How to Prune Sweet Olive & Fig Trees

Sweet Olive

• 1

  Prune broken, dead, weak and diseased limbs back to a healthy lateral branch, using pruning shears, in the spring before new growth appears. Prune O. americanus and O. delavayi sweet olive trees as soon as they've stopped flowering in the spring.

• 2

  Cut off lateral branches with narrow crotches and prune intersecting lateral branches only when there is an angle of no greater than 45 degrees, using lopping shears

• 3

  Shorten slender branches back to a side branch or bud, with loppers or pruning shears. Cut the stem 1/2 inch above buds on the inside instead of the outside.

Fig Trees

• 4

  Cut 2 to 3 feet off the main scaffold branches in early June when the figs have been harvested. Use a saw to cut about halfway through the branches from the underside, then cut through the remaining branch from the top with a pruning saw or pruning pole.

• 5

  Prune dead, diseased, broken or unwanted branches from all fig trees. Wait until next summer to prune the scaffold branches of late-ripening trees.

• 6

  Prune new shoots sprouting at the top of the tree from which it would be difficult to harvest figs.

• 7

  Remove broken, dead, diseased and excess branches from an overgrown tree to reinvigorate it if the fig tree still has a solid structure and form.

• 8

  Reduce the height of overgrown fig trees by one-third for three years until it's at the appropriate height. Cut off excess shoots and thin branches in early June and again in late summer as growth resumes.

• 9

  Cut off all branches except for one main scaffold branch in February or March for severely overgrown fig trees.