So how can we reduce the size of a fig tree without sacrificing all its fruit?
“Help! My fig tree has grown too big!”
Or perhaps:“My fig tree produces masses of leaves, but very few ripe figs. What can I do?”
Fig trees can grow remarkably quickly. A young tree that seemed perfectly manageable when planted may, within three or four years, develop long, upright branches that carry its fruit beyond easy reach.This is particularly common when a fig is planted directly into fertile ground without any root restriction. With ample soil, water and nutrients available, the tree may devote much of its energy to producing long shoots and lush foliage rather than forming a compact, easily managed fruiting framework.
The obvious solution is to prune the tree and reduce its height. But this creates a dilemma.On many fig varieties, the earliest crop develops from tiny figs that formed near the tips of shoots during the previous summer and survived the winter. This is commonly called the breba crop.
If all those branches are cut back indiscriminately, the first crop may be lost.
For varieties that depend heavily on their breba crop, this could mean losing most—or even all—of the useful crop for that year.So how can we reduce the size of a fig tree without sacrificing all its fruit?
Quick facts
Do not simply cut every branch back by half.
Identify and retain as many shoots carrying overwintered fruitlets as possible.
Remove selected tall, bare or badly positioned branches completely.
Renovate a badly overgrown tree gradually over two or three years.
Pinch out selected vigorous shoots in early summer.
Remember that hard pruning encourages vigorous regrowth.
Understand whether your variety depends mainly on its breba crop or its main crop.
Root restriction can help control future growth and encourage cropping.
Three principles behind successful fig pruning
Before deciding where to cut, it helps to understand what pruning is intended to achieve.
1. Allow more light into the tree
A dense fig tree may have plenty of foliage at the top but very little light reaching the lower branches. This encourages continued growth towards the light and leaves the centre and lower part of the tree shaded.
Opening the structure by removing selected secondary branches allows more sunlight and air to reach the remaining shoots and fruit.
The aim is not merely to make the tree shorter. It is to create a broad, open framework in which productive annual growth receives enough light.
2. Control vigour without provoking excessive regrowth
Leaves manufacture the carbohydrates that support the tree’s growth. Reducing some of the leafy growth during the growing season can help control vigour, but excessively severe pruning may produce the opposite result.
A hard-pruned fig often responds by sending out several powerful new shoots immediately below each cut. Instead of one tall branch, you may soon have three or four.
Successful size control therefore depends on a combination of:
# selective structural pruning
# thinning unwanted regrowth
# pinching selected shoots during early summer
# avoiding excessive nitrogen feeding
# restricting the roots where appropriate
The purpose is to redirect growth, not simply to remove as much wood as possible.
3. Understand how the particular variety fruits
Not all fig varieties should be pruned in exactly the same way. Some varieties produce a valuable breba crop on shoots that grew during the previous year. Others are grown mainly for their main crop, which forms on the current season’s new growth.
Biferous varieties may produce both crops. Before pruning, ask:
Does this variety produce a worthwhile breba crop?
Is the breba crop its main or most reliable crop?
Does its main crop ripen early enough in my climate?
Am I growing it outdoors, under glass or in a polytunnel?
In the British climate, this distinction is especially important. A later main crop may fail to ripen outdoors, whereas the overwintered breba fruitlets have had a valuable head start.
The First Commandment: When do Fig Trees Produce Fruit?
Before picking up the secateurs, look carefully first. In spring, you may see tiny, pea-sized figs near the ends of shoots that grew during the previous summer. Cut them off and your first harvest is gone.
A biferous fig produces two separate harvests each growing season:
1. The Breba Crop:
The first harvest that forms on the previous year's woody growth. These figs swell in the spring and ripen early in the summer. The RHS explains that, in the UK, these overwintered fruitlets, the brebas, usually have the best chance of developing and ripening outdoors.
2. The Main Crop:
The second harvest that develops on the current season's new growth. These ripen later in the summer or early autumn – if at all. The main crop often require a long, hot summer to ripen.
This implies that “cutting the tree back by half” is too simplistic. The correct cut depends on what is growing on each individual branch.
Breba crop and main crop: what is the difference?
The breba crop develops on shoots produced during the previous growing season. The tiny figs usually overwinter near the ends of those shoots and resume growing in spring.
The main crop forms on the current year’s new growth. In warmer climates, both crops may ripen successfully. In much of Britain, however, the main crop may form too late to mature outdoors unless the variety is naturally early or the tree is grown in a particularly warm, sheltered position.
This means that pruning advice suitable for a Mediterranean climate may not always be ideal for a tree growing outdoors in Britain.
