The pinching technique was used by many people and found out it works.
That is a fact.
Reopening and challenging those finding is a waste of time and also confusion creating.
Pinching should not be done only if tree is very young,in the first and second year.

Only one variety, Kathleens' Black, has not responded to pinching. But it is young right now. Seems to be a tree that needs to be a bit older to form.

I had no fig embryos 8 days ago on 6 of my trees. I pinched all the ends and now they have embryos on 4 out of 6.

Also seems that some of my root bound trees forced out embryos as well after growing only a few inches. Keeping rootbound is another technique I have experimented with.

You are right NYPD:Kathleen Black is reluctant to grow fruits when young.
Mine did respond to pinching very well this year when it is six years old.
I have a lot of fruits,on it now about three out of five leaves I left on Branch,formed figs.
It is not Marseilles vs black when about productivity,but on the other hand Gene in Wash DC,stated that once we taste Kathleen Black we will trow Hardy C and other very early cultivars like MVSB,to the Pigs.
Personally I can tell you it is indeed better tasting when properly ripe,so it is worth putting up with the longer wait.

Hello olympia_gardener,

Many times, trees just grow big and beautiful, but do not fruit much or at all. In my own experience, after a poor summer, I prune the whole tree, and the next year is much better with fruit and branching. Yet other people, like yourself, have the opposite results.

The same is true with every aspect of fig tree growing. Seems that some things work for some people and other things for others. I trust and respect herman2 in most things, but each of us is a scientist trying to unravel the mysteries of fig cultivation.

Thank you for sharing this information. I of course must now go out and mess with one of my trees to see what works best in my own yard. Interesting discussion!

Come on everybody... what works best for your trees?

I also in zone 5 pinch all my fig plants to help ripen the crop and slow the vegetation growth. After pinching i keep pinching the new growth that comes of it.

Many times if not pinched the figs will slowly ripen from the bottom of the branch upwards with too many figs on branch and overall all the rest of branches on tree the ripening process gets slower as the vegetation on tree keeps growing and soon season comes to a close in my climate.

Some faster growing fig trees here such as Mission will ripen even fewer figs as the branches take off in there habit of growing so fast that fewer figs will ripen but by pinching and slowing down its growth in form of branching it concentrates more energy to ripening of the figs.

In short i could take 2 of the same cultivar grown in containers pinch one tree and let the other tree grow wild by seasons end the one pinched will produce more ripe figs.
Its even more obvious with a fast grown fig tree such as a ronde .
They are trees and want to grow as such and its up to the grower to manipulate them and cheat mother nature in our different climates and this is reason why i grow in containers and pinch the limbs.
Some fig trees are long season plants and grow inground in different climates and if grown here in my climate inground the figs if they ripen would be very late even with pinching.
Martin
Zone 5
Near Chicago

Herman,

When you throw away your MVSB away for Kathleen's, please, will you throw it at me? :D

noss

Hey Martin ,

I am unsure of what you do after your first pinch .
First of all after how many leaves do you pinch ?
Secondly do you keep removing any new growth completely from that branch ?

Thanks ... john

From the standpoint of having really big trees, a ladder would be necessary, so obviously we don't. We get TONS of figs.

Olympia Gardener those are very nice pictures. My Hardy Chicago is potted and this is the first year l have gotten any figlets...these started after l pinched after the fifth or sixth leaf on every branch. I have had the tree 2 or 3 summers.
At first l noticed a couple of figldts on one bran h...then a few days later there were a couple on another branch...now a week later a few smaller ones a appearing scattered around other branches.
The point l am trying g to make is that the pinching may effect t production of fruiting hormones in general in the tree not just one
one particular branch. In an experiment you have to account for confounding conditions.

Olympia Gardener those are very nice pictures. My Hardy Chicago is potted and this is the first year l have gotten any figlets...these started after l pinched after the fifth or sixth leaf on every branch. I have had the tree 2 or 3 summers.
At first l noticed a couple of figldts on one bran h...then a few days later there were a couple on another branch...now a week later a few smaller ones a appearing scattered around other branches.
The point l am trying g to make is that the pinching may effect t production of fruiting hormones in general in the tree not just one
one particular branch. In an experiment you have to account for confounding conditions.

John i pinch after 5-6 pair of leaves and also pinch any new growth appearing as it normally does after pinching.
As a note my trees are in containers although i recently put an elder inground this season.
Martin

Martin, Appreciate your clarification of pinch the tree is to speed up fig ripening process. I may have mistaken it to speed up the fruiting process. Will the tree continue to grow baby fruits during the growing season as the branches grow longer if not pinched back?
My tree is 6-7 years old. It was always kept in the pot and garaged in the winter time. It is more a house plant than fruit tree. This year I put it in ground. It grows much much better. I have never seen so many little baby figs poping up.
After this coming winter, I should be much better equiped on skills and material to proper winterize in ground fig tree. I would like to add another fig in the yard. NYPD and Herman, Thanks for bringing a better flavored variety out. I will put it to my wish list.

John, Martin have his answer to you. Just to share what I did: I read from internet website and this forum suggesting piched at between 3-6 leave. I pinches at 4-5 leaves depends on how big the leaves are. If this particular branch has bigger leave, I pinched at 4 leave; if this particular branches has smaller leave or partial was frost damadged, I will give it one more leave at 5. Half of my tree pinched and half did not. My tree is open center vase shape with 5 main branches coming from the soil line, around 3 feet tall. This will be easier to bend them down and burry them in winter time.

Purple, you are lucky in warmer climate to grow fig tree without much struggle. We are in colder climate, like Martin said, have to do all sort of tricks to fool mother natutre in order to get handful of fruits. But it may just part of the fun of growing your own friuts.

