If you’ve gone to the time and effort to establish fig trees in your landscape—or you’re thinking about growing figs for the first time—you’ll need to understand just why, when, and how to prune a fig tree. Get it right and you can direct the new growth of your tree and make sure that new branches have ample access to fresh air and sunlight, so that they can be as productive as possible. The result? Year after year, you should be able to harvest some of the best fruit you’ve ever tasted from late summer and into fall.

Growing figs at home

While professional fig growers often train their plants to grow in a fan shape on a scaffold or espalier, beginners can grow a single fig tree directly in the garden or even in a pot. (Unlike apples and many other fruit trees, you only need one fig tree for fruit production.)

Fig trees thrive in wind-sheltered locations with full sun and well-draining soil. Although figs generally like hot weather, there are many types which grow well in colder climates and can tolerate some frost. Brown Turkey, Chicago Hardy, Black Mission, LSU Purple, and Violette de Bordeaux are some common types.

It’s worth noting that, in addition to their main fig crops, some trees set what’s called a “breba” crop on old wood in late spring or early summer. Occasionally smaller or less flavorful than the main crop, some breba crops may not be worth bothering with. As such, we’ll focus on making the most of your fig tree’s main crop for this article.

Why pruning is important

An important part of learning how to prune a fig tree is understanding why we need to do it in the first place. In part, pruning enables you to make very deliberate decisions about the overall height and shape of your tree so that harvesting its fruit is as easy as possible for you. Careful pruning also helps to produce more robust and vigorous growth above and below ground—and that means potentially larger and tastier harvests.

The best time to prune a fig tree

Besides how to prune a fig tree, the timing of your trimming matters, too. For instance, you usually won’t prune figs when the trees are actively growing. (Of course, as you’ll soon see, there are some exceptions to this.) Instead, the ideal time to prune is during the dormant season. In some climates, this may be in late winter or very early spring.

Tools for pruning figs

For the best outcome for your tree—and for your own safety!—here are the basic tools and gear you’ll need:

• Protective clothing and gloves: As you prune your fig tree, you may notice bleeding of sap coming out of the just-trimmed spots. (This is particularly likely if you make cuts while the tree is not dormant.) Containing chemical compounds called furocoumarins, this sap can irritate your skin, so wear long pants, long sleeves, and protective gloves when pruning fig trees. (In fact, if the sap makes contact with your skin and is also exposed to UV light, it can result in painful swelling, blistering, and more. This reaction is called phytophotodermatitis.)
• Protective eyewear or a face shield:Accidents happen, so be sure to guard against eye-pokes and scrapes from errant fig branches.
• Garden pruners: Need to remove suckers or thin branches that are about the size of a pencil or smaller? Known as secateurs for those of you in the UK, garden pruners are ideal for removing small, spindly growth.
• Loppers: Best for cutting limbs that are about an inch-and-a-half around or more. Use loppers when you need to cleanly cut larger branches.

The two main methods for how to prune a fig tree (annual and rejuvenation pruning)

 As you learn how to prune a fig tree, you’ll soon discover that there are different reasons and times to prune including:

• Annual pruning: Best undertaken during dormancy, annual pruning is intended to help direct future growth and boost the tree’s overall health and productivity.

• Rejuvenation pruning: Also undertaken during dormancy, this is heavy pruning reserved for very old, poorly producing, or diseased fig trees.

No matter your reason for pruning, avoid leaving a “nub” or stub through which disease can enter. Instead, when reducing branch length, cut just ahead of individual buds or, if you’re removing an entire branch, cut a smidge beyond the branch collar. As the tree grows, these areas have the means to heal over.

How to prune a fig tree annually step-by-step

Much like pruning a blueberry bush, during the annual pruning of your fig tree, you’ll make important decisions about the overall shape of your tree. Furthermore, with a few simple cuts, you can induce new shoots in a specific area while curtailing growth in other portions of your tree. You’ll also address problem areas, including removing dead wood, diseased wood, and crossing branches. (See the next five sections for more detail.)

