Photo: Why did my fig leaf out like a poodle's haircut?

[FigsNorth]

My Fig


A Poodle

[arachyd]

Are there supposed to be pics?

[JT1923]

I don't see the pics

[key88sf]

Pics or it didn't happen.

[moonlight]

No pictures 🤔

[FigsNorth]

Thanks. Reposted.

[FigsNorth]

key88sf JT1923 arachyd moonlight

Thanks for the heads up. Reposted the photos. See 'em now?

[coliva]

Yes

[JT1923]

Yep!

[fruitnut]

The leaves are spaced out like that because you didn't prune enough in winter. You'd have a more compact plant if each branch had been shortened. But what the heck, pretty dog and pretty tree.

[JCT]

That is actually a very typical growth pattern. I have an in-ground volunteer seedling/tree that was lightly pruned last year and I did not touch the tallest trunks - I was rather interested to see how tall it would get. Initial growth looked exactly like what you have, although subsequent branching and suckers popping up have filled in the canopy.

[FigsNorth]

What variety is it? It looks impressive anyway. Hope you get good figs this year from it.

Did you plant that evergreen pine looking tree? I'd love to find out what kind of tree it is. You have a beautiful yard!

[JCT]

FigsNorth It is a seedling. There's a couple of feral figs near me with the wasp, but far enough that I rarely if ever get them in my yard. A bird must have eaten a ripe fig, sat on the tree you like so much, and deposited said seed into my yard where it found decent enough conditions to grow.

As for the pine tree, it came with the house and I do not know the variety, although it does look similar to a Norfolk pine.

[FigsNorth]

Cool. Oh what a land, where figs grow wild! Wish that happened here.

Anyway, both trees look great. Love the yard.

[don_sanders]

You might not have the time to JCT’s branching where you are. You could try to induce branding by fertilizing and pinching the tips but it might concentrate in the three nodes at the tips.

You can also prune more when dormant which will encourage more branching as well.

[FigsNorth]

Yes good point. I did pinch about 2 or 3 weeks ago and it's getting pretty heavy ferts weekly as well slow release in May and July.

Most of the growth seems to be focused at the tips of this branches. I thought I saw somebody say in another thread "over-fertilization" might cause more growth at tips and create this dense pattern of growth?

[arachyd]

If you want it to branch in different places you can cut notches above the nodes located where you want branches. This works like nipping off an apical bud but it's not as permanent. The new branches probably won't appear till next season.

[fig Lebowski]

You have to keep it cut back rather severely for it to grow compact.

[FigsNorth]

Agreed. I tried to and thought I did. See my post below. A lot of that bare wood is indeed the years wood. You can see my pruning cuts (red marks) from the fall after dormancy.

[fig Lebowski]

Once they get tall and to a caliper larger than say my thumb, I like to cut the whole top off, say 2 feet or so from your soil level. Now if you do that via air layering in the summer or pruning in the fall once they go dormant either ways a winner

[FigsNorth]

Is that to reinvigorate the tree? Push healthier growth for new scaffolds?

[RosyPosy]

😂 Love it! I have one that leafed out similarly, but just with one branch. Great comparison!

[FigsNorth]

This is the first year I've had growth like this. It was pruned very nicely at the beginning of the season. The extended tips are from new growth outward. It just didn't branch out lower at all.

The only thing I can think of is that in the late spring I root pruned very heavily. Could this be the cause? If so, why?

[moonlight]

I still can't see the photos !

[FigsNorth]

Hmm. This is annoying. I'm not sure why. Sorry.

[FigsNorth]

moonlight I re-reposted the photos. Can you see them now?

[fruitnut]

This is the first year I've had growth like this. It was pruned very nicely at the beginning of the season. The extended tips are from new growth outward. It just didn't branch out lower at all.

The only thing I can think of is that in the late spring I root pruned very heavily. Could this be the cause? If so, why?

Are you sure about that? That bare wood is not this years growth. This yrs growth has leaves. Unless you are telling me that the bare wood had leaves and they all fell off. That can happen in places like Florida with heavy leaf rust. But in places like Canada new growth retains it's leaves all summer meaning the bare wood is from last year.

[FigsNorth]

fruitnut

You make a good point so I went out to double-check what exactly had happened. And yes, half of that bare wood is this year's already lignified wood. You can see where the pruning cuts were and where the new growth begins with the 3 shape-coded red marks (circle = circle, arrow = arrow, chevron = chevron), each corresponding to 3 different pruning cuts, with one photo being the zoomed in and one photo zoomed out.

I honestly don't recall losing any leaves there but they must've defoliated because the new growth would've had leaves! I have had no rust or anything like that. I am truly puzzled. I don't know what happened. Maybe the early leaves dropped when they were small and I didn't notice?! I'm stumped* but yes that bare wood appears to be this year's growth!

* no pun intended, noticed this after I posted :-)

[fruitnut]

Chances are what you're looking at is 2019 wood below the red mark, 2020 bare wood above that until leaves start, and then 2021 wood with leaves on it. You can probably tell by looking at what leaves remain. If the bottom most leaves are smaller that's the start of 2021 growth. If the bottom leaves are full size then some may have fallen off below what remain. Figs will drop leaves if they get too dry. But there should be fallen leaves or some partially dried up full sized leaves still hanging on.

[FigsNorth]

You might be right. I'll go take a closer look because the more I think about it the more that would make sense. I don't recall any defoliation so that must be the only alternative. I thought I had pruned off the growth tips in the fall but maybe I didn't.

[moonlight]

Yes now I can see it 🙂

[DCinFLX]

Fig trees have strong apical dominance tendencies. So whatever is highest wants to grow first. Like most trees figs also prefer to grow new shoots off the youngest wood. Either one of those conditions can be overcome with enough vigor--so that shoots can emerge from younger or older wood that's farther down the branch. Your "poodling" suggests your tree took the easiest path to growing shoots (off the youngest, highest buds) and didn't have the "excess" vigor to put out branches elsewhere.

Plant jargon alert-- your auxin hormones are winning out against your cytokinin hormones. There are other ways to manipulate the ratio of those hormones, but as others have suggested, the easiest way is aggressive pruning for a compact shape.

[FigsNorth]

Typically teenager, raging hormones! Yep, I will have you cut back this fall it in spring, again. I think the severe root pruning really screwed with it's ability to branch and fill in, as it seemed to only put out growth at the tips.