Pruning Fig Trees: When to Cut, What to Keep, and How to Keep a Fig Small

Prune fig trees in late winter while they’re dormant: January through mid-February in the Sacramento Valley, after the leaves drop and before the buds swell. Keep the cuts light. A fig sets its early breba crop on last year’s wood, so every branch you take off in January is figs you won’t eat in June.

Common fig (Ficus carica) is one of the easiest fruit trees to grow here, and one of the easiest to over-prune. It grows fast, it forgives almost any cut, and it will happily turn a hard pruning into a flush of leafy shoots with no fruit on them. If you’re still choosing a variety or a spot for one, start with our fig growing guide. If your tree is big, healthy, and bare of fruit, bad pruning is one of the usual reasons figs don’t fruit.

When should you prune a fig tree?

Do the main pruning in winter while the tree is leafless, in January or February, to open the interior and bring the height down. Wait until the coldest weather has passed, and finish before spring growth starts.

With the leaves gone you can see the branch structure and tell last year’s wood (smooth and green-tinged) from older wood (gray). The tree then has all spring to push new shoots from the cuts, and those shoots carry the main crop.

In California: January through mid-February. Our winters rarely kill fig wood in the Valley, so you’re shaping a healthy tree, not cleaning up freeze damage. Get it done before the buds swell in late February.

In cold-winter areas: wait, and cut freeze-damaged wood once regrowth begins in spring. A fig that looks dead in March often pushes new shoots from wood you would have cut off.

The second window is early summer, right after the early fruit ripens, since a heavy winter pruning can remove the coming crop. Florida’s extension service prefers this window outright. In Sacramento that means late June or early July, right after the brebas come in. Summer is for light work: pinching, shortening a few long shoots, pulling suckers. Save structural cuts for winter.

Don’t prune in fall. New growth pushed in October won’t harden off before the first frost.

Breba vs. main crop: which figs does pruning cost you?

Most figs bear two crops a year, on two different kinds of wood.

• The breba crop forms on last season’s wood. The tiny figs overwinter at the branch tips and ripen in early summer. Brebas run larger, fewer, and less flavorful than the main crop.
• The main crop forms on this year’s new shoots and ripens from late summer into fall, which is why a fig cut back hard in winter still gives you a fall harvest.

How much a hard winter cut costs you depends on your variety. ‘Black Mission’ is prolific with brebas, ‘Brown Turkey’ sets a small first crop, and ‘Celeste’ rarely produces one. ‘Desert King’ is a dependable breba producer, and mature ‘Celeste’ trees lose crop when they’re pruned heavily. The table below is my reading of those traits.

Variety	Breba crop	How hard to prune
’Black Mission’	Heavy	Light. Keep most of last year’s wood.
‘Desert King’	Heavy, often the main harvest	Light. The brebas are the point of this tree.
‘Brown Turkey’	Small	Moderate to hard. It fruits well on new growth.
‘Celeste’	Rare	Moderate. Mature trees lose crop from heavy cuts.

‘White Kadota’ can ripen two crops. Prune it moderately and watch which crop it favors in your yard.

The working rule: keep about one-third to one-half of last year’s growth. Before you cut, look at the branch tips for the small overwintering figs and work around as many as you can.

How to train a young fig tree

Pick the shape in the first two winters, while the young stems are still easy to choose between.

Multi-trunk bush

This is the fig’s natural habit and the right choice for most yards. Left alone, a fig grows into a spreading, multi-trunked tree that can reach 20 feet. A bush form also gives you insurance: when a hard freeze kills one trunk, you cut that one out and the others keep fruiting.

After the first growing season, in late winter, pick three to eight vigorous, widely spaced shoots as leaders and remove everything else. Space them far enough apart that each can grow to 3 or 4 inches thick. Crowded leaders split off in high wind.

Single trunk with scaffolds

In mild-winter areas you can grow a fig as a small tree: a single trunk with three to five scaffold branches, which works only where winters don’t freeze the tree back. Train it like an open vase: no central leader, scaffolds angled outward, center kept open to the sun. The same system appears in our fruit tree pruning hub for peaches and plums.

The Sacramento Valley suits either form. Pick a single trunk if you want to mow under the tree or walk past it. Pick the bush if you want more fruit at arm’s height and a backup trunk.

How to prune a mature fig tree

Once the tree is bearing, work in this order.

1. Dead, broken, and diseased wood. Cut it back to live wood or remove the branch entirely. Cut at the branch collar and in dry weather, which limits coral spot, a canker that attacks weak and dying wood.

2. Suckers. Figs throw up new shoots from the base every year. Remove all of them except what you need to replace a broken leader. Keep one or two of the strongest as future trunks and cut the rest flush at the ground.

3. Crossing and inward branches. Where two branches rub, take out the weaker one. Remove shoots growing back toward the center.

4. Interior thinning. Take out some of the older gray wood inside the canopy, and prune the top so light reaches the middle. Shaded interior wood grows leaves, not figs.

5. Height reduction. Cut tall limbs back to an outward-growing side branch. That keeps the canopy open and brings the fruit down to where you can reach it. Don’t top the tree by shearing across the crown.

6. Long shoots. On varieties that fruit mainly on new growth, cut long shoots back by one-third to one-half each year. Skip this on ‘Black Mission’ and ‘Desert King’ unless you’re willing to trade brebas for size control.

Make every cut back to a bud or a side branch. Bare stubs become entry points for wood-decay organisms.

