Hi Fortisi:Buryng it is best:Bury it this way and i guaranty it it will not die anymore:First cut all branches to the hight of your beautifull doughter.Save the wood to root new trees.Peg the stem down to grownd,using hanger wire or any thick bailling wire.Peg them in all directions,as they grow naturally.Go to Home depot and buy roofing Tar paper.Cover branchescompletelly with tar paper,so water do not get to them.Go somwhere in the back of your backyard and dig about two wheelborrow of dirt and place in top of tar paper.Cover up on or after Thanksgiving day and uncover before Mother day.After uncovering put soil back where you got it from.Do this every year and you will have a nice fruitting tree year after year.Caution:do not cut branches to grownd in the fall ever.If you need to cut stem to grownd do it in the spring only.In fall leave all stems,large and small.In spring choose youngest alive stems,while eliminate oldest,thickest ones,Regards

Thnx for the reply Herman and kind words for my daughter.

Im not sure if I understood your reply so I have a few questions:
- Am I supposed to bury the tree right where its planted now?
- If yes, will the branches lay down sideways without breaking?
- After cutting down the branches to about 3 feet, would it be better to place the cut branches in a pot and bring it indoor for the winter?
- Lastly, can you further explain what your caution means?

I apologize Im not very garden savvy, I should of payed more attention to my father growing up!!!

THANK YOU!

Q:Am I supposed to bury the tree right where its planted now?
A:yes
-Q: If yes, will the branches lay down sideways without breaking?
A:They will bend down very easy.Peg them down.
Q:After cutting down the branches to about 3 feet, would it be better to place the cut branches in a pot and bring it indoor for the winter?
A: You put the cutting in a ziplock bag keep them in the refrigerator till Aprill then pot them up and watch them grow.
-My mother told me to cut them down to one shoot
picking the straightest one!!!-------------------------------Caution Do not do that in the fall,and is not recomanded ever in cold climates.----If you grow the tree in a pot bringing it inside every fall then and only then you can grow one trunk.---Hope this will help

It does help THANK YOU!

One other question that I failed to ask you (anyone can reply if known).

My tree grew almost 6' in ONE season. Will I be cutting it down to 3' EVERY fall? I apologize if thats a silly question but Im just unclear of that. Im hoping to have a tall tree eventually or is that NOT possible in this part of the country?

Thnx AGAIN!

fortisi, what a beautiful picture. I love it. Your fig is too "leggy"- to long (tall). For your area they should be smaller and bushier. you woud have more figs and it would be easier to protect it in winter. Maybe your fig trees should not be taller than your princess (daughter). You should pinch the tips of your branches so they would produce more branches and more figs and easier to cover them. Yes, that fig is toooo tall! , althoug it is nice to see it.

I apologize if I offended anyone but I like very, very small trees with many branches, and my experience in Canada is that way i get many, many figs.

No apologise as far as i am concerned.You are absolutelly RIGHT!!!!.

Well, that clears up a lot of misinformation over the yrs.

thnx all!

Herman, Regarding bending the tree and tying it down. Do you dig up part of the root and cut it or just push the tree down as far as it can go. I am not much of a gardener yet and am scared to bend the tree over. I do not want to break it.

Thanks
Dan

I add another question to the mix... I hear a lot about 'pinching' the tips of branches. Does this mean to BREAK off the budding cone/tip of the branch or literally PINCH the tip, leaving it there and somehow it doesn't grow? Just want to be clear so I can control the height of my tree in the spring. It's already over my reach and I don't want it to get any taller.

Thanks, Chops

Chops:Google this site"Incredible Edible-Figs",You will find everything about growing fig,pruning, pinching etc.Excelent,site.
Shep:In cold climate you have to grow a multistem fig that is easy to bend all sides naturally.You do not cut roots on one side in this case.---------------------------------------If you have a ,one trunk tree and is thick,you will have to cut roots on half circomference then bend.That is why in cold climate is better ,a multistem trunk,so you do not have to cut roots to bend it down.Renew young stems every year,so they will bend.!!!!!!

