Hello avidchamp,

Like you I have a Texas Everbearing that is 6 years old that has froze to the ground every winter!
Since joining this forum I have read that if I mulch the tree real good with pine needles this winter it would help a lot, If I don't have anything, I have plenty pine needles!

Good luck
Cecil

Hi Cecil! I just harvested 6 figs from the Brown Turkey. It is loaded with hundreds of green figs, but we may end up getting about another 6 and that will be it. The plant has probably 20 shoots from the ground with many of them laying flat on the ground and others standing straight up. For a couple of years, I placed a 3 corner fence around the North side of the bush and covered it with pine straw from a neighbor's pine tree. Still same problem. This year, it did attempt to grow off one of the last year stalks but that died out pretty quick and everything from last year is very dry and brittle. This year's stalks are about 5 feet high and are thumb size. I am considering building an open frame box structure over it this year and cover that with a plastic tarp held down with bricks and 2X4's. It is just far enough from the house that it will be difficult to run an extension cord out to it for a lightbulb.

I have another Celeste fig that I brought from Mississippi about 2 years ago and it is planted about 10 feet from my storage building in front of a South facing wall. It is on a slightly raised area and has done wonderful this year. Same story, it came from the ground but there are fewer stalks and some of them are approaching half-wrist size. I have harvested about a dozen figs from it in the last several days and it is definitely a candidate for a cover and lightbulb for the winter. I feel that if I can get the stalks up to wrist size or larger, the need for winter cover might be less.

Again, the figs are just now beginning to ripen and the tree is loaded with them.

I am nursing a Chicago Hardy in a pot along that I ordered in from a nursery in Seattle. It arrived last fall and I nursed it through the winter in the storage building. It had only about a 6 inch stalk when it came and it now has taken on a nice tree shape and is about 5 feet tall. It is now in a black rubber 25 gallon cattle feed pan from Atwoods farm supply for $22.00. I have a place in mind between the driveway and house (about 5 feet wide) South facing brick wall, that I might ground plant it next Spring. That area just seems to be too small if the plant grows like the one in the photograph in the paper.

I did call that fellow in the newspaper this afternoon and he is recovering from a hernia surgery and will return my call in several days. I will be anxious to learn how he winters his plants and how he got that tree to be so large.

Bob

sounds like its tough to grow figs in okla city.

i've planted 4 types in dallas. thats about halfway to ausin where mountainman has good luck. i'm hoping i'll do ok here

avidchamp, It's possible this gentleman's "Brown Turkey" is behaving so much better than yours (better microclimate, older acclimated tree, etc.), but it is also possible that his "Brown Turkey" is not Brown Turkey.
This is an excerpt from an article by A.J. Bullard in the Southern Fruit Fellowship newsletter (Issue #5 1989):
"It so happens that the two fig varieties most commonly grown east of the Mississippi are the two most confused...It seems Brown Turkey got the inside track with figs early on and became the Frigadere of refrigerators so to speak. Nurseries mislabeled Celeste as Brown Turkey - some by honest ignorance and some to sell Brown Turkey figs which customers called for. Some major nurseries didn't know the difference."
"Both varieties are adapted to the Southeast so why does it make any difference?"
"First as my fig Guru Paul Starnes says, don't ask a fig owner what variety he has because he doesn't know but calls it Brown Turkey or Celeste (Sugar) - usually having the varieties reversed."
...."Celeste is the most common fig grown in the Southeast and is somewhat more cold hardy than Brown Turkey....Celeste trees stood that had been hurt very little in over 40 years enduring at least one zero and one 1 degree F ...without much kill-back if any....The owner said the Celeste had never been killed back in its 40+ years but the Brown Turkey, 'got killed back to the ground every few years'. Same exposure, soil type, climate, etc...."
"Brown Turkey will bear fruit the first season after being 'leveled' on sucker growth while Celeste won't. Brown Turkey also will produce a Breba crop if the terminals aren't killed back much in addition to a main crop. Celeste almost never (Dave Ulmer) has brebas to mature....The Turkey brebas are larger than the main crop figs and much larger than Celeste. Turkey brebas are often 'lop sided' but to my taste about like the main crop. Celeste figs are more symmetrical, smaller and sweeter than Turkey."
"One ID I find useful with developing furit is that the scales around the eye of half grown and over Turkey figs are pink or red while those of comparably sized Celeste figs are green. The eye of mature Turkey figs is somewhat open while Celeste is closed and is therefore a better keeper - resisting souring better. Celeste seems to have a longer stem than Turkey but the skin color isn't a whole lot different."
As to leaf shape both are classified as 'grape' leaf .....but a common basic difference exists between the most typical leaf type of Celeste compared with Brown Turkey. Sometimes to see this difference more clearly one must examine sucker growth or new growth resulting from heading back old limbs. Celeste leaves are slightly broader and tend to have more serrations. Turkey leaves are slightly more elongated and tend to have few serrations per lobe.".......
"I find Celeste the M.V.P. of figs and an excellent stock to graft less cold hardy varieties onto to make them hardier."

That is a very interesting observation. The photo in the newspaper showed his figs to be smaller and more golden in color where the "Brown Turkey"(???) that I have produces a golf ball size fig that is very deep purple in color. I think the statement that most people (and nurserys) don't have any idea what they really have is probably more truthful than anyone will admit. I am really looking forward to making his acquaintance when he calls me. I will say that the article in the newspaper has given me renewed resolve to make it work here.

When I figure out how to post photos on this forum, I will share some pictures of what is going on.

Bob

Bob, If you are using Photobucket, (its free), I can pass along the tip James gave me. It is easy when someone points it out. Photobucket is the only method I know how to use.

Peg