Well, more light will cause the tree to back-bud and produce secondary growth, but if the pictures are of the tree on the day you posted your message, you definitely do not want to prune anything green off this tree now. With only the tiny bit of foliage shown in the pic, the tree is likely barely clinging to life & to remove any biomass that has the potential to produce photosynthate (food) would be a mistake.

Prognosis for this tree is not a rosy picture. Here's why: Newly forming leaves are energy sinks until they are about 75% mature. At that point, they reach the break even point and start to give a return on the energy the tree has poured into them. This will occur about the time the tree goes dormant/quiescent in your zone. So even given good light now, the tree will expend additional energy (which it appears not to have) to produce a flush of foliage that it will likely shed around the time it matures or just before, leaving the trees energy reserves exhausted or very close to exhausted.

You didn't say whether or not you plan on keeping the tree containerized? If so, I would suggest you bury the container & make sure it does not want for water, while hoping that the tree recovers enough to get it through the winter. Even that carries some risk because frost will eventually end the tree's ability to produce food, while moving the tree in & out of protection during periods of chill could extend the recovery period several weeks.

There is no additional danger in pruning the tree after it goes dormant/quiescent as there would be if you pruned now.

Al

It looks like it was grown in a dark garage. I would leave it alone at the moment. Give it sufficient water. Protect it over the winter and maybe replant it in some good compost after last frost. Then, plenty of sun and plenty of water next spring should produce a good leafing out. I wouldn't worry too much about getting lots of fruit next season. Go for dense foliage. That should trigger a healthy fruiting process. FF

Gotcha on the pruning.

Should I limit the amount of light this plant gets? Also, should I bring the plant in before it freezes and keep it under artificial light for the winter?

The yard it was in, ff, could be considered a dark garage. :)

No - you should give it all the sun you can. It's probably too late to mention this now, but if the plant was growing under low light conditions, it should be introduced to full sun gradually to prevent sunburn & subsequent leaf loss as a result.

I would not try overwintering indoors, but moving the tree in & out to help lengthen the fall growth period before dormancy would be helpful. Even trees that seem to survive an overwintering indoors well, will show a smaller increase in biomass by fall than those trees given an extended cold rest, this in spite of the idea that extending the growing period must surely result in more growth. From this we can probably draw the conclusion that unless trees are grown indoors under very good light conditions (halides or HPS) after a cold rest, it's very likely that they will see a net loss in energy reserves by the time you can move them outdoors. Your tree cannot afford any loss in energy reserves.

Al

Al, You have always impressed me with your apparent extensive knowledge of botany. If you don't mind me asking, are you a botanist? Thanks for all of the past, very informative posts. FF

Oh - you're welcome, FF.

No botanist here, though. All I know of plants, and soils in particular, has come to me as a result of my trying to insure no repeat of an initial failure at the art of bonsai. I was frustrated that I was unable to keep my trees alive when I first began, so I put my pots away and began some, what I think was serious study that lasted for around 4 years before I again attempted it. That was about 10 years ago, and I have tried to never stop learning. It has made a marked difference in my growing abilities.

I have studied tree anatomy & physiology fairly extensively, and have, fortunately, been able to observe and confirm much of what I studied first hand in my own trees (probably around 200 woody plants in some stage of development as I write). I am particularly interested in container soils and make all my own from scratch. I don't usually talk about myself, but I suppose as long as I am, I might say that I have had articles published in journals and am often contacted by authors & teachers for clarification of something I have written here at GW or a competing forum - most often on the post about Container Soils - Water Movement & Retention . I also average about 4-6 e-mails every day from folks that have stumbled on something I have written on the net & had questions. Heck - the other day a friend forwarded a link to a cannabis growing forum in which someone had posted the article I linked to above, even giving me credit by name. Yikes!

You probably notice that, since I don't grow figs (YET - I'm going to fix that) I tend to stick to the more tech questions that are common to all trees or to questions about figs other than carica. I'm perfectly happy to let the guys with hands-on experience answer all the other questions, but (I just used this on another forum yesterday) You don't need to be on the bus to know what makes the wheels go 'round & 'round.

Apologies, TT. I hope you don't consider this a hijacking. ;o)

Al

It's always good to know where a person's info comes from, Al, so hijack away. :)

Thanks for the info; it'll get the cold treatment.

Stacy

Hurray,
Applause for our self-taught (Mr. Science as I know him)
Plant Doctor... aka Al, (tapla).
George (NJ).
P.S. Thanks for all your good advise.

>>>You probably notice that, since I don't grow figs(
>>>(YET - I'm going to fix that)
Well Al, I am sure that most of all fignuts on this forum
(including myself) are willing to give you (free) fig samples
to get your hands F.carica wet. Just let us know which
varieties you wish to start with...