No pruning this year

[Figneer]

I am basically leaving the branches as is except that I took few cuttings from certain branches, my goal is to see if the figs will form earlier than with pruning, my goal is for earlier production and not necessarily more production to ripen the figs earlier before the brutal summer heat dries them up, will see how it will work out

 

[bushdoctor82]

They look ready to go. Please update us on your findings at harvest time.

 

[MI.FIGS313]

An interesting hypothesis, I am in a cold zone, but would love to hear if there is a correlation between not pruning and early production. I remember Carlos Rivera does not prune his trees and have an amazing production, he always attributed that to his microclimate location between buildings, but wouldn't that be a find if it turned out to be the pruning and not the climate that enhance early production.
You have really beautiful inground trees

 

[TorontoJoe]

No pruning.... even minimal pruning would be a dream to me. Just no way to overwinter big trees here.

 

[TorontoJoe]

I'll be very curious to see how big those trees are at the end of the season.

 

[Figneer]

An interesting hypothesis, I am in a cold zone, but would love to hear if there is a correlation between not pruning and early production. I remember Carlos Rivera does not prune his trees and have an amazing production, he always attributed that to his microclimate location between buildings, but wouldn't that be a find if it turned out to be the pruning and not the climate that enhance early production.
You have really beautiful In ground trees

The theory is that without pruning the branches they have already mini figs nodes there ready to grow once the tree wake up versus with pruned branches the tree must first push green growth and leafs and those new branches then establish figs in them. In theory at least not pruning will produce figs few weeks ahead of pruned tree which in my climate can make a difference in ripping the figs before “ hell” heat comes our way I will keep the board updated of the results! BTW: now you mentioned Carlos Rivera ( I don’t know who he is) but your assessment maybe correct as far as production goes, not pruning maybe allow the tree to use its energy to produce fig versus new branches so it may end up true. Good discussion

 

[Figneer]

No pruning.... even minimal pruning would be a dream to me. Just no way to overwinter big trees here.

You have to adapt to your weather .. you have no choice but to prune to keep your tree alive

 

[Figneer]

I'll be very curious to see how big those trees are at the end of the season.

Yep. I am not a fan of 30 foot trees so if they grow too much then I have to prune them next season. If the theory works then I might just be able to prune every other year

 

[MI.FIGS313]

The theory is that without pruning the branches they have already mini figs nodes there ready to grow once the tree wake up versus with pruned branches the tree must first push green growth and leafs and those new branches then establish figs in them. In theory at least not pruning will produce figs few weeks ahead of pruned tree which in my climate can make a difference in ripping the figs before “ hell” heat comes our way I will keep the board updated of the results! BTW: now you mentioned Carlos Rivera ( I don’t know who he is) but your assessment maybe correct as far as production goes, not pruning maybe allow the tree to use its energy to produce fig versus new branches so it may end up true. Good discussion

Makes total sense. When updating please do it here in the same thread (if possible) so we can reference the discussions.

 

[TorontoJoe]

Yep. I am not a fan of 30 foot trees so if they grow too much then I have to prune them next season. If the theory works then I might just be able to prune every other year

What I would do for one of those small Genie lifts

 

[GoodFriendMike]

I would think a non-pruned tree would produce and ripen faster. Reason in my mind is that the trees can concentrate on continuing there growth instead of regrowing what was lost. If that makes since.

 

[TorontoJoe]

I would think a non-pruned tree would produce and ripen faster. Reason in my mind is that the trees can concentrate on continuing there growth instead of regrowing what was lost. If that makes since.

More recently I'm trying to preserve some lower, newer growth for the following season for this reason.

I'm probably going to start keeping a few suckers on the big, in ground trees for one or two years... Just rotate them off sort of like bananas. It's sad because as much as I love the big trees.... every year they just get later and later.

 

[Figneer]

I would think a non-pruned tree would produce and ripen faster. Reason in my mind is that the trees can concentrate on continuing there growth instead of regrowing what was lost. If that makes since.

Makes a lot of sense .. praying to be true

 

[Figneer]

More recently I'm trying to preserve some lower, newer growth for the following season for this reason.

I'm probably going to start keeping a few suckers on the big, in ground trees for one or two years... Just rotate them off sort of like bananas. It's sad because as much as I love the big trees.... every year they just get later and later.

Actually if you look at 2 out my 3 trees I am keeping all suckers to hopefully get a a cone like shape. I am grafting the only 3 verities left on the top of the “mother” tree on another tree so I can cut the main stem down… work in progress