A variety such as Desert King, which is prized mainly for its breba crop, must be pruned particularly cautiously. Removing the previous season’s shoots removes the wood on which its useful crop is carried.
An early main-crop variety may tolerate harder pruning more readily, although severe pruning can still delay or reduce the harvest.
Will cutting a fig tree back by half destroy the breba crop?
It may. No, it actually will - most anyway.
If every branch is shortened by 50 per cent, many of the shoot tips carrying overwintered figs will be removed.The tree will almost certainly survive. Indeed, it may respond with a burst of vigorous new growth. But those new shoots cannot replace the breba figs that have already been cut off.
Hard pruning may reduce the height temporarily, but it can also stimulate exactly the kind of rapid, upright growth that caused the problem in the first place.The answer is therefore not to preserve every existing branch, nor is it to cut every branch to the same height. The better approach is to retain enough productive wood to give a crop while gradually replacing the tallest and least useful branches with lower, better-positioned growth.
Big mistake: Do not give the whole tree a haircut
One of the most common mistakes is to shorten every branch to approximately the same height, almost as though the fig were a hedge. This may make the tree look tidy immediately after pruning, but it rarely creates a good long-term structure.
Lightly shortening a long, bare branch often achieves very little. Several strong shoots may emerge just below the cut, leaving the tree denser and more difficult to control than before. The RHS recommends making a clearer choice: either retain a useful shoot unpruned or cut an unwanted long, bare branch back hard to encourage replacement growth lower down. For every branch, choose one of three options:
Keep it unpruned because it is compact, well placed and carries overwintered fruitlets.
Remove it completely because it is dead, crowded, crossing, inward-growing or badly positioned.
Cut it back hard because you want new replacement growth to develop lower down.
This selective approach may leave the tree looking slightly uneven for a season, but a productive fig tree does not need to look like a perfectly clipped ornamental shrub.
When should an established fig tree be pruned?
The main structural pruning is best carried out in early to mid-spring, after the danger of prolonged hard frost has passed but before strong new growth begins.
This is preferable to pruning during the coldest part of winter. Young shoot tips and overwintered fruitlets are vulnerable to frost, and fresh pruning wounds may also be exposed to severe cold.
The RHS recommends pruning figs twice each year: once in early to mid-spring and again in early to mid-summer.Wear gloves and long sleeves when pruning. Fig sap can irritate the skin.
Spring pruning: a step-by-step method
1. Stand back and assess the whole tree
Do not begin cutting immediately. Look at the tree from several angles and identify:
# its present height
# the height you eventually want
# the main structural branches
# areas where branches are crowded
# tall, bare or strongly upright shoots
# lower shoots that could form the future framework
# branches carrying visible overwintered figs
Taking photographs before pruning can be surprisingly helpful. You can study the structure on the screen and mark the branches you intend to keep or remove.
2. Decide on a realistic final height
Choose a height that allows you to protect, prune and harvest the tree safely.For many free-standing garden figs, a height of approximately 1.8–2m is manageable, although the best size will depend on the available space and the tree’s form.
Do not assume that a tree currently standing 3m high must reach its final 1.8m height in one pruning session. A gradual reduction is usually less disruptive and preserves more fruiting wood.
3. Remove dead, diseased and damaged wood
Start with the obvious material:dead branchesfrost-damaged shootsbroken branchesdiseased or badly damaged woodCut back to healthy wood or remove the branch completely at its point of origin.
4. Remove basal suckers
Fig trees often produce vigorous shoots from the base or roots.Remove unwanted suckers close to their point of origin. Leaving long stumps may encourage further shoots.
A sucker may occasionally be retained when a completely new low framework is required, but most should be removed so that they do not compete with the main tree.
5. Remove crossing, rubbing and inward-growing branches
Branches that rub against one another can damage the bark and create congested growth.
Remove branches that:
# cross through the centre
# rub against another branch
# grow directly inwards
# crowd a more productive shoot
# prevent light reaching the lower part of the tree
Branches with very narrow, weak unions may also be candidates for removal, particularly when they are strongly upright or likely to split. However, branch angle alone should not be treated as an inflexible rule. Overall strength, position, spacing and usefulness must also be considered.
6. Mark and retain fruit-bearing shoots
Look for pea-sized fruitlets near the shoot tips.Try to retain the most compact, well-positioned shoots carrying these fruitlets. They represent the crop most likely to ripen during the coming season.
Not every fruit-bearing shoot can always be saved. Some may be too high, overcrowded or badly positioned. The aim is to preserve a sensible proportion of the crop while improving the tree’s permanent structure.
