Winter Pruning a Small ‘Brown Turkey’ Fig Tree
The recent spell of mild weather here in the UK gave me the opportunity to trim up our ‘Brown Turkey’ fig tree, which is not an operation you should be attempting if there’s a hard frost in the immediate forecast.
Long-term readers may remember that this particular tree was hit hard by frost in 2021 and I thought I might have lost it… but (spoiler alert!) it survived and grew back even stronger than before – aided, I suspect, by some of its roots escaping the constraints of the fig-pit in which it was planted – and I’m very happy to report that it’s still going strong another four years later.
Here’s the tree before I began working on it:
This year I only needed to minimally adjust the shape and structure of the tree, which I did by completely removing one or two duplicate branches, and reducing the length of a few others that were poorly placed and/or obstructing access to the planting beds beneath. This second operation will hopefully have the added benefit of encouraging side-stems to develop, on which we might just get a crop of figs, if not this year then next, in the same way that the die-back of the main leader and one of the stronger side-branches a couple of years ago produced those clusters of fruit-bearing branches at the top of the tree.
Here’s what the tree looked like after I’d finished:
As you can see, the horizontal branches, which are trained to wire supports fixed to the shed, have been thinned out slightly, and the longer branches on the right-hand side have been removed or reduced. I’ve also thinned out some of the top growth – not too much as that’s where this year’s breba crop is likely to come from – and I’ve removed all the larger, frost-damaged fruitlets1Every year for the past five I’ve fully intended to do something useful with the second-crop figs, which never ripen in our climate, and once again, I didn’t get around to it. Maybe 2026 will be the year, eh? which, so experience tells me, would have had no chance of ripening this year. I still need to re-tie those horizontals, and perhaps add another wire across the top of the window so I can tie in another.
Here’s a before-and-after comparison to finish with:
How about you? Do you grow figs? Which varieties grow well in your part of the world? Do you prune them lightly, or hard? Do let me know, via the comments.
Footnotes
- 1Every year for the past five I’ve fully intended to do something useful with the second-crop figs, which never ripen in our climate, and once again, I didn’t get around to it. Maybe 2026 will be the year, eh? ↩︎
Thank you Darren, for the informative article
Have a dwarf fig here, was sold as a dwarf brown turkey but get the feeling it maybe what some sites call little miss figgy, as was concerned with root damage to a house wall from full size types. However it never really liked the site so its in a pot in the greenhouse these days
In its old site last year planted a full size brown turkey after lining the hole with old slabs and then 2 layers of concrete damp proof course, to hopefully stop the roots attacking the house when it gets bigger
I’m lead to believe figs graft well, so plan try some different varieties longer term on them both. Any you recommend ?
Hi Russ – I think your fig-pit construction sounds excellent to me. One thing I noted with our tree is that the roots will escape through the smallest gap, as I discovered whilst transplanting some orngrasses from a nearby part of the garden the other year. I lifted one clump from just outside the fig pit, and found a mass of roots, which I was able to trace back to the tree via a 5mm gap between two of the roof tiles that I’d used as the top layer. The tree seems to be keeping to a reasonable size though, so I think the bulk of the roots are still nicely constrained.
As for other varieties, I’m afraid I’m not all that familiar with anything other that ‘Brown Turkey’. I do know there are some specialist fig-growing websites out there though – figboss.com for instance – and there’s a forum at ourfigs.com where you might be able to get a few recommendations for your part of the world.
Thank you for the advice. The outside brown turkey has grown a lot this year.
The potted dwarf fig miss figgy in the greenhouse has finally decided to produce well, it must have know it was on death row if not. I see your figboss site gives it 4.8/5.0, according to my father thats right as says they are some of the best figs hes had
Hi Russ – You’re welcome. And thank you for the ‘miss figgy’ tip. If I’m ever in the market for a new variety or two, I’ll definitely bear it in mind.