Thoughts on pinching fig trees

[@AveryOCason]

Great info thanks for sharing

[@oregonfigs3314]

Thanks for watching!

[@dpomerleau]

Beautiful trees Chris!

[@oregonfigs3314]

Thank you Dean.

[@PeterEntwistle]

Definitely makes sense to control the height of the tree by pinching the growth out. I know a few people that pinch to try to encourage the fruit to start developing earlier. I believe it only works if the branch has developed double buds. Not experimented too much with it myself yet. I did try it last year but it didn’t seem to work, but might have been because my tree was not big enough.

[@oregonfigs3314]

Thank you Peter! I don’t know much about results pinching for fruit development. I wish someone would put time into comparing like trees and pinching. I think there is a lot of speculation out there.

[@SteveHagerman]

Chris, do you ever do root prunning? I did some on my RDB's in 15 gallon pots in early february, while they were still dormant. I think I took off too much root, and it may have killed some of the trees.. Steve.....Zillah, WA.

[@oregonfigs3314]

I am very good about root pruning. I root pruned all my established pots a few weeks before bud break last year. The root pruning helped the trees hold water for a longer time in the pot. I find that water runs right through the pots if they get root bound. The pots dry out very fast and the leaves curl in the heat without root pruning. I wonder if you pruned too early or if you took off too much root mass as you suggested?

[@SteveHagerman]

I’m guessing that I took off too much root.

[@Its.Just.Me.You.See.]

Do you train the main scaffold branching on your trees, or just let them do their thing?

[@oregonfigs3314]

I form single stem from early on. My trees grow slowly because of our short season and cooler nighttime temperatures. I shape with my hands and pruning shears to balance the trees. I don’t take many cuttings off my trees for several years.

[@petergraves9006]

i started 47 diff varieties this year from cuttings and have been TP them in 5g and 15g pots should i remove all the figs? i have many trees to not as worried about mass production

[@oregonfigs3314]

We generally do not get many figs in year one in the PNW. If you take off the figs, the tree would grow faster. I don’t think I would be disciplined enough to do that if I was lucky enough to get lots of figs in year one.

[@ktrain4996]

I need to do some pinching too, hope my wife doesn't get in the way. lol

[@oregonfigs3314]

She might end up as an early adopter!

[@ktrain4996]

@@oregonfigs3314 :) lol

[@telasims233]

Being new, Chris that tip came a lil late, i have 2 that i think grow faster, im like 5'2" and they are over 6 '. I plan on putting the best ones in ground but if they keep getting bigger i cant do it by myself.. is that a different house?? So you're actually going to try another Celeste?? Good luck, and thanks for the tip..

[@oregonfigs3314]

Yes this is our place in town. I’m hoping Improved Celeste is ok here. It is much earlier than standard Celeste and the leaves are huge. IC is considered an early variety.

[@telasims233]

​@@oregonfigs3314I wish I could wrap my Georgia climate around that tree for you, They grow like weeds around here.. copying Anthony, also zone 8 In the South, I got the growth like him, just NOT THE FIGS... I remember you said CLIMATE SPECIFIC.. He's on the coast with sandy soil I'm inland with clay soil.. This is so frustrating.. thank you so much for your advice. The 2 CdD's you culled were the ones I wanted. I'm struggling with local varieties 😂😂😂 I need A LOT more experience first.. but I have 9 fruiting and I'm taking your attitude, STAY HUMBLE ❤

[@oregonfigs3314]

I ended up not culling the two CdDs. Really glad because I ripened CdD Gegantina and it was my #1 fig for 2023. I gave both a three week head start in my little pop up greenhouse this year. We cannot grow the trees very fast here. We still have not made it out of the 40s as our nighttime lows.

[@telasims233]

@@oregonfigs3314still I'd have a snowballs chance in Hell growing them with No October.. still GRATEFUL for the advice.. I can't get over how the deer just ATTACK the bark of yours, and here they nibble every leaf off of the young ones.. Are you culling or replacing the damaged ones?? Do you even HAVE duplicates of the damaged ones?? Now I'm curious about the orchard, or is an IN THE NEXT VIDEO question 😂🤣😂🤣