"The leaves curl inward, turn yellow, die and fall off." This is what my figs do before they go dormant. I same some leaves doing this now in early Sept. However you say this started two months ago which is early to for going dormant, although I don't know where you are.

Wash it with clean water. Fig tree do not tolerate spraying with any chemicals.

You're right Martin, maybe someone tilled the ground to close to this tree and killed a portion of the tree's roots........fig roots are rather shallow and often quite spreading from the trunk of the tree. Suggestion.........water your tree well making sure to keep the soil moist and it should respond to that treatment. My guess if that this tree was severely neglected by the prior owner and that the roots recently suffered from a tilling operation that was much too close to this tree....leading to some root damage. Dan

Hi,Scott, I also live in Austin, Texas and have about 60 varieties of figs, about 45 varieties in ground. Are your affected trees in-ground or potted? Although the season seems to have changed in Austin, the month of August was extraordinarily hot (avg. daily temp. 100.7). The severe heat with very little rain is very stressful to young figs. Mature in-ground figs do fine with occasional watering in severe heat and drought, but young in-ground figs, in my experience, benefit from daily or once-every-two-day watering in Austin's hot, dry summer conditions. I watered my mature in-ground Adriatic tree once every week or two, or when I saw the leaves begin to droop or yellow. Potted figs should be watered every day during Austin's summer and sometimes twice daily. Ideally, if your situation permits, potted figs (if you wish to keep them in a pot) should have the majority of the pot buried below ground to keep the root system cool and minimize water loss. Certainly, FMV is a possibility, and even a probability, as it seems to thrive in stressed plants. The leaves of most of my figs seem to begin yellowing and showing signs of rust at this time of year. Our average first frost in Austin, at which time the figs will drop their leaves and go dormant is mid-November, on the average.