When to prune fig trees?
- Botanical name
- Ficus carica
- Family
- Moraceae
Fig trees are pruned from March to June. They are planted from October to March. They are harvested from August to September.
Fig trees are woody perennials. The edible part is the fruit.
A fig bears better when its roots are confined. It is therefore put in a container or in a pit walled with slabs, and given less room at planting than it would otherwise take up. Because of that it is watered regularly in dry spells.
A fig is not cut in winter, because sap runs from the wound then. In spring the cut holds its size down, and in early summer the tips of the new shoots are pinched out so that the fruit sets. The milky sap that runs from a cut damages the skin in sunlight.
The tiny embryo fruits at the tips of the shoots do not survive the winter. The cover is meant for them and not for the tree, which takes the cold. The branches are wrapped once the leaves have fallen and uncovered gradually in spring.
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Fig trees through the year
- pruning
- planting
- harvest
In short
Growing conditions
Are fig trees toxic to cats and dogs?
Yes. Toxic to people and animals, toxic part: sap.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- The plant dies suddenly, often in mid season and without any decline beforehand. Peel the bark at ground level and under it there is a white or cream sheet of fungal tissue, thin as the skin of a mushroom. In the soil there are black or brown strands like bootlaces. In late summer and autumn tufts of honey brown mushrooms with a whitish ring on the stalk appear by the stumps or over dead roots.
- Prevention
- The fungus spreads through the soil with its strands, from a few centimetres to a good hand's width below the surface, and infects the roots of a living plant when it touches them. So do not leave stumps and dead roots in the ground. No plant is completely resistant, but privet, lilac, viburnum, weigela, forsythia, butterfly bush, rhododendron, thuja and walnut are particularly susceptible.
- What to do
- There are no products. The only thing that works is digging out and removing every infected root and stump, which takes away the food without which the strands in the soil do not grow. A vertical barrier of rubber or thick plastic sheet, buried about half a metre deep and standing a few centimetres above ground, stops the spread into an unaffected part of the garden.
- Signs
- Small pale dots show over the upper side of the leaf, with a generally faded look. In a heavy attack the leaf browns or yellows and the plant dies. When it gets worse, a fine web is visible between the leaves.
- Prevention
- Most at risk are the plants that stand in the dry air of a room all year. Mist regularly and raise the air humidity to lessen the trouble. Keep new plants apart from the others for a few weeks.
- What to do
- On sturdy plants wash them off thoroughly with water first. Then potassium soap, which works on contact and has to reach the underside of the leaf.
- Signs
- A ripening, still firm fruit gets tiny puncture holes and collapses within days. In the flesh there is a white larva. Unlike the ordinary fruit flies this one attacks undamaged fruit that is not yet overripe, so it is not a sign that the fruit has already spoiled but the reason it spoils.
- Prevention
- Pick as the fruit ripens and leave no overripe, damaged or fallen fruit on the plant or under it. Pheromone traps hung on the shady side of the bush or the tree do not put the population down, but they tell you whether the fly is already about and when it is time to protect. In a garden beside a wood or scrub hang them at the boundary first, because the fly overwinters in the wild.
- What to do
- Once the fruit is set, protect it with a very fine net, the mesh under one millimetre, because an ordinary net against birds does not hold the fly back. On top of that, strict hygiene: remove and dispose of every overripe and fallen fruit.
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Related plants
The plant below is in the same botanical family (Moraceae).
Sources about the plant: Clemson Cooperative Extension, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Oregon State University, Royal Horticultural Society, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: EPPO Global Database.