Should I remove the leaves?

I have about 12 fruit trees now and all but 1 still have leaves on them. Keep in mind I live in the southern tip of texas so a 'good' cold front for us is probably 50's and 60's during the day and mostly 50's at night. We have not even had a freeze so far this year, just a light frost which was really only below freezing because of the wind chill. Last year in early february we had a very unusual hard freeze with nearly a half inch of ice but that is very very rare, maybe once every 10 years.

Anyway... one of my nectarine trees is the only one to lose all its leaves and the rest still have leaves (although much fewer and not healthy looking, as compared to spring). I read somewhere online that apple trees planted near the coast in texas would benefit from having all their leaves removed since they may not do that on their own here, so my question is should I do that for my other trees? The other nectarine, peach, plum, and apple trees?

My Anna apple retains some leaves through the winter and it hasn't negatively affected fruit production.

My apple trees seem to be ok with the cool weather, they are actually putting on new leaves. The older leaves don't look good but they have only lost a couple leaves.

Whenever I walk out there I usually pull a few of the older leaves off because in my mind I see it helping the trees 'shut down' before they take off again. I guess as long as they have leaves they will be able to produce more nutrients for themselves so maybe it's not such a bad thing for them to keep some leaves. As long as we don't have some surprise hard freeze because then the active growth might be damaged.

Oh, I forgot to mention I have an Anna apple tree too :) I also planted an Ein Shemer apple as the pollinator and vise versa. I hope they do well!

Edit: Actually I have Anna and Dorsett Golden, not the Ein Shemer. I just remembered seeing the Ein Shemer at lowes a couple of months ago.

This message was edited Jan 18, 2012 8:00 PM

I just planted an Ein Shemer today next to my Anna.

I doubt my trees will produce well this year. We have probably had 50 chill hours and winter is almost over for us! We usually get one big cold front at the beginning of February and then it just starts warming up.

I got to campus later than usual today and the parking lots were full. I had to park nearly a mile away and of course it had to be 86 and sunny... I am so not looking forward to summer. Leave it to Texas to forget its winter