in, but since they are ready to be pruned, I will assume that this is their third season, at least. The best time to root prune is at same time as branch pruning. I would recommend that you remove each tree from container, and check if they are root (pot) bound. If they have long circling roots, then it is time to root prune, and if they have just reached the interior wall of the pot, and are starting to circle, you could possibly leave them alone.
@@backyardfigs Most of them this is their first growing season except for six, but I must tell you that I live in zone 9a, Houston, Texas, It seems that we have not only a longer growing season but it also get awfully hot here, so I think that has something to do with the growth. They are currently in 5 to seven gal fiber pots, the started as fig-pops, then 1gal, and after about 2 months I up-potted them into 2 gal, by the beginning of July they went into 5 gal. pots. I have not at this point did any root pruning as like I said earlier, "I wanted to to develop the root structure. I have only been growing for about a year and a half. The main thing for me is to help them survive the winter, expecting 17 degrees with 40 MPH winds tonight.
fantastic information. Thankyou. I am sending an e-mail. I have a question about the height of the main trunk and how relevant the height of the 3 bottom scaffold branches are to the main trunk. I need to know if I should prune the main trunk down to the same height as the scaffold tips.
I will look into your message for more info on your trees. To answer here, height of the tree, and the position of the scaffolding will depend on your situation. My trees have to be more compact since I have to move them constantly. You may keep them as a taller trees if your containers are larger then mine (7 and 10 gal). Same with scaffolding branches, I have mostly three on mine, but if the trees are larger, some trees can have more. As a rule, the trunk ends where the highest scaffolding branch starts. Thanks for the question, I will post more videos on this matter.
Thankyou! So the tree is 44 inches tall now...I did prune a foot or so off last week when I did the tree...the 3 scaffolds are within the bottom 6 inches of the tree trunk and they are now aprox. 25 inches long. Two of them are forked at the end, the one that is not forked looks thicker than the other two branches.The tree is now in a 15 gallon pot. @@backyardfigs
Yes, try pushing the paste as much as possible into the opening. If the hole is too deep due to borers, I would recommend cutting the damaged part if the branch has a replacement bud bellow. Make sure that area is dry if sealer goes onto pruned cut. Also , check through the season and later to re-apply if necessary. Wound Paste and Grafting Sealant: amzn.to/3Uwl1Fj
Figs produce main crop on newly growing branches. Those two nodes will grow two strong branches, possibly with figs at every node. Depending on pot and tree size, tree will produce balanced number of figs, and grew branches accordingly. For this pot size, (7gal), that's plenty enough. I would be satisfied even with one node. it will grow even stronger and longer branch with possibly similar number of figs. This tree is too small to support 3 or 4 new branches after pruning, they would shade each other, be shorter, thinner and possibly would produce less figs of smaller size. All depends on the individual tree. If this tree was grown in larger pot, it would also be larger, and then depending on scaffolding branches it could be pruned leaving more nodes. But not repeatedly season after season, it will be too congested with branches. I will try to show more videos on pruning and new forms of my trees. As of now, they are too large for my growing method, too large to move around. Thanks for asking this question.
Hi. The bud at the end was the main bud left for fruiting. Bud at the base was counted for safety, and very often will stay dormant if the bud at the end is vigorous.
Nobody has done a video of how to create a single trunk from a many trunks fig tree. I just purchased a fig tree that has 4 trunks and I have no idea how to prune/create single trunk.
Hi Corina, I would be glad to help you with that tree. Your problem is what I enjoy doing the most, creating properly shaped trees. You can reach me at: zarko@backyardfigs.com