Step 1: Identify the fruiting wood

A critical part of how to prune a fig tree is being able to identify the tree’s strongest branches of fruiting wood. First, look at the trunk of the tree and identify each of the main branches growing out of it. Making sure that they are evenly spaced around the trunk, choose five or six of the healthiest-looking main branches and remove the others. (These five or six branches comprise your fruiting wood.)

Just as the main branches emanate from your tree’s main trunk, fruit-bearing secondary branches can grow out of each of the main branches of fruiting wood. Over time, you’ll also want to thin out these secondary branches so that they’re fairly evenly distributed.

Step 2: Remove dead and diseased wood

For optimal air circulation and access to light, cut back old wood from the previous season. That goes for dead or diseased wood you find as well. Because it can be difficult to tell what’s dead and what’s not during dormancy, you may choose to remove dead wood in the spring after the tree has new leaves. Just take care not to cut healthy new wood—especially new wood with fruitlets—as that will impact your harvest for this growing season.

Step 3: Prune out crossing branches

 Next, examine the remaining branches. Are any actively crossing or rubbing against any others? Do you notice any smaller branches that may, as they develop, eventually cross or rub up against any larger branches nearby? Now’s the time to deal with these potential troublemakers. If left unchecked, crossed branches can become damaged. These damaged areas are more likely to be susceptible to disease.

Step 4: Cut out the weakest branches

How can you tell which branches will grow to be weak and which will be strong? One way is to examine the angle they form at their point of attachment. Strong secondary branches attach to main branches at roughly a 45-degree angle or greater. Branches originating at extremely acute angles may grow too closely to their main branches or they may not be able to sustain the weight of heavy fruits.

Step 5: Shape the tree

For the last step in the pruning process, step back and examine your tree’s overall growth habit. You may decide to reduce the length of branches which are becoming too tall to reach for ease of harvest. In order to encourage bushier, more compact growth, you can trim off about one-third of their length as needed. This kind of pruning is known as heading, and these are heading cuts.

If you notice portions of your tree are growing too close to your house, a garden wall, or a walking path, for example, you might decide to remove these branches entirely. This is known as thinning, and these are thinning cuts. Finally, you should also thin suckers popping up at the soil level near the base of the tree. After thinning, your tree will simply redirect its resources to the remaining branches.

How to prune a fig tree that’s old (aka rejuvenative pruning)

Recall that there’s more than one reason and more than one way to prune fig trees. Here’s how to prune a fig tree if you’re hoping to rejuvenate an old or badly diseased specimen:

While the tree is still dormant, you can very heavily cut it back without killing the tree itself. This includes removing all diseased limbs and most of the main trunk (or trunks if your tree has more than one main trunk.) The goal is to spur the tree’s root system to send up healthy new growth to replace its previously unproductive or diseased growth. It may take several months or more for the plant to recover, but you should be left with a much healthier specimen in the long run. 

Incidentally, the only other time you might prune nearly as drastically is for the first pruning of a young fig tree. In that case, you’ll nearly halve its size during winter dormancy. This will stimulate root growth and healthy, compact above-ground growth in the following year.

What to do after pruning a fig

Now, beyond how to prune a fig tree, here are a couple of post-pruning tasks:

• Distribute about two inches of mulch over the tree’s root zone. Avoid the temptation to “volcano” mulch around the trunk of the tree. Instead, distribute it in an even, flat layer. This will help to conserve moisture and insulate the roots.
• If you live in a cold climate, consider erecting a wind break to protect your fig from cold winter winds.

How to prune a fig tree synopsis

Knowing how to prune a fig tree is essential for a bountiful harvest and for the overall health of your plant. To review, annual pruning during winter dormancy involves removing dead or diseased branches from the previous year and shaping your tree’s growth in some specific ways for next year. Case in point, by making assorted thinning and heading cuts, you can boost fruit production and ease of harvest. By eliminating weak and crossing (or potentially crossing) branches and suckers you’ll also ensure that your tree puts its energy into only the strongest and healthiest branches which remain.

Through heavy pruning, you can rejuvenate very old or diseased trees, too.

For more fruit-growing success, please visit the following articles:

• Growing honeyberries
• Growing fruit trees in containers
• Yellow raspberries
• Strawberries in raised beds
• Fertilizing blueberries
• Pruning blueberries