winter fig defoliation: breaking the rules

[phillips_head]

Hi all,
in my impatience i decided to break all the rules and defoliate this fig (i think its a strangler) in mid-winter down here in melbourne. After a considerable period of waiting and believing i had killed it, the leaves started to come back. the re-emergence of leaves was extremely slow, but the result was smaller leaves than i have ever seen!!!.
note the middle branch with the large leaves was cut back in early spring. this gives you a good comparison of the effect of mid winter defoliation.
has anyone ever done such a thing? and are there any risks in doing this (was i just lucky to get it back).

[alpineart]

Hi Phillips_head , don't know about rules , but i have defoliated My Ishitsuki P.J figs in winter along with numerous other P,J's, and yes the result is much smaller leaves , even over the next season . A must down this way is to keep them out of the cold , mine spend the Winter inside on display in front of a window and are rotated regularly .

Cheers Alpineart

[Grant Bowie]

Check out my thread on winter and other defoliation of my PJ Fig here in cold Canberra.

viewtopic.php?f=133&t=4682&hilit=Port+j ... g&start=45


It only went back outside two weeks ago and has tiny leaves; which I am defoliating as we speak.

Grant