Celeste Figs in North Texas (8A)

General Fruit Growing
#1

Anyone have any experience with them? My plant has great growth but the hundreds of figs have all fallen off when they are the size of grape or smaller. Also all the interior leaves have fallen off, but the exterior leaves look great.

I have a VdB and LSU Purple that are doing just fine.

It has been very hot in North Texas this year, but the trees are all well watered.

Ideas?

Thanks!

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#2

Did the Celeste come from a reliable source?

#3

Yeah, Bob Wells. They generally run a tight ship.

#4

I griped about that for years and even posted on here crying about it. Mine dropped everything for several years. Then one year they just quit and started producing regular. Irritating to watch.
Celeste is one of the better brown figs IMO.

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#5

Okay, well it’s only on year three, so I guess I’ll give it a couple more and see. Thanks!

#6

Mine were over ten foot when they started holding the crop. Maybe 4-5 years old. I have 3 celeste and every one of them did it.

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#7

Is your plant in the ground or in a pot? Celeste are notorious fig droppers, particularly in containers. Of all the figs I’ve had, Celeste was the one that would drop almost all fruit year after year, but mine was in a 15-gallon pot and I sometimes had a person watering for me when I was away during the hottest days of summer and suspect they weren’t as consistent as I’d like. But the other plants held their figs.

That said, I have a friend who has a nice mature Celeste (10-12 feet tall) and they get lots of delicious figs. I’d suggest you maybe up the watering next year and see if that helps.

#8

@Robert , does your Celeste die back to the ground in the winter? Mine is 7 years old, dies back to the ground most years, and has been unproductive.

#9

For me die back is only on young trees. Usually the first year. After that the only die backs are freak things like this year. I got an April snow which caused die back.

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#10

In the ground. I’ve watered the hell out of them, considering the conditions this year, but maybe my emitters are clogged.

The interior leaves dying while the outer leaves do just fine has been confusing