Beautiful,Beautiful thanks for sharing
Sal

Jeff I sure wish I could have joined you, but the Linda and I took the grandkids blueberry pickin' north of Covington. We had a blast and picked 5 gallons of berries. We also bought a great big watermelon from a local grower for 8 bucks that had been picked only hours before we bought it. I sure hope it good because it's way too far a drive to return it.

Those picture of the hollier look great. I wish mine would quite splitting while there still green like I told you on the phone last night. I don't know what to think of it. Here's pictures of the inside and outside

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This was a week or so ago. I found another one yesterday. The look like they grew too fast on the inside and split like a baseball at the seams.
"gene"

Lecompte,thanks for the great pictures. I can't wait for mine to get to bearing age.

Gene, that is the weirdest looking fig I've ever seen. Hope it gets past this.

Jeff, I wish I could have been there too. My grandson and I had a few more watermelons to sell Saturday morning. Holier is a very good early fig which ripens sweet fruit even in cooler weather. That's a very nice picture of one.

Gene is your Holier growing in the ground or in a container?

Dan

Dan, it's growing in a container for now. I got it from James Robin last year, he started it in February so it's just a little over a year old and stands about 36 inches tall. It had 5 figs on it, three which split as shown. One of them was only nickel size and no where close to being ripe and it split too. I just went check the tree and here is one just beginning to split. I must thank who ever posted the "get the scales off the tree formula" using alchol, water, soap and vegetable oil. It worked with only one dose but I'm gonna hit it a time or two more.

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"gene"

Jeff, I wish I could've said 'hi' at the field day. It was fun, and the figs looked great! There were lots more people there than I had expected. Seeing pawpaw's Smith fig up in the row there made me smile so much.

I can't wait to go back this fall and grab some cuttings, if Dr. Johnson'll let me.

Gene good to hear that worked. I would definitly spray again 5-7 days apart at least once more to be safe
Sal

Hi Lecompte,

I just took a close look at the picture of the Smith tree and those leaves don't look anything like the leaves of my Smith baby I got this spring. The leaves on my little tree are deeply cut and are five lobes with those extra bumps on the bottom lobes. Now I'm wondering if I really have a Smith tree. Does anyone have pictures of their Smith trees so I could see what they look like? :(

Thanks,

Vivian

Lecompte, thanks for the great pictures. Was the Hollier fig splitting as Gene's?

Hollier looks like it holds up great with no splitting. It is a great fig. Gene's fig is a young tree still in a pot, and probably has something not quite right with it.

Hollier -- a must have fig. Performs for me in PNW. Very sweet & nice.It produces for me in its 2nd season where it was started from a cutting. I got a tree in-ground this year and hope it will survive & give me figs next yr.

Vivian, if you can post pics of what you have. New growth on a smith will sometimes have deeply lobed leaves.
Jeff

lecompte, I could take pictures all day, but my computer skills are abysmal when it comes to understanding how to post pictures. I never have gotten it right when trying to follow instructions for posting pictures. I'm sorry.

The plant is young, so maybe that's what it is. It's one that was just a twig with roots when I got it in April and it's now about 4' tall. I removed the tip of the one leader this afternoon and left the tip on the other leader. When that one catches up, I'll remove it as well. The pot the plant is in is too small for the canopy, I think, but when I first potted it, it was sulking, but then exploded into growth with only half strength MG every other week. This baby thinks it's godzilla! I will need to put it in the ground, I'm thinking. It seems to be too much for a pot of any size. It didn't get any figs on it because it was so busy growing. The other babies are smaller, more compact and have a couple little figs on them.

If there is anyone I could email pictures to who could put them on this site for people to see, I could do that, but a I hate to trouble people with something like that.

I think I hijacked this thread, but I didn't know how to get just the one post of the Smith tree to start a new post with it, so I'm sorry that I took over the whole thread.

Vivian

Lecompte, very nice indeed! Dennis

Vivian, send them to me and I'll post them for you.
"gene"

Thanks Gene,

I'll do that. Mike and I can take the pics tomorrow and he can put them into the computer. I know how to send them. Do they need to be a certain size for you to post them?

Vivian

Vivian 640 x 480 would be nice on the picture size.
"gene"

Hi Gene,

We took and sent the pix of the Smith tree and closeups of one of the leaves. Most of the leaves are the same, so I chose the one I could hold out against the stucco panel so it would show up.

I also sent you two shots of the tip from the Hunt baby for you to see.

Thanks,

Vivian

Here is Vivian's Smith tree and her babies.

Great pictures Vivian, I hope someone can settle you mind about it being a Smith.

I will try to post pics of my young smith so you can see, but they look very much the same.
Jeff

Nice pictures, Vivian. I hope that it turns out to be a Smith, or just a really great fig, at least.

Jeff, I think you have an email from me, could you check?

