Mac- Just read your posting/question. The short and sweet answers...Yes, and containerized growing could be easy, but a containerized fig tree is NOT "care free". You must consistently provide everything that the tree will need. It would be like growing a houseplant....with the same routines of watering feeding, etc. You don't say in your posting what you will do to over-winter the tree. Containerized trees need more protection from deep freezing as opposed to in-ground trees because of the restricted roots. Most growers will over-winter their trees in an unheated garage, etc. Posted on this forum, and on Figs4Fun, are scores of threads that address your questions in greater detail. Read everything you can, and then you can decide if a containerized fig is the way to go. All my figs are containerized, and I have had great success growing them since 2007, however they CANNOT be neglected. Also, while the "Brown Turkey" fig will do well, even at its best, will produce a blander, milder-tasting fig than some other varieties, which is fine, but there are better choices. I would opt for a good size "Black Mission" or "Hardy Chicago" before the "BT". The figs from these two varieties will taste far richer, have a more complex flavor profile, and, they'll do just as well in Zone-8, with protection. Both are available in garden centers and through mail order nurseries. Try: 'Ison's Nursery', 'Rabbit Ridge Nursery', 'Durio Nursery', 'Almost Eden Nursery', 'Petals From the Past', 'Burnt Ridge Nursery'...stay away fro "Ty Ty" aka "Arron's" and "Willis Orchards"...both are famous for sending mislabeled trees, and for having lousy customer service. Hope this helps. Grow a fig tree. It's the only fruit tree that will give you almost instant success. Frank

There are some very sweet and nice brown turkey strains. It gets a bad rap from those that have only experienced bad ones, or ones with an odd flavor. I highly recommend the one from Rolling River Nursery ( rollingrivernursery.com ). It's the best I have encountered, and they sent me a beautiful tree for the money, fast growing and productive too. I have heard good things about the one from OneGreenWorld (Vern's BT), but don't grow it personally). I recommend this over your other two choices. The LSU Gold is not precocious in my experience. It doesn't really start doing much fruitwise until its 4th year, but it's a very nice light fig. The Celeste is a great fruit, but small and not juicy. It may drop its fruit, so if you only have space for one tree, it might not be worth the gamble. I recommend Blue Celeste if you can find it. Good Luck

Herman, I noticed that the English Brown Turkey was not listed with their other figs but I didn't know the significance of it so thanks for clearing that up. You know, Stella was my first choice but I thought I was playing it too safe since I all ready have Stella but maybe I can bless someone with a new fig tree. Rayrose, I'm not sure of the differences but in my area all the nurseries carry brown turkey so I thought it must be a good fig but I've tried four trees from three different nurseries (technically two nurseries and one home improvement store). It took five years for me to figure out that my first tree needed pollinating (?), two of the four produced abnormally huge, weird figs that never ripened no matter how long I left them on the tree, the LAST hasn't given a single fig after two years (it came from Lowes) but I really thought I'd found something special sine this fig was called "English" Brown Turkey when the others were just Brown Turkey. I love Celeste but I love all things sweet and It helps that my taste buds are not very sophisticated. THANKS

Hey you guys are being too gentle with the fig trees in winter. I'm 40 miles South of Oklahoma City and I cut mine back to about 18" as soon as I'm through picking the fruit (usually after the first frost.) I have not covered mine in the winter but it is facing South and is planted next to a metal barn that probably reflects a lot of heat. This is one I got from one my Dad had at his place just East of Ada, OK. I just dug up part of the root with a couple of branches on it and planted it. He always cut his back in the winter. Mine gets to about 7-8 feet each year and bears at least 50 figs. The key is plenty of water. I'm going to take plantings off mine this winter and have more next year. I do have the problem of a lot of small ones left at harvest because of the short growing season. Maybe I'll try a few of the new ones in a small greenhouse.