I'm starting to put my figs into 5 gallon pots - this will quickly overwhelm my wife's approval of sharing the deck with the figs.

If I stagger them off the (fenced) deck and around the house, will the deer chew them up?  I understand I will have to protect the figs, but what about the trees?

Andrew

Hungry deer will eat about anything but from what I have heard figs are not their first preference  I have had deer browse (and eat) several plants in my yard but have not noticed damage on figs.

Yes, they will eat them like they eat everything else. Better off fencing them off if you can otherwise they'll get eaten.
Best of luck with them.

I have a deer crossing sign in my yard and get to garden with a thriving community of urbanized deer (they are so tame that I can hit them throwing a golf ball). They get curious about anything new they see. From my observation, I doubt many deer try the leaves more than once (except in situations where food is scarce). That said, I nearly lost my in ground first year LSU purple after several deer decided to have a tastes. They won't finish off an entire plant overnight like they will for hydrangea, plum, tomato, mulberry or blueberry. I would think any tree with more than 20+ leaves is safe to leave around them.

A rutting buck is another story. Be careful in late fall as they will tear any small tree to shreds.

Deer will eat anything that they come across that is edible. Home Depot and Lowes sells a product you spray around that keeps them at bay and it works like a charm. Be warned that it is concentrated predator urine and it has a very foul smell but it works 100% of the time.

I have 50+ fig trees outside of my orchard as a hedge and quite a few deer that go directly through our yard. I've never had problems with deer eating my fig hedge. Worst that happened was a buck has rubbed its antlers against the tree. Just my .02.

I had a deer nibble an inch or two off a dormant Alma this year. That was enough for it. It never went back for seconds.

Its funny this topic came up, just last night a few deer jumped my picket fence and destroyed my vegetable garden. They made my 3' and bigger tomato plants 1' tall, and also chopped down my cucumber and  eggplants. For some reason they didn't touch the basil, grapes, and most importantly the 20 plus fig trees in pots they passed. Being from Staten Island this is my first year in NJ and didn't really think it would happen , but now I have to get some kind of fence . Hopefully they don't come back tonight. 

I agree with everything above. I shave Irish Spring soap into a spray bottle and spray my vegetables every evening, my few fruit trees at browsing level and whatever ornamentals are  currently on the deer menu and can tell you it is effective.

I would not expect for you to recieve much damage to your fig trees from deer browsing.  The latex in the leaves should act as a deterrent. The only exception to this would be if you live in an area that is overpopulated with deer.  If natural browse is severely limited you might recieve some damage.  If you have plants in a concentrated spot the best deterrent is an electic fence with three stands.  The top strand would be at 3-4 feet.  Crimp aluminum foil on the top wire every 10-15 feet and dap some peanut butter on it.  Deer are attracted to the peanut butter and get a good shock making them avoid the area in the future.  This has worked well for me in my vegetable garden for 4 years now.