Are fig trees usually to hardy root stock?

Last July I moved into a house that has an enormous fig tree in the back yard. It was covered with figs, but they were all leathery. Completely uneatable. The house was vacant for three months prior to us moving in, and from what I hear from the neighbors, the previous tenants probably didn't water anyway. I thought the lack of water was the cause of the bad figs, but even after watering for the rest of the summer, the figs were still leathery.

So my other thought thought was that this tree (which has four or five trunks) is the result of uncontrolled sucker growth. There is a tag around one small trunk, but the bark has grown over the part where the name was written.

P.S. That small trunk with the old tag was cut off at some point along the way.

Thanks for any feedback. David

I thought it was mostly suckers and cuttings. I did some Black Mission and Alma grafts on Texas Everbearing this year. I will know soon if they took. All my suckers taste like the main tree so I know mine was not grafted.

Maybe you have a seedling.

The real test will be your spring figs. If they still taste like crap, you can graft on to your tree next spring. Go buy two or three Figs you like and do Tongue & Whip and Cleft grafts. Hell, get 10 different Fig varieties and be the envy of the neighborhood.

This Texas Everbearing tree that you speak of sounds like what I have. Or something similar anyway, because it produced figs until winter and then remaining fruit and leaves all dropped.

I'll take a pic of the tree today to post, and maybe you could suggest where I might graft on some favorable varieties.

Thanks jujube, David.

P.S. I was tired last night and left out "grafted" in the subject box. I guess you understood what I meant. Thanks again.

Here is the pic of the trunk with all the suckers. The good news is that the figs are good. I've got more figs than I could shake a beak at. And speaking of beaks, there are plenty for the birds too. The figs are green. I just don't know what kind. Is a Texas Everbearing the only type of fig that produces all summer and through the fall?

David

This is the tree in April.

The figs in April.

Hey dave (are you still not here?)

It's 4th of July, did some of the figs ripen yet? Did they taste good?

I just ate my first Chicago Hardy and my first Black Mission - both very good. I have a lot of Celeste moving toward ripening, maybe ripe in two more weeks? I also am waiting for LSU Gold and my Green Greek to ripen. They all seem to tantalize me with one or two then a lot ripen on one day. (I can hardly wait and neither can my dog, Pepper, who loves figs).

It was just a big misunderstanding. It turns out that I'm Dave, and I've always been here.:) This is the best representation I could find. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHVOFngVJkc&feature=related

Yes the figs did ripen. Back in mid June, I had more figs than I knew what to do with. Now I can't get a single one to ripen before it falls off. I think it's because I changed how I'm watering my potted plants. I'm watering them in a tub and soaking them rather than using the hose and letting the excess water flow to where it would water the fig. I've sense switched back to my old method of watering. Plus it will keep excess salts from building up in the potted plants.

How can I go about finding out what variety I have?

David

Re: variety, It might be hard but jujubeeTX and I would surely give you some close guesses if you take a couple of pic of a ripe fig. Here is a pic I took last year, I think.

About falling off - I had all of them fall off from a potted Celeste. It was clearly due to overwatering - we were having a frog strangler every evening for about 5 days AND this one was potted in some dirt that might not have drained well. (I bought some better container soil from a good local nursery for re-potting now.) None of the 5 different var. of bearing trees I have planted in the ground had this problem and all are still full of figs.

sorry, the pic was corrupted - Here it is again.