Tyler

Vivian,

From my own observations........

There is a MAJOR problem with trying to ID fig cultivars by using leaf pattern alone. Leaf patterns of many cultivars are GREATLY affected by their rate of growth. Leaves on RAPIDLY growing trees (or branches of a tree) will often display a higher and more pronounced lobed leaf pattern than when it is more mature or slow growing.

For example.....on trees that are known to display a 3 or 5 lobed leaf pattern......you will find that rapidly growing suckers on that tree will be of 5 lobes and more deeply cut. Also, when that tree is heavily fertilized, the tree will form more 5 lobed leaves than 3.
Bottom line......growing conditions can greatly affect fig leaf patterns and can make it difficult to ID a particular cultivar only from leaves.

Also, the distance between nodes is usually controlled by the growth rate of the tree. Slower growing trees (less fertilizer, less water, poorer soil, etc.) will usually have the nodes closer together. A tree growing in rich soil or heavily fertilized will have the nodes farther apart. From the looks of your tree, you are taking very good care of it by evidence of its apparent rapid growth and the distance between the nodes.

Smith leaves definitely can look just like the ones pictured on your container tree. However, on a slower growing tree the leaves may not be as deeply cut as yours and will look like a 3 lobed leaf pattern. I just checked my tree and can tell you that on really slow growing branches the leaves can look like they are single lobed. It is highly likely that your tree is a Smith....but, one cannot be 100% certain from leaf pattern alone.

Hope this helps and does not confuse.

Dan

Thank you for the input, Dan and Jeff and thanks so much, Gene, for kindly posting the pictures for me. I need to learn how to do posting of pix, but before that, I will need to learn to use the camera and download the pix into the computer.

I want to clarify that the two first pix of the baby in the clay pot is from the Hunt tree tip that was bent over in transit, that I cut off the little tree and then stuck into the pot and it eventually rooted and began to grow. It's so exciting that I was able to save that little tip and it actually grew! It's doing better than the tree it came from, except that tree is now sprouting a bud down lower on a leader and also, one of the terminal buds has started to leaf out. I'm so glad to see that. I knew the tree wasn't dying because of all the roots it has put out and it was also making figs, which I kept plucking off of it. It's as though we were fighting with each other--Stubborn tree. :)

Dan, I know what you are talking about as far as leaves being different on the same trees because the leaves on the tiny Hunt plant are much different from the ones on the plant it came from. I do hope the tree I got as a Smith will be a Smith and I think it must be because I got it from a man who is with ULL Horticultural Center, but I got shook up when I saw the leaves on the large Smith tree at LSU. I'm glad you think the Smith tree I have is growing well and isn't too leggy. I so appreciate your input. It grew from a stick that was late budding out to 46" at the tip of the taller leader.

Jeff, I'll be looking forward to seeing the pix of your Smith tree. I hope you are able to post some for us to see.

Vivian

Vivian here is a picture of a young Smith, in fact, this one came from a cutting off of the LSU tree.

Well there ya go, Jeff. It looks just like mine! I'm glad you were able to post a picture of it for me to see. It's a pretty little tree and the leaves are identical to the one here. : )))))))))))))))))))

I feel better about mine, now, thanks. After I thought about it, I was sure Mark knew what he had given to me and I wasn't so doubtful, but seeing the picture has helped a lot.

Vivian

genecolin, in looking at the picture of the fig you posted in this link it appears to me like it may have a scale infestation. Sometimes it is hard to tell from a photo but I thought I'd mention it so you can take a closer look.

Thanks for that pic Lecompte. I bought one last season from Just Fruits and exotics and was a little worried after seeing the pics of the one at LSU. Mine looks exactly like that deeply lobed one you posted above.

I have heard that there is a few different stains being called Smith going around. I am hoping I got the good one.

rawan, you are correct, my tree was infected with them. I have treated them and now they are almost all gone. More treatments will follow. My question in posting the pictures is did the infection of scales cause the figs to split or was it something else, like rapid growth on a young tree. I'll find out next year maybe.
"gene"

I apologize for hijacking this string but I am new to this and have a questions about LSU Gold figs. I planted a two foot youngster bought from a local nursery last spring. It is now about 7 ft tall and fairly heavily leafed but fruit production has been limited. Further Ihave had one ripe fig in early July and nothing ripe since then. Also my Celeste, planted the same time, is the same size and loaded with figs but again only one ripe one so far and the birds got it. On the Celeste I have had some immature figs turn yellow, shrivel a bit and fall off. Its August in the New Orleans area and while we have had typical summer rain and heat I would have thought to have more ripening by now. Note the trees do get watered by lawn irrigation system for about 10 minutes a day in early AM.

Am I just too eager?

I plan to prune back in the fall to control growth. Will this increase fruit production next year? If so is there specific guidance on how to prune figs?

I look forward to your help and guidance.