Finaly, budbackeast, You don't know what you are talking about. We have commerical grower here to share growing experinces of friut trees in broad sense and skills; yet we have home hobby grower here to share individual growing experiences. Each study has its own constrains and statistically correctiveness and miss. Mother nature many times outsmart us by surprising us with something different. The forum is a way to share our enthusiastic of growing plants and expereinces, help each other to solve problems, and other related aspects. To you, a Lyric I just heard is better way to express... " wiser says the fool rush in..."

Olympia yes if not pinched it will continue to grow and show new figs as well.
Also when pinched as mention new shoots appear around the area and will grow into stems doing the same thing .
For me i pinch those off as well.
After say 5 pair of leaves and pinched one can expect 8 figs on that branch as figs appear at leaf axil and sometimes not at the 2 lowest leaves for estimate .
This is what i experience.
Martin

Thanks Martin ,

But one last question . When you say pairs of leaves , does that mean 10 in total on that branch ?

John

Hi John yes this is what i do about 10 leaves.
They grow oposite each other as a pair i call them. ; )
Regards
Martin

Thanks Martin .

Whatever you do definitely works because I see you posting pics of ripe figs way before mine are ready , and we are in similar climates .

John

I f I did not pinch my seven fig trees I would not have any fruit. Until the last week of may I did not have even one fig to show. I thought all my fig trees are gays but I remembered the pinching. Now if all my baby figs ripens I can feed a small village in India. Pinching works.

I piched half the branches and left another half branches not-pinched. In general, my not-pinched half have bigger fruit size ( fruit earlier). It looks to me, those branched that were pinched, took a while to recover then start the fruiting. But both pinched and not-pinches branches all are producing fruit at each leaf. I do not noticed the signifficant increase of fruit production on those pinched branches, and do not notice signifficant reduction on fruits production on those not-pinched branches.

Olympia i try to explain it better as my experience only.
I'm also in same area and what happens if i do not pinch as mention all the branches keep growing and growing and figs appear as those branches continue growth.
Here in our climate by pinching and by slowing down the vegetation growth it ripens the figs left on plant by seasons end .

If you do not pinch yes you get ripe figs and some perhaps many depending on cultivars speed of growth that will not ripen as the figs will continue to pop out and branches continue there growth and not have enough days to ripen before seasons end.

That could possibly hurt the tree going into dormancy as a lot of that continued green growth does not get chance to harden off before cold sets in and then risks a lot of dieback on tree.
Regards,
Martin

"To pinch or not to pinch? "

Pinch, of course. Experience with many plants for a number of years. It is a bit of labour but worth it. Limiting branch extention helps in embryo set-up and later ripening as well.

Just rushed out to my beautiful and exploding fig tree, pinched every single one. Hope it's not too late.

My potted tree normally would only grow 7 or 8 leaves each branch. But this year I deep pruned it. The longest branch has over 14 leaves now and still growing.

Would it be that if you pinch, you have to pinch all of them. Otherwise, the fig tree will direct their energy to the not pinched branches. Because fig tree would think those non-pinched branches are going to be leading branches.

Yellowthumb, this makes sense to me. I have record that majority of none pinched branches grow faster and have bigger fig in average. This " leading branches" explains this phenonom. I should have the rest branched pinched so they can grow in the same rate as the others. Thanks.

I wish all probllems were this easy to solve. There is an easy solution to this issue.
If you believe that pinching helps in your objectives then keep on pinching. If you believe that pinching does not help in what you want to achieve then by all means do not pinch!

Pinching question...Have a brown turkey in ground. It started new shoots from the bottom. They are now about 18" talk and have about 5 leaves on them. If I pinch the tree will only be 18" talk...is this correct or am I missing something?

Jerry
There ar two reasons for pinching.
One is when you want a new plant to branch out rathe than growing tall as a whip.People chose different heights for branching out. I usually pinch 1t 15"~18" for branching out in pots.
The other reason to expedite embryo formation on a current year growth branch.
In your case the pinching can start branching and or expedite embryo formation.
Zone 5b in ground will frequently kill to the ground unless really really well insulated for winter.

"The pinching technique was used by many people and found out it works.
That is a fact. "

You are confusing fact and anectdote.

Hi Ottawan...I have enclosed a pic of my Brown turkey. Any suggestions. At this time I see no sigh of figs. If they do come will it be too late to ripen.

I am in zone 5a and fig embryos are just forming now and I expect these early embryo will ripen on some cultivars. Also those appearing in the next two to three weeks will have chance to ripen depending on sunshine and warmth,
You are in zone 5b expected to be better than 5a. So you should have better chance for ripening. Brown Turkey is not consider a late ripening.

I have about 30 trees planted in the ground and I choose to keep them compact. I prune them down to six feet in the fall and try not to let them get much over eight feet at harvest time. I pinch them quite a bit in the spring to control the growth and shape of my trees. does it give you better and faster ripening fruit? maybe but if for no other reason than controlling the shape and size of my trees it does work. the size of this years growth will get thicker and more buds will send out shoots to make the top of your tree bushy. that is what I want in my trees so I can reach every fig without using a latter. I chose to pinch my trees really hard this year and I'm glad I did.

For the past two years (my figs are only 2 years old) my celeste and brown turkey figs produced loads of figs that did not mature before the first freeze. This year the fig trees faced an additional problem of a harsh winter that killed the trees back to their roots. I am trying the "pinch 7" rule and pinching off the end of the branch after seven leaves. This should be a good test of the technique. The trees have produced a lot of figs. Is there time to mature bfore about October 15 when the first freeze arives?