Branches up to about three-quarters of an inch go with bypass pruners. The Felco F2 handles fig wood easily, and our bypass pruner guide explains why a bypass blade beats an anvil on live wood. For limbs from three-quarters to about an inch and a half, use loppers like the Felco F21, and see our lopper buying advice for handle length. Anything thicker gets a folding saw such as the Silky GomBoy 240mm. Fig wood is soft, and a sharp saw cuts it fast. Keep blades clean and oiled between seasons. MK Library has a short piece on making garden tools last.

How to keep a fig tree small

A mature fig runs 10 to 30 feet tall and wide, and it tends to grow wider than tall. Severe pruning can hold one to a manageable height.

To keep an in-ground fig at picking height:

• Make reduction cuts every winter, taking the tallest limbs back to outward side branches.
• Remove one or two of the oldest, tallest stems at the base each year and let a young sucker replace them.
• Pinch the tips of vigorous shoots in early summer to make them branch lower.

Figs recover from hard cuts better than most fruit trees do. If a neglected fig has swallowed the side yard, you can cut it back hard in one winter and still get a main crop on the new shoots that fall. You will lose most of that year’s brebas.

Pruning figs in containers

A fig in a pot is the surest way to keep one small. It’s one of our favorite patio trees in pots for that reason. Use a container at least 18 inches across, and pick one of two shapes:

• Tree form: one central trunk, with the head starting about 18 inches up.
• Bush form: no more than three to five branches of equal height.

Prune container figs in late winter, the same as in-ground trees. Every few years, when the roots fill the pot, lift the tree, root prune it hard, and cut the canopy back to match the smaller root system.

Cold-climate dieback vs. California pruning

Figs tolerate temperatures down to about 18°F. Below that, wood dies back, sometimes to the ground. In those climates the spring pruning is mostly removal: wait for buds to break, then cut dead wood back to live tissue. A Pennsylvania grower who cut eight well-protected in-ground figs to the base after one bad winter still got ‘Brown Turkey’ fruit on the new growth.

When a fig freezes to the ground, let the new shoots reach about 2 feet, keep five or six strong ones as new trunks, and remove the rest over two to three weeks to soften the loss of leaf area. A fig cut to the ground can bear a late crop the same summer and return to full production the next year.

In most of California, frost rarely kills fig wood, so winter pruning is about size and light. If a cold snap does burn the tips, leave them alone until new growth shows you where the live wood ends.

Wear gloves: fig sap irritates skin

Every cut bleeds a milky white latex that causes phytophotodermatitis: its furanocoumarins react with sunlight and raise a blistering rash on skin the sap touched.

Wear gloves and long sleeves, keep the sap off your face, and wash your arms with soap before you go back out in the sun. Wipe sap off your pruner blades too. It dries tacky and gums up the pivot. Fig sap and leaves are also mildly toxic to dogs, cats, and horses, so pick up the trimmings rather than leaving them where pets chew.

Common fig pruning mistakes

Pruning hard every winter. This removes the breba crop year after year and pushes leafy regrowth. Our fig fertilizer guide covers the other half of that problem, since too much nitrogen on a hard-pruned fig makes the all-leaves habit worse.

Pruning in spring after the buds break. The overwintering brebas are already swelling at the tips. Cut those branches in April and you’ve picked the fruit off before it ripens.

Topping the tree. Shearing straight across the crown gives you a broom of upright shoots, a dense shaded canopy, and fruit only at the very top. Use reduction cuts to side branches instead.

Leaving every sucker. A fig that keeps all its base shoots turns into a thicket in three or four years. Keep only the ones you want as replacement trunks.

Cutting frost-damaged wood too early. In cold areas, a fig pruned in February often loses wood that would have leafed out in April. Wait until you see green.

Hiring someone who doesn’t know figs. A crew used to shade trees may shear a fig into a ball. If you hire out, ask how they handle breba wood. MK Library’s guide to choosing a good arborist lists the questions to ask.

Fig pruning calendar for Sacramento and the Central Valley

Month	What to do
December	Wait for full leaf drop. Clean up fallen leaves and mummified fruit.
January to mid-February	Main pruning window. Structure, thinning, height reduction, suckers.
Late February to April	Hands off. Buds and brebas are swelling.
May	Pull new suckers from the base.
Late June to early July	After the breba harvest: pinch long shoots, light shaping.
August to October	Pick the main crop. No pruning.
November	Let the tree go dormant. No pruning.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to prune a fig tree?

Prune a fig in late winter while it is dormant, after the coldest weather has passed and before the buds break. In the Sacramento Valley and most of California that means January through mid-February. Light cleanup and pinching can also happen in early summer right after the breba crop is picked.

Will pruning a fig tree stop it from fruiting?

Heavy winter pruning can wipe out the breba crop, because breba figs form on last year’s wood. The main crop forms on new shoots, so most figs still bear in late summer after a hard cut. Keep a third to half of last year’s growth if you want both crops.

How do I keep a fig tree small?

Cut tall limbs back to an outward-facing side branch every winter and remove a few of the oldest stems at the base. A fig takes this well. For the smallest tree, grow it in a large container or as a multi-stem bush and reduce the height every year.

Should a fig tree have one trunk or several?

Grow a fig as a multi-trunk bush where winters freeze it back, because you can cut out a killed trunk and keep the rest. In mild areas like coastal and Central Valley California, a single trunk with three to five scaffold branches works well.

Is fig tree sap dangerous?

Fig sap is a skin irritant. The milky latex contains furanocoumarins that cause phytophotodermatitis, a rash that blisters when sap-covered skin is exposed to sunlight. Wear gloves and long sleeves when pruning, and wash sap off right away.

What do I do with a fig that froze back over winter?

Wait until new growth starts in spring, then cut the dead wood back to live tissue. If the tree froze to the ground, let the new shoots reach about 2 feet, keep five or six strong ones as new trunks, and remove the rest over two or three weeks.

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