Which fig have you got?
The edible fig (Ficus carica) is a deciduous shrub or small tree up to 10 m high, from southern Europe and western Asia. NZPCN records it as naturalised here since 1870, growing wild in waste places and scrubland. If yours drops its leaves in winter and bears fruit, it's almost certainly this one.
The Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla) is an exotic, long-lived tree introduced as an ornamental. The Port Jackson fig (Ficus rubiginosa) is an evergreen small to large tree, naturalised since 1981. Birds spread the seed of both.
Big figs and seedlings in the wrong places
NZPCN says Moreton Bay fig seedlings often start life as epiphytes, growing on another tree, and as they mature they can overwhelm and kill the tree that supports them. They can also take hold on stone walls and old buildings. The Port Jackson fig often starts the same way.
A fig seedling in a gutter, a wall or the fork of another tree is easy to pull out while it's small. Once its roots are into masonry or wrapped around a host tree, it's a job for an arborist, and possibly a builder for the wall.
NZPCN lists the Moreton Bay fig as an environmental weed (2024), and the Port Jackson fig is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. What the Accord listing means for a tree already in your garden is a question for your regional council. Whatever the listing, check with the council before major pruning or removal of a big old fig.
Keeping an edible fig in shape
Work from the ground
Keep the tree to a height you can pick from, and only cut what you can reach with both feet on the ground.
Cover up first
Wear gloves and long sleeves. Fig sap is milky and can irritate skin, more so in sunlight.
Take out the dead and the crossing
With secateurs, loppers or a pruning saw, remove dead wood and branches rubbing across each other, cutting back to a junction rather than leaving stubs.
Look while it's bare
Being deciduous, its framework is easiest to see once the leaves have dropped. We haven't found a New Zealand source for the right month, so for fruit, ask a local arborist.
Clear the fruit
Pick up fallen figs before they rot on paths and draw wasps and birds.
Roots, size and the house
Big figs are a common worry near drains and paths, and because the Moreton Bay fig is long-lived, one planted close to a house only becomes more of an issue with time. We don't have New Zealand figures for how far fig roots run, so get an arborist to look at your tree before any root work or removal.
If roots are the concern, tree roots and your house explains how to find the real cause first.
Garden job or arborist job?
You can
- Pruning an edible fig you can reach from the ground.
- Pulling fig seedlings from gutters, walls and other trees while they're small.
- Picking up fallen fruit.
- Wearing gloves against the sap.
Leave to an arborist
- Any pruning of a large Moreton Bay or Port Jackson fig.
- A fig smothering another tree, or rooted into a wall.
- Removing a big fig near the house, drains or a boundary.
- An assessment before you ask the council about a big old tree.
Fig trees in the garden: what to do next
For an edible fig, we'd prune lightly from the ground each year and keep it to picking height. For a big ornamental fig, we'd have an arborist look at it before anyone touches it, and we'd check the district plan before any big cut or removal. And we'd pull every fig seedling we found in a wall or another tree while it was still small.
Want an arborist to look at it?
Tell us the job and your postcode, and a local arborist calls you to talk it through.