I just transplanted a fig into my garden a few days ago. It has about a 1.5 - 2 inch diameter base, is about 4.5 feet tall(after I cut off about 2 feet of vertical growth), and has three branches. I am planning on training it to a fan shape on an espalier against my house. One of my gardening books says to "prune hard" upon planting, but I don't really know what this means and am afraid to cut too much off. Advice I have found online says that I should cut off all but four or so inches! What to do? (Side note: I prepared a site for it by digging a 3x4foot hole a foot deep and lined it with bricks and a rocky bottom to restrict root growth - I want to keep the tree around 10 feet in any direction.)
Thanks from a first-year gardener!
I’m curious where you're located? Sound advice to me was to allow my figs to send up multiple shoots, so if a hard winter freeze damaged any it would be those on the outside, and not kill the entire 'tree.' But you've a plan with a fan! And if it's against your (south facing?) house wall, likely well protected.
I always try to balance my transplant pruning to what I estimate as the amount of root-loss during the digging process. Now I suspect you've dug this young fig from the ground? If it's spent its life in a pot, it should only need its roots spread well. But you've got to watch Nursery's, they'll heavily root-prune a fruit tree then jam it into a pot during the dormant season - giving the illusion that it's grown there... I always slide them out of the pot to see what the roots look like 
If it's lost some major roots, consider cutting it back a bit more; if you think you've got most (if not all of them) I wouldn't take off anything more than you have.
Figs are hardy; and remember, anything they send up and off their roots are the same as the top variety. They are not grafted, so if you simply planted a hardy piece of root - you’d have your fig. Or, if you allow the ‘root shoots’ to develop, they too will give the same fruit. I’m glad to hear you’re going for a fig; they're a consistently productive, disease free, deer-proof, self pollinating, tropical looking under utilized fruit tree in Oregon.
If you have reasonable roots, don't worry too much. I have transplanted fairly large fig trees with little concern for balance. Mostly they did fine.
Figs are tough customers. I once took a severed 8 ft. Desert King branch that was fully leafed out. I thinned the leaves to one every foot or so, and I planted the limb horizonally, with just the leaves exposed. I watered it once or twice, then I promptly forgot about it.
Surprise, surprise, a year or two later, a row of fig trees came up.
I also took a snippit of Latterulla from a trash pile at an October harvest fair. I took it home, stuck it in a jar of water, and sat it on my window sill. Over the winter, it rooted. Eventually, I stuck it in the ground. Now, it is a twenty foot tree next to my driveway.
Treatment that would kill most trees, may not bother a fig tree much. Sometimes thay mope a little bit, but they seldom die.
Buzz... I loved your description of starting several figs at once! As I was roto-tilling yesterday I envisioned tilling up an 8 foot long strip a couple of feet wide, really churning it deep and nice. Then obtaining an 8 foot length of a friends 'extra' fig limb, and following your procedure to establish a fig grove! ...And with 7 figs of my own ... I'm still considering it … what's wrong with me?!
Every so often we notice a neglected fig somewhere, with multiple shoots everywhere. If, after trying its fruit, then convincing the owner we were actually doing the tree a favor by 'pruning' out some of that congestion... we’d have the makings for an instant fig grove! Has me wondering why I ever messed with all those little cuttings, when I could have 'gotten it over with' in one planting.
Well, when I hear of anyone with the room wanting 'instant' figs, I'll pass on your experience 
Thank you both for all of your helpful advice! I did dig the tree up from a neighbor's yard along with many other baby plants. Thank goodness for untended yards, huh! I think I'll just leave it be and see how it does - if it dies, there are many others I can go dig up. I'm in SW Portland and we do get some winter freezes and snow where I am, but the tree is against a south-facing wall and the neighbor's tree has never suffered any obvious damage (actually it has quite overtaken the yard). So, thanks for putting my mind at ease!
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