7. Remove selected long, bare branches
Long branches with little useful side growth are poor candidates for light shortening.Where replacement growth is required, cut one or two selected branches back hard, leaving a stub approximately 5–8cm long. This encourages new shoots to emerge lower down.
Do not hard-prune every large branch in the same year unless complete renovation is unavoidable.Where you do not want new shoots—for example, in the crowded centre of the tree—remove the branch completely rather than leaving a stub.
8. Thin overcrowded secondary branches
Selectively remove some secondary branches to open the canopy and allow light to reach the lower annual growth.Do not remove so much that the tree is left almost bare. The aim is an open, balanced framework, not wholesale defoliation before growth has even begun.
9. Avoid cutting the tips from every annual shoot
The tips of last year’s annual growth may carry the overwintered fruitlets that will produce the coming breba crop.Retain as many useful fruit-bearing tips as the structure allows.Later in the season, the tips of suitable new shoots may also carry the embryonic figs for the following year. Repeatedly removing every shoot tip too late in summer can therefore reduce next year’s crop.
Reduce an overgrown tree gradually
A badly overgrown fig is usually best renovated over several years. The RHS advises staggering major pruning because a hard-pruned fig is likely to respond with excessive regrowth. Strong regrowth may take three to five years to bring fully under control when the tree is growing unrestricted in the ground.For a tree that needs its overall height reduced by approximately 50 per cent, consider the following approach.
First year
Remove dead, damaged and crossing wood.Remove one badly positioned central branch.Cut one or two of the tallest bare branches back hard.Retain several shorter branches carrying overwintered figs.Select lower shoots that can become part of the new framework.
Second year
Reduce another group of tall branches.Retain the best replacement growth produced after the first pruning.Remove crowded or badly positioned regrowth.Continue lowering the framework without stripping the entire tree of fruiting wood.
Third year, if necessary
Complete the height reduction.Refine the new lower framework.Remove remaining tall or unproductive structural branches.Continue controlling vigorous regrowth during early summer.This approach does not preserve every fig, but it avoids sacrificing the entire crop in a single year.
An example: reducing a three-year-old fig tree
Imagine a three-year-old tree with six main upright branches, each approximately 2.5m tall.Rather than cutting all six branches back to 1.25m, you could:retain three or four of the shorter, better-positioned shoots carrying visible fruitletsremove one badly placed central branch completelycut one or two of the tallest bare branches back hardallow the retained shoots to carry the current cropselect the best new lower shoots during summeruse those lower shoots to form the future frameworkThe tree may look uneven immediately after pruning. That is not necessarily a problem.The long-term aim is a compact, open and productive tree—not perfect symmetry during every stage of renovation.
Early-summer pruning: control the response
Spring pruning is only half the work.A strongly pruned fig tree may produce several fast-growing shoots from below each cut. If all of them are retained, the tree may recover much of its lost height in a single season.Early-summer management is therefore essential.
Thin excess regrowth
Where several shoots emerge from one pruning point, do not allow all of them to mature.Select the strongest shoot growing in the most useful direction. Remove or pinch back the others while they are still young.An ideal replacement shoot should:begin relatively low on the treegrow outwards rather than into the centrehave enough space around itreceive good lightbe easy to protect and harvestcontribute to a broad, open framework
Pinch selected shoots after five or six leaves
Once vigorous new shoots have produced five or six leaves, pinch out the soft growing tip of selected shoots.This reduces their tendency to form long, unbranched whips and encourages side branching. The RHS recommends carrying out this work from early summer until mid-summer.Do not pinch every shoot indiscriminately. Leave selected replacement shoots to extend where additional framework is required.
Stop major pinching by mid-summer
Do not continue shortening shoots indefinitely.By mid-summer, the tiny fruit embryos for the following year begin forming near the shoot tips. Pruning too late produces fresh growth that may not mature or form fruitlets before autumn.The timing is therefore important:early-summer pinching helps control vigour and encourage branchinglate-summer pinching may remove or prevent next year’s breba crop
A more intensive summer-control method
A very vigorous, unrestricted tree may sometimes require a more determined programme of summer thinning.
Because actively growing leaves support further shoot and root growth, selectively removing strongly growing, unproductive shoots after the tree has leafed out can help reduce canopy density and improve the light reaching the retained branches.
A cautious version of this approach would be:
1. Allow the tree to leaf out in spring.
2. Remove selected vigorous shoots that are badly placed or not required for fruiting or future structure.
3. Reassess the regrowth six to eight weeks later.
4. Thin new, overcrowded shoots again where necessary.
5. Retain enough healthy foliage to support the tree and its developing crop.
6. Stop substantial shoot removal by mid-summer.
This process may need to be repeated over several growing seasons.It should not be understood as repeatedly stripping the tree of all its strongest branches or leaves. Severe defoliation can weaken the tree, expose fruit and bark to scorching, and provoke further unwanted regrowth.The aim is controlled thinning, not exhaustion of the tree.
