Cut fig tree: This is how the professionals do it
Fig trees are becoming more and more popular - but very few hobby gardeners know how to cut the exotic fruit trees properly.
With these instructions you can do it.
the real fig (Ficus carica) is an exotic fruit species, which is becoming more and more
popular in this country.
The shrubs can even tolerate a few sub-zero temperatures and in mild regions in
microclimates can grow in the garden - for example the fig variety 'Violetta', which is
considered to be particularly robust.
The best place for the plants is a sunny spot protected from the wind and located on a heat-storing wall.
The fig usually grows as a multi-stem tree, but is also offered as a single-stem tree. In cooler regions,
it hardly grows bigger than a shrub, as it freezes back strongly every year.
In order for it to grow healthily, it is important to avoid a few mistakes in fig care.
Like most fruit trees, you should therefore cut a fig tree regularly.
The woody plants form their fruits on the previous year's shoots and also on the new shoots.
However, the latter do not ripen properly in most regions because the growing season is too short.
Nevertheless, it is important that you use pruning to encourage the formation of
strong new shoots for next year's harvest.
At the same time, the crown must remain airy and loose enough so that the fruits
on this year's fruit wood can receive plenty of sunlight and ripen optimally.
When to cut a fig tree?
It is best to prune your fig tree in early spring - depending on the region and
weather conditions from mid-February to early March.
It is important that no longer long periods of frost are to be expected after pruning.
Remove frozen shoots
First remove all shoots that have frozen to death in winter.
These can be easily identified by scratching the bark briefly: If the tissue
underneath is dry and yellowish, the twig is dead.
Either cut back the dead wood into the living part or remove
the corresponding shoot completely.
If the twig is unfavorably positioned anyway or the crown
is too dense at this point, it is best to
cut it off directly at the astring so that no new wood grows back at this point.
A branch that has only been shortened,
on the other hand, always sprouts again in several places.
Thinning out the crown of the fig tree
grow inside the crown or are simply too dense.
They often take the light away from the ripening
fruits and should therefore also be cut off at the astring.
As a rule, you will have to use a pruning shears or a branch saw.
Reduce branches at the shoot ends
At the ends of the main shoots, the branches of figs are often very dense,
so these parts of the branches should all be thinned out.
Usually you can remove every second to third side shoot.
At strongly branched places you should reduce the number of page branches (left). The shoot ends of the main lateral branches can also be cut off above a well developed, outward growing lateral shoot (right)
The ends of each main shoot should also be shortened or
diverted to a side shoot growing outwards.
Very long side shoots should also be shortened to an outer eye.
In the end, the fig tree or shrub should not be too dense
and the remaining fruit shoots from the previous year should be well distributed.
As with apples, the following applies: The "airier" the crown is, the larger the figs
become and the better they ripen.
For figs a strong cutback is possible
Very few hobby gardeners know that a fig
can be cut back very far into the old wood if necessary - if necessary,
even to just above the ground.
The plants have a very high deflection capacity and reliably sprout again.
However, they then have to do without the delicious fruit for one season.
Strong pruning is only necessary in rare cases - for example,
young plants with insufficient winter protection that are frozen back to the ground.
No comments for "Cut fig tree: This is how the professionals do it"
Post a Comment