Never had a ficus. What does this do reducing foliage just leaving the first pair on each shoot?
Edit. Wrote this before seeing your last replay.
Ficus are sometimes a bit trickier to get the ball rolling...
I say this because often most people get one from a big box store and it's condition is kinda not so good... So, if you have a focus that has very little branches and almost no foliage... in this case u will need to just let it grow wild for a couple if years to gain strength, to gain movement... this strength will be determined by branching growing very long in a fast amount of time. However it still may have very few leaves... Ficus do not put out tons of leaves unless they are continually worked.
With starting to establish a ficus the process of getting them up in running is a tad slower and my treatment if them is slower as well... I let them go as I have said for a couple of years or more if needed... then I cut everything back to a couple if inches away from the trunk... let all new growth grow for a couple of months, or more until I see a vast change in the amount of growth. Once I see this, I cut back to first couple of leaves... again I wait to see some movement, but this time I don't wait as long, I cut back again...
And I continue...
The thought here is that each time you cut, the spacing between when you do it should get less and less... what will determine thus will be the tree's response... it should get quicker, and there should be each time more and more branches and foilage to remove.
After a while of doing this, I then switch to a process of once a month or more, cutting back only on longer shoots, and instead switch to just removing the terminal bud on the end of each shoot. As well I begin to wire finer branching down flat... this opens up the area and helps new growth to form further back.
At some point you will end up with a mass amount of finer branching, and your tree will look like a topiary... so you will need to decide what to let grow long and what to keep short. Again, start at the lowest areas, and establish these first, continue to cut everything above. And slowly work you way up the tree.
When starting off a tree, you are first trying to establish lots of branching coming from the trunk, once this is set you move on.
Do not defoliate a ficus!
This is a silly process, that is out dated...
The only time I ever do this nowadays is on a tree that has white Flys or bugs, because it seems to be the easiest way to once and for all get rid of them, and spray.
There is no need to defoliate... all problems can be solved by wiring a branch down, this will automatically produce growth further in to which to cut back to.
And leaf size is determined by the amount of leaves, which can easily be accomplished just by routinely cutting and removing terminal buds... defoliating only produces finer leaves until they grow out.
