@ediblelandscapingsc,
You seem to make friends very quickly.
At least put a link to your ebay store at the bottom of your posts so interested folks can find their way to your store. Go to your profile page and look for 'signature appearing below your posts' and add a link - don't forget to hit 'save'. I don't have a store so I posted a link for a video of my dog as a place holder. Some day I may have an ebay store and I hope to have something that will be of interest to the people on ATP.

Oh gee, I am having Fig Frustration here! My little Celeste fig set a pretty nice crop of about 40 figs this year. They sit there, rock hard and about an inch across until every once in a while one will suddenly plump up to twice the size, and ripen up. I go out and carefully feel it to catch it when it begins to soften up.

Trouble is, the birds, squirrels or other rodents at night also have their eye on my figs. Needless to say, I've only tasted two figs so far.

Now, with the wet, wet summer weather we're having, the rusty fungus is among us again, too. I anticipate in a week or two the tree will have lost all its leaves. Not much I can do about this, having tried all the benign anti-fungal sprays I am allowed to spray on a tree with edible fruit, to no avail. Once the tree loses its leaves, no more fruit will ripen. Sometimes I get a new flush of leaves and a late summer/fall crop of a few more figs, but they never ripen up before the weather gets cold either.

Anybody got ideas here? @ediblelandscapingsc ?

We use a bird netting to protect our Fig trees. This year we have had a lot of rain and the Celeste is producing better than ever. The Brown Turkey is also doing a good job of making fruit.

You should water only at the base of the plant, not wet the leaves. Can't stop the rain from doing that but we can control how we water. Also, prune away some of the branches to let some air ventilate the tree. We don't use sprays so I can't advise you on that question; someone else may chime in with that answer.

Can't use bird netting here, unfortunately. Not only is my bird feeder actually IN the tree, but every time I've tried using netting, the local black racer snakes get caught in it. (small heads fit through, fat body gets stuck) I like having the snakes around as they keep the rodent population in check now that my cat has decided that at 15 she is too dignified to catch mice.

Yup, I'm watering under the tree as well. Micro irrigation down near the ground so that water doesn't wet the leaves. But we've had so much rain the leaves have hardly had a chance to dry at all in the last few weeks.

The tree is maybe 4 years old, 8ft. tall and as wide, but well spread out so there's lots of air movement, too. We just have every fungus known to man floating around here in summer. Two years ago when the rust spots started to show up, I literally went out there every day after it rained and sprayed the tree with baking soda/water. It's supposed to slow down the fungal infection rate by changing the pH on the leaf surface to be inhospitable to fungi. Well, the rust just started up on the undersides of the leaves instead. Last summer, I carefully picked off every leaf as they started to show rust. Well, pretty soon had to give that up, no more leaves left.

Don't you get this rusty fungus on your tree where you are? @greene

No, not yet (knock on wood) but we have only had the trees a few years.

Here's the tree (pardon the jungle, haven't had much chance to weed either), figs, rust and more rust. The pavers are porous coral rock so water does get through.



Does your fruit take forever to ripen, too? Seems like it sits there for months waiting to "pop".

In previous years the Celeste dropped fruit and the Brown Turkey did a good job. This year both are doing well.
Late July and early August is when we see the most fruit (I think?); my daughter came in with a Baggie full just the other day.

You had me worried about rust so I just went out to check the small Fig trees I have in pots at my house.
No rust.


The trees that are producing figs are at my daughter's other house so maybe tomorrow I will drive over to my daughter's house (if traffic allows) and check on her trees. She usually tells me or asks me if anything looks wrong but I will have a look with my eyes.

greene said:In previous years the Celeste dropped fruit and the Brown Turkey did a good job. This year both are doing well.
Late July and early August is when we see the most fruit (I think?); my daughter came in with a Baggie full just the other day.

Don't you get ants? My neighbors grows figs and the fruit often is full of teeny, tiny ants. Not very appetizing that way.