Renew young stems= cutting the previous years worth of stems and letting the young ones grow?

I was under the impression that the reason I wasnt getting any fruit was due to the fact that NO stems would survive into the following season, so the first third of the season was wasting time growing limbs instead of fruit. TRUE or FALSE?

I cannot wait till Thnxgiving to share this news to some of my 'testardo'(stubborn) relatives. For as long as I can remember everyone I know with a fig tree in North Jersey has tried to make it grow like an apple tree rather than a bush. I only know of two people in my area who have actually succeeded in doing this, both trees stand around 25-30' tall. And yes, they have a hell of a time wrapping it with tarps come this time of yr.

Hi Fortisy: You remove oldest thickest stems in the spring,----Never in the fall,so the younger ones will have a chance to grow and produce fruits in the curent year.In the fall they will be mature enough to resist the cold whether,---Yet thin enough to bend down and cover as mentioned above.So year after year in the spring you refresh,the bush keeping young healthy stems ,about 5 to 8 of them.I tried other metods and they work but for me this one works best.Regards

Renew young stems= cutting the previous years worth of stems and letting the young ones grow?
I was under the impression that the reason I wasnt getting any fruit was due to the fact that NO stems would survive into the following season, so the first third of the season was wasting time growing limbs instead of fruit. TRUE or FALSE?

True:--You Protect all stems best you can and only in THE SPRING,you CUT Oldest ones Leaving YOUNG HEALTHY ONES ALONE,so the tree is still healthy and in one piece.----You do not cut everything down to grownd because if you do the tree,will be late in maturing fruits.----You only cut 2 to 3 old stems leaving 5 to 8 young stems alone.---Those cut out old stems will produce three sucker each wich you leave it alone because you will need them in the future years.This is an ongoing Process but with a little care it can give very good results.When new sucker grow you pinch and keep them small so they do not take light away from fruit producing STEMS.---Yet you do not pull them completelly out of grownd because they are your future RENEWAL Stems.CAPICHE,MIa Cara

Herman2 - I just wanted to thank you for giving me the advice last fall on properly wrapping my fig tree, it survived the winter! (first time ever in 10 yrs) I wish I knew if it were the mild winter or the method used that really did it or both!

They have grown so tall already since I uncovered them that Im not sure what I should do next!

I want to follow your advice in cutting 2-3 shoots (esp. since I noticed I have that much with slight damage to the base/bark, woodchucks I think) but I want to know if you (or anyone) thinks its too late in the season to do this???

If not too late, will I be able to place the cuttings in a pot of soil or the ground right now?

Thank you in advance!
Frank

FRANK: iF YOU HAVE DAMAGED TRUNKS CUT THE MOST DAMAGED OUT.
Try to leave the rest even spaced.
Strip the cut off pieces of all leafes except top buds.
Cut them about 1-2 foot long.
Plant them in any soil but in shade.
You will get some new rootings this year.
Hope this will help.

Thnx Herman!

The shoots that I cut down were about 4-5' long with some other shoots/branches coming off of them. After cutting them down I cut out the damaged section of the limb and peeld off the leaves (and the breba (4-5), hope I was right in doing that). The cuttings had 2-3 long branches so I cut them down a little bit.
(NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT I THINK I JUST KILLED THEM)
What do you think?

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-12/1120924/18DD4936II.jpg

They are all right except too long.
If i was you i will cut the top 1 foot off ,and make more cuttings.That way your chance of rooting some is higher.
Also next time cut the leafes out but leave the petiole(peduncle) of leaf "on" .I think i herd somewhere it works better that way.Any way you are all right for trying.
Regards

Fortis,
How is your tree doing? I just wrapped mine for the winter- a bit late I'm afraid, since we have had a week of hard frost already. Has your method worked? Have you tried others?

-Chops