Hi all
i saw a website showing a Fig orchard with the trees fully defoliated and would like to know if somone has experience using this technique.
currently i am trying this on 1 of my trees and will post results.

posting some pictures.

I have seen it done on blueberry fields using Dormex but not on figs.  What is the purpose of doing so.......to get a fresh crop of leaves to replace leaves that have fungus, force dormancy? Or?

I saw a video once that claimed that by removing some leaves you would ripen figs otherwise too late in the season. But even then they did not completely defoliate the trees, just the ones that blocked sun to unripe fruit. These look really strange.

I was going to mention this guy in the clip, Dave beat me into it, LOL
It's to help later figs to ripen. But only if you are in a cooler states.

Actually i am trying this for insect control..
Will see

Leaves are the "solar panels" for the trees and how they collect and convert energy for them, are they not?
With no leaves, how does it have energy to make fruit and grow?
or am I totally out in left field?

I am a meat scientist, not a botanist,,,  ;o)

Hi Elin,
At which period did they defoliate the trees ?
There is a close to ripe fig, so perhaps in the Fall - so the tree will not suffer that much. If you do that when the tree is growing - in Spring or Summer -, you are more likely to arm the tree.
How can the tree make photosynthesis after that  ?
I would not do that - unless I had a tree to sacrifice .
Sugars - in the ripe fruits - come from the photosynthesis. So, I would expect the ripe fruit to be almost tasteless .
The tree will then have a serious set back has the tree will have to spend time to make new leaves .

The branches actually have their own chlorophyll as well, which is why we look for green on a scratch test.

I like my trees with leaves. I've never heard of this before. If a tree is sick, you just chop it up. As for insect control, never plant a fig tree too close to the house.

There may be a reason for removing the leaves. An Italian friend told me that he had a friend who worked in a fig orchard in Greece. He told my friend that they would routinely remove all but the distal 5 or 6 leaves on the fig branches. They believe this allows the figs more sun exposure and the figs grow bigger and taste better because the sap and nutrients are directed to the fruit, not the leaves.  I would imagine the water requirement would be decreased as well by removing so many leaves.

De-leafing process is done only towards the end of the harvest season. After a month the tree would have exfoliation anyway to prepare itself for dormancy. The only difference , IMO, is that the natural defoliation or exfoliation allows the energy in leaves to flow back to the tree before they turn brown and fall.
SO, in a way, the manual defoliation probably comes with a price and that might be that tree will suffer from malnutrition during the dormancy and have greater than normal dieback. 

i saw this being done in several places. if some of you watched the belleclare video with M,stewart the pops tree there has no leaves near the figs.

http://www.marthastewart.com/907952/fabulous-figs

also i see somtimes ants hide in the cervices between leaves and fruit when hot and when the eye opens a bit they enter :(

anyhow as far as my knowledege goes the ethylenes realesed in the fruit give the ripening and they turn to sugars. the fruit once formes doesnt need the leafs i think. anyhow i dont want luscious green growth i just wanted production.

does the fig fruit surface has photosynthesis on it?

**btw the same  subject here-  http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/defoliating-fig-trees-to-increase-fig-production-5946664

I agree with you Aaron. I have not practiced this deleafing with my trees. I just fear losing some precious varieties. Dormancy is a little more complicated in our colder climates.

If the canopy is too thick, I will take out some leaves, if they are damaged or have some rust I remove them and at the end of the season I will start to remove them for winter storage.  I will removed leaves on vegetables to keep plant balance with fruit so it should work on figs but a woody plant vs an annual I am not sure of the balance needed; however, I don't think it would be nearly the same as annuals, just a need to keep an open canopy should do, with proper pruning and training.  This is an interesting thought though, I am curious on what the right way to do it is without hurting the trees.

thanks for the input all.
I have a Potted tree almost completly deleafed with 60 figs on and will post results on ripening habits and taste.
regarding the ants - i havnt seen one ant on these trees since deleafing them.
The picture taken is from the first fig after deleafing. i never saw a Drop of honey covering the ostiole but now maybe the excess heat helps with the closing of the eye. gonna follow up on this too.

 

Eli, deleafing now will not harm the tree in a long run, because the tree will put up more leaves before dormancy.

Hi Frozenjoe,
I do agree the video is nice - too nice in fact - but what is that lady doing? Fetching herself figs on a tree that does not belong to her ...
If she dares do that on one of my trees, I'll be at war with her ! Imagine she breaks a branch ... I'll be playing football with her back !
Limestone he says... Well I think I'll be digging into that topic in the next weeks...
And as the guy "says": Fertilize and water like crazy !
I don't think he defoliated his trees. Due to the fact that I couldn't see any green stem nor a figlet, I would say that the video was taken in Autumn ...
But note, that even on those trees , there are three leaves remaining on most of the branches .

Well till now good results except one fig that got damaged( Severe fruit burn)  from the sap spieled from a cut leaf- That sap sure is toxic and i guess its a downside to the technique.
got three four figs to ripen together and they seem to get bigger each day. normally i have never gotten to ripen more than 1 fig at a time.

will post picture of cut fruit when ripe.

weather started to play tricks . inside the pots already 43 celsius but the tree still ripenes fruit easily.
i wish my brown turkey didnt have such big ostiole since i lost 20% to insects , but in this heat what ever insects goes into the fruit is gonna have a fig-sauna. i am noticing the fruit gets much much bigger this way.
Hope to have a good summer ...

Well, I love to experiment, so I tried a little bit of defoliation. I removed just enough leaves on my Texas Everbearing and HC to open up and let sun into the interior of the bushes. I just could not strip all the leaves they way some seem to be doing, it just seems like too extreme on a growing plant. I might do that at the very end of the season to try and ripen the last fruits.

Now only time will tell if this helps or not. Of course it is not a true scientific test since I don't have a control plant of each kind. But I do think I will get some idea of whether or not it is a good idea.