Pruning the fig tree

Well, I've gone and done it.

I can hardly bear to post a picture of the pruned tree. I am used to pruning roses, clematis, blueberries, even raspberries, and I barely blink at cutting them back hard, once I understand when they bloom and on what growth. For instance, I wouldn't want to prune the blueberry now, or I'd lose a lot of berries, this year. Instead, it was pruned after it fruited, last summer, and had time to put out new growth, on which it will bear fruit this year...

But I have never pruned a fig tree. Instead, I satisfied myself with pruning this fig's roots. Last year, however,  the tree had fewer fruit than usual and the leaf-growth was restricted to the very ends of the branches. It needed renewal. The scary thing is that visible growth always happens at the tips of the branches. After today's activities, there are no tips of branches. It seems impossible that new shoots will break out of the most mature grey wood that is left.

The pruning definitely means that there will be no breba crop - that's the first, smaller crop that forms on older wood. But, in theory at least, there will be plenty of new, green growth in the spring and summer, and that is where the main crop forms.

Yup.

Not a very encouraging sight. I hope to have a wonderful After picture. One day.

In the meantime, I'll be learning about rooting fig cuttings.

Anybody want a baby fig tree?