Nice picture. How many figs do the chickens get?

Welcome to the forum, Pappy! What varieties are you growing? If you haven't already, you may want to check out the figs4fun.com forum when you get a chance. Take care!

Nice orchard! Do the chickens eat the figs? In Louisiana and now here in Florida, I've always had to fight the mockingbirds for the ripe figs. I'm guessing that the chickens will get the low-lying fruit.

That is a nice fig orchard. We also run chickens and geese in our stand of fig trees. This year it appeared we would have a bumper crop, the trees were loaded, then the figs didn't ripen and turned to mush on the trees. Others in this area said their fig trees did the same thing. Ours are Turkey and I don't know what everyone else has, but it appears the misery is striking all the fig trees. We fed our figs to the rabbits this year and I couldn't even get one good batch to can or dehydrate -- and we were dreaming of fig pie for Thanksgiving. Oh well. Maybe next year.

To All,

The chickens seem to pose not threat to the trees or fruit. They seem content at eating the bugs and figs that have fallen off for some reason.
Deer are my main nemesis. I would not mind the snacking of leaves or figs....but they are destructive to the trees, breaking limbs and stripping bark skin.
The next issue I have is the hard occasional freeze we get in South Texas...in an open area exposed to the direct wind.
In saying that, I chose Celeste figs for my orchard due to their cold hardiness and high brix (sugar content).
I have more answers to what "NOT" to do...than to do.
And lastly I have checked-out Figs4Fun and joined.

We also have a fig orchard in Europe, in Hungary on a hill top. There are nine hundred plants of different varieties known by local (not international) names. These plants are one and two years old and we have the first fruits in this season.
Would You help me to identify our varieties and to make me know if they are present and known in America if I post some photos of the fruits of our mother trees?
Thanks.

Fig orchard in Hungary

Fig orchard in Hungary

Is "Celeste" /"celestial" in italian/ fig common in America? What does hardiness mean in minus centigrade in its case as winter absolute minimum temperature?

Two ones of our varieties.

Round

Long

Are there the same (or similar) varieties in America?

Other varieties of the young orchard (Fruits on mother trees)

Black

Brown

Brown plate

Purple

Yellow round small

Yellow round big

"Drying on tree" green-yellow

An observation to Pappy52: Your trees are too near to each other. Yet they are small enough to be removed and put at major distances, obviously after falling leaves.

Little fig orchard in Hungary in July 2012: five years old trees touching each other by too "high density".

It's evident that such distances are not sufficient.

ninovarga, my family is from Hungry we moved to the sates during WW2. I would love to make a few trades with you. do you have any cuttings you can spare of the long, black, and black plate figs. I look forward to hearing from you. my email is ediblelandscaping.sc@gamil.com I have a few varieties you might be interested in. Thanks Daniel Erdy.

To ninovarga and all,

I hope everyone enjoyed the fig orchard picture you posted. I am very impressed. Unfortunately, I am not educated enough to ID your figs. You do have some unique ones I have not seen (the teardrop and the pancake shaped ones) All of my figs are Celeste.
Hopefully others here can help.
SPACING...as you pointed out, my trees are too close (3-3.5 meters or 10 foot...the row spacing 20 foot) to grow into large trees. My idea is not to let the trees grow more that 6.5 feet tall (~2.25 meters)and bush to 8 - 10 feet. This will allow fruit picking to be more manageable.
By cropping the tree each year,some say this will increase fruiting. I am told the apple producers have moved away from the huge trees to very short and slender ones...increasing the number of trees/area by 3 or 4 times.
Wish me luck.
Pappy

Celeste Fig Tree

Hi Pappy,

What kind of Celeste is your tree in the photo?

Thanks,

noss

Pappy,
fig varietes are very-very different from each other in habit and in vigor. I posted my opinion referring to distances in a general sense. If you review my last photo, you can see that trees of different varieties distinguish in size and in form. Some of them tend to grow high some other ones wide. It means that each variety needs its adaptable pruning method and request different distances for an optimal develop and fructification. Fig generally response to too drastic severs (destined to control the size) with an accentuated vigorous growing of the branches without second crop fruits or with those non-ripening in the season and with non-ripened branches too sensitive to low winter temperatures.
Do yuo now what the vigor /growing inclination/ of the cultivar 'Celeste' is?

Correction: "Do you know..."

Noss,ninovarga and all,

Unfortunately,I do not know the cultivar or specific type of the Celeste. I believe this is the "general" Celeste and not a hybrid. I did most of my research on Texas A&M and LSU agricultural sites. I chose this fig based on their evaluations and my location. I don't remember the name other than Celeste. Now it does have some nicknames (honey fig is one of them).
I ordered all Celeste but I am now seeing that I did not get all Celeste. I bought bare root plants and even for an expert...It would be extremely hard to ID the type.
Look at the latest fig I picked (it is ripe and very sweet, believe it or not). I know it is not a Celeste...but what is it?

Inside view

I'm sorry pappy that not celeste, it's a Kadota Fig. I have a few real celeste figs if you want some. there are in 1 gallon pots ready to go and I've been looking for Kadota so maybe we can trade a plant for about 10 or 12 cuttings. here is what my celeste looks like.

Ninovarga, you have a beautiful orchard.

My family is also originally from Hungary.

i'm from hungary and want to know what is the best fig plant for my region? i live in the city of szeged

ninovarga: nice orchard u have there :)

Im looking for brown and black plate cuttings or bareroot ... Anybody??