Jef:You can do that in Louisiana,and anywhere else where the warm season is long as in Italy.
In the colder Regions,as in zone 7 and six,it is not a good Ideea because the tree looses time in the early Sommer to grow new branches and therefore it will be late in maturing the fruits.
And because of that the fruits will not ripe when the seson shorten abruptly because of early frost in October.
So iis beter in this colder climates to leave longer branches in the Spring.
It is better to thin the tree in Colder climates,while in hoter climates,shortening it to a Stump with short branches works best.
Hope this will Help

This is a frequent practice in Texas on Crepe Myrtles. In the Texas Gardening Forum, it is referred to as "Crepe Murder". While it can be done (think about the trees in the North which freeze back to the ground every year), topping any tree is generally frowned upon. With proper pruning during the early years of its life, severe pruning can be avoided later. If you want to keep a tree on the small side, finding a dwarf variety doesn't hurt either.

A Google search on "topping trees" will yield almost 1.8M results you can read over. Most of them (at least all on the first page) discourage the practice.

~james

I don't care for the Crepe Myrtle pruning myself, but they are not grown for fruit. What's great about Crepe Myrtles is their great gnarly trunks.

But figs aren't grown for their beauty. I'm more interested in efficient fruit production. If forcing new growth gets me more figs, I'll be happy to have an ugly tree.

Since posting here I've looked into other sites and learned that figs will have two harvests. An early harvest from older branches, and a late harvest from the new growth. So I need a way to prune it and force new growth (and eliminate un-reachable branches) but also keep enough older growth to have that early harvest.

So I'm thinking of removing half the old stuff this year, and half next year, so I'll always have some older branches.

See section 8 at Figs 4 Fun.

Not all varieties produce two crops. Furthermore, not all the varieties that produce a Breba crop, have a Breba crop worth worrying about.

I can't attest to the trees you saw in Italy. It is possible that they were pruned in a pollard or some other fashion. If you read about topping trees, you find that the problem with topping is that you run the risk of injury/death to the tree. Proper training from a young age not only minimizes these risks, it also improves the efficiency of the tree.

At this point in the season, heavy tree pruning will probably yield the opposite effect that you are looking for. The tree has stored energy for next season in the trunk and roots. If you prune heavily, the trees response in the spring will be to put on vegetative growth at the expense of fruit production. From an article by the North Carolina State University, College of Agriculture:

...heavy dormant pruning results in a yearly cycle with excessive vegetative growth and little or no fruit production.

This statement may be a bit strong being as a fig tree will likely produce some fruit after a heavy pruning. Also given that a few varieties (Alma, etc.) are reported to respond favorably to heavy pruning. However, as a general statement, what you are proposing will minimize your fruit production next year.

If it were me, I'd begin pruning now the dead, damaged and diseased limbs as well as those that are rubbing against each other. In the spring, remove about 2/3 of what grew this year (no Breba crop) and any limb damaged by the cold. After fruit production, do some of the heavier pruning to produce the shape and size you are looking for. Repeat the same process next year. I would expect a better crop in 2008/2009 than with what you have proposed.

~james

Here is a link that might be useful: read this

James,

Haven't observed that problem so far.

James, I would agree that production goes down the first year after a severe pruning, but after that the orchardist doesn't need to do as radical pruning, so production returns to normal. I did massive pruning on my Sal's fig the winter of 05/06, the following season there was lots of growth, and the fruit were much later and never had time to ripen. Following that hard prune, now I prune on the same pattern as I do for my muscadines, i.e. I prune back all the current season's "canes" back to the first one or two nodes of growth. This removes lots of material and helps to maintain a much small tree, but still leaves at least one node from the past season, and doesn't seem to adversely affect the production of the following season.

Gene, I typically leave 2-3 nodes 90 to 95% of many trees.

Jeff,
I'm so glad that I came across your posting when I did. While doing a search on another tree, your posting came up on the web. I have a very old fig tree here, probably 80+ years old. The canopy is so dense that no sun filters through to the lower brances. You've got me to thinking about what I might need to do here. Also, thanks to the other responses, I had a chance to go to the link on pruning fruit trees which was very knowledgeable. I sure wish that you'd take some before and after photos of your fig tree... and even photos of the next two years. More than that, if you could make your own notes as to what you observe as a result of your pruning, it would be helpful to share those observations as well.

Thanks for the posting!

Xtal:
Just curious to know what variety your 80+ tree is?