Hey ya'll,

Wanted to see if anyone has any insight into the RISK of taking off theses bottom leaves on our FLF.

Some of them are in rough shape, and I think this June we are going to take a little off of the top, and see if we can get a few new branches going, and it'll just look nicer without those bottom leaves.

I believe they help get water, etc up to the other parts of the tree. Should we wait till the new branches form before the trim?

What's the hot tip for topping these guys?

Any insight is helpful.

Best,
Matt

Hi Matt - There is no risk in removing lower leaves other than changing the way it looks. Water and nutrients flow from the roots up through the main stem to the new growth, which is always on top. They do not flow through the lower leaves.

Pruning and pinching top FLF growth will not cause branching down below. New growth is always at the top. You can lower the top by pruning back the main stem and thereby get new growth lower down, but that will not promote branching. Pruning is best done for FLF's that have already gotten too tall.

Repeatedly pinching out new leaf growth as it emerges is a way to keep your plant at the existing height, preventing it from growing taller without shortening it the way that pruning does.

Pruning and pinching can be done at any time.

Thanks for the info, Will!

I was under the impression (from reading some other blogs etc) that the leaves aided in moving nutrients and water up. Thanks for clarifying that.

Would pinching the new growth at the top be the way to start making it fuller/rounder at the top? Or do we need to do something else achieve that? We're basically at our ideal height and now just want to get the top to be fuller.

This is a good, concise version of a lot of the wordy explanations of all this stuff that's floating around out there.

So much bad and misleading info available on the Internet!

If your Fig is at the height that you prefer, then start pinching out tender new leaves as they emerge. You will need to do this repeatedly. In time, it will probably put out more than one leaf at the top and occasionally, it will encourage new stem growth lower down. It is very serendipitous, but just keep pinching and see what develops.