I was visiting someone's house today and there was a Fig tree in the yard. I casually walked close enough and yep, it was covered with rust. This tree was getting good ventilation and plenty of sun, so I don't know why there is no rust on the little trees at my house.

Hm, haven't noticed any ants on my figs, but the rust is taking over day after day here. I just hope the tree can retain a few leaves until the weather calms down.

Elaine unfortunately Rust is just something you are going to have to deal with in FL, It's so humid even without rain the spore are still around and seem to float in the air from one tree to the next. Celeste's figs do sit on the tree a long time vs some other fig varieties out there and if it is defoliated before your figs ripen you may want to plant something like LSU gold which ripens soon after figs appear and it may be able to give you figs before the rust gets bad enough to defoliate the tree. I may have an extra lsu gold plant if you are interested. Your only other options are various sprays but you got to ask yourself do you really want to put that stuff on your food. Rust is not a big problem for my area but I have seen it on older untidy trees a few times so it is here just not in my yard yet.
As far how to stop things from eating all your figs without using bird netting, I'd say plant more fig trees. I have lost king snakes in bird netting also so I see where you are coming from but it's the only sound way to protect your figs.

Rita ants love sweets, be it figs or any other sugary substance and they are much easier to deal with than rust or other fungal issues plants have. tell your friend to buy a product called tanglefoot they sell just the tube of tanglefoot and a kit. The kit gives you everything you need to protect any tree from crawling insects and it's super easy to use. Tell him to check it out and if he can't find it locally he can find in offered by many different online sources.

Fortunately I have never noticed Rust on my neighbors Fig Trees. I don't eat figs anyway but my neighbor loves them. I was always surprised at the ants. The Tanglefoot is a great idea!

Here's an O'Rourke fig that started out as a cutting that I shoved in my aquaponic bed this spring. Apparently it liked it there. For scale, that's a four foot bed it's sitting on, and those are four foot wooden struts behind it.


I've heard this variety can be a vigorous grower, but wow. Before I cleaned this bed out, there were two more bananas (larger than the one still in it), three of these O'Rourke figs, four Jolly Tiger figs, and various other plants including strawberries, lemongrass, french tarragon, rosemary, and wasabi.

Wow, great growing there, Paul. I like the banana behind there,too.

That fig has a darn good root system going on, too.

Mine sadly has lost about 60% of its leaves at this point, so it's doubtful I'll see any figs this fall.

None of this one for me either, I'm afraid. I haven't tasted it yet. Maybe next year.

Is it possible to grow figs to fruit hydroponically?
or is this a method just for starting ?

I expect they'd grow fine, but I don't know what the quality of the fruit would be. I'm tempted to try, though technically this is an aquaponics bed (fish powered).

sounds like you have an optimum set up to give it a try

I've had friends grow them hydroponically and I've heard mixed results about the figs. Some say they are good, others claim they are watery. I've ate figs that have gotten too much rain and they tasted watery so I don't doubt that they could do the same thing in a hydro setup. One thing you'll have a problem with as far as getting figs is the high nitrogen and low phosphorus and potassium in your aquaponic setup. The water is much more suited for vegetative growth and would do a killer job for things like lettuce and other greens that only really need nitrogen to grow. Regardless of what does best I think it's great you have incorporated aquaponics into your garden. It's people like you that are providing solutions to world hunger and encouraging people to be more self sufficient. I'm not sure how far you are in yet but if you haven't incorporated duckweed and fresh water shrimp into your system you may want to look up the benefits of adding both.
I wanted to do some aquaponics in one of my greenhouses but the funds and time to take on such a big project wasn't on my side. It could be a good thing for me though because I suffer from gardener's ADD. It's where you'll have something really important to do in the garden but something sidetracks you on the way and you spend 15 minutes looking at a butterfly or something then realize that the plant it's on needs to be weeded and forget to do whatever it was you originally set out to do Am I the only one that this happens to? I can't imagine how bad it would be adding fish into the the equation