I prefer the bush form to tree form, so what considerations trunk and branch-wise are there for maximizing fig production? Last year I planted a Chicago Hardy whip about 2 feet tall in a south facing location against a garden shed wall. I dug a deep hole so the side branches would root as separate trunks. It grew well and this year I took several new sprouts, bent then down and rooted them as well. Now the bush has about 10 trunks 0.5 to 0.75 inches in diameter in about a 3 foot diameter circle and three feet high. Of course each trunk has several lateral branches, some growing laterally and some growing at an upward angle. I'd like to keep the final bush pruned about 6 feet high each year to ease picking and wrapping. So how best to prune and shape this fig? Do I prune to an open center? Obviously prune crossing branches. Do I prune the horizontal limbs and keep the verticals? I do follow Herman's pinching technique. What I want to do is optimize the number of figs I get form the space. I have a 15 year old Brown Turkey, my first fig and now it will grow to 12 feet in a season but the first 3 to four feet are non productive 3 inch diameter wooded trunks. The tree looks nice but I want to avoid the barren lower portion on the new fig. Can I just keep heading each trunk to a foot each spring so new growth to 6 feet is productive? Do I head back to a foot, allow new growth then prune the tip so new branches radiate out and up to 6 feet, then repeat next year? Just looking for some of this forum's collective wisdom from practical experience.
Thanks