What about the main crop?
Hard pruning may stimulate fresh shoots capable of carrying a main crop later in the season.Whether that crop ripens depends on:
the variety
the local climate
the length and warmth of the growing season
whether the tree is outdoors, against a warm wall, in a greenhouse or in a polytunnel when the new growth began.
In much of the UK, figs formed late on the current season’s shoots may not ripen before autumn. This is why preserving overwintered fruitlets is often so important.However, growers should not assume that every British fig behaves identically. Early main-crop varieties may produce worthwhile figs on new growth, particularly in warmer or protected locations.
Understanding the fruiting habit of the named variety is therefore one of the most important parts of pruning correctly.
Root restriction and future size control
Pruning controls the top of the tree, but it may not correct the cause of excessive vigour. A fig growing in unrestricted, fertile soil may repeatedly produce long, leafy shoots.
Root restriction can reduce this vigour and make the tree easier to manage.
Suitable methods include:
- growing the tree in a large container,
- planting it in a lined pitusing a strong root-control bag ,
- or meshfan-training it against a sunny wall or fence.
The RHS recommends root restriction as a way of controlling excessive leafy growth and encouraging fruit production. However, it would be too absolute to say that an unrestricted fig cannot fruit. Many unrestricted trees do produce figs. The difficulty is that they may become large, vigorous and awkward to protect or harvest, and they may produce more vegetative growth than a carefully restricted tree.
Retrofitting root restriction around a large, established tree is also difficult and may damage major roots. Prevention is much easier than correction.
Feeding an over-vigorous fig tree
Avoid giving a vigorously growing fig large quantity of nitrogen-rich fertiliser.Excess nitrogen encourages soft, leafy growth and can make size control more difficult. A tree growing in reasonable garden soil may need little additional feeding. Where feeding is necessary, use a balanced or potassium-rich feed appropriate to the tree’s growing conditions rather than encouraging further lush growth.
Container-grown trees still need regular watering and adequate nutrition. Root restriction should control vigour—not starve the tree.
Should an overgrown fig ever be cut back completely?
Sometimes a tree has become so large, damaged or badly shaped that preserving the current crop is less important than rebuilding it. Fig trees generally tolerate severe renovation pruning and can regrow from old wood.
However, a very hard cut is likely to result in:
- the loss of the breba crop
- vigorous upright regrowth
- several shoots emerging from each cut
- a temporarily unattractive framework
- one or more seasons devoted largely to rebuilding the tree.
Complete renovation may be justified when:the tree has become unsafemajor branches are damagedthe framework is fundamentally unsuitablethe tree has completely outgrown its positiongradual renovation is impractical. Where there is no urgency, phased renovation is usually the better choice.
The best compromise
There is no pruning technique that can remove half of all the fruit-bearing wood while preserving every fig carried on that wood.The practical answer is compromise.
Retain the best branches carrying overwintered fruitlets. Remove the tallest, barest and worst-positioned branches first. Replace them gradually with lower growth, and control that new growth by thinning and pinching during early summer.
You may lose part of one crop, but you need not lose all of it.More importantly, you will begin creating a smaller and more productive tree that is easier to protect, prune and harvest for many years to come.
Fig-pruning calendar
Early to mid-spring
- Wait until the danger of prolonged hard frost has passed.
- Remove dead, diseased, damaged and frost-injured wood.
- Remove unwanted suckers.
- Remove crossing, rubbing and inward-growing branches.
- Retain well-positioned shoots carrying overwintered fruitlets.
- Cut selected tall, bare branches back hard.
- Remove crowded branches completely where regrowth is not wanted.
- Avoid shortening every branch indiscriminately.
Late spring to early summer
- Observe how the tree responds to the spring pruning.
- Select the best lower replacement shoots.
- Remove excess shoots emerging from the same point.
- Thin badly placed, inward-growing or overcrowded regrowth.
- Keep enough healthy leaves to support the developing crop.
Early to mid-summer
- Pinch selected new shoots after five or six leaves.
- Retain unpinched shoots where more framework is required.
- Continue opening the canopy so that light reaches the lower branches.
- Stop substantial pinching and shoot removal by mid-summer.
Mid-autumn
- Remove larger, hard figs that have failed to ripen.
- Retain the tiny pea-sized fruitlets at the shoot tips.
- Photograph the structure of the tree before the leaves fall.
- Mark productive branches if this will help with spring pruning.
