My fig tree

Question

My fig tree, which gave beautiful figs last year seems to have just stopped growing, or rather the (abundant) figs on the tree seemed to have just stopped growing. They are all about one quarter the size that I want them to be,(to pick and eat) although I recently found three (!!) rogue figs that were big and soft and (delicious)! The tree is very overgrown and someone told me to CUT IT BACK (i.e. prune it) so I have to some extent but I don’t want to cut off branches that have saplings on them because I want these also to grow into figs! I hope this is the right thing to do…So I have cut off many of the small branches without saplings and then I started cutting off lots of the enormous leaves which I thought must be shading the fruit too much from the sun and also taking up a lot of the nutrients which could be going to the fruit (?) I am someone who knows almost NOTHING about gardening and have never pruned anything by myself before. The weather is starting to cool down here in Ballarat. I water the tree pretty regularly.Would you have any advice? And thank you for reading such a long question!

Answer 1

You are correct, in that the Figs may not have been growing due to the lack of sunlight and air circulation, moisture levels can also be an issue.
Pruning is done during dormancy, winter months.

These articles will help you with more information.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/figs/how-to-grow-figs.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/figs/fertilizing-fig-trees.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/figs/pruning-fig-trees.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/figs/small-fig-fruit.htm