This is what I picked up this morning from underneath my Celeste tree. Most of the fruit gets to be about the size of a penny or nickel, and then shrivels up and drops. Second year in a row. I am thinking that I need to replace this tree with something else that can handle the heat here better.

Maybe dig it up if its in the ground and put it in a shaded area before you get rid of it ? just a thought 

I had one in pot last year and it dropped all but a handful. It was located near the house and with the vinyl siding it gets hot.

Joe, how much fruit does each branch bear and what kind of watering schedule is applied?

I ask because one of the problems we have here in the northeast is too much water which creates bland flavor but I was thinking what about the possibllity of too little water for the amount of fruit set?

I'm no expert by far but it seems the tree drops its fruit because it knows it cannot ripen it all so it sacrifices some fruit. Maybe its a balancing act between fruit and water.

Here is CT I drop fruit on our brown turkey and everything else ripens up pretty well. if I do not its all bland fruit and never really ripens by late fall.

I also pinch more now often and that has helped the fruit quality alot.

Celeste react the strongest to a lack of water. Put it on a very regular watering schedule and your problem will be solved. 

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I water the Celeste the same as the other trees and treat it the same.  Maybe I just need to be patient with this tree and it will outgrow this problem as it gets older and larger... the thing is, I'm not always the most patient person.  We'll see what happens. 

My Celeste fruits started dropping as well so I tried a variation on Slingha's suggestion, reasoning that if some figs swell and split in the rain, maybe a little "artificial rain" would keep them from shriveling up so much in a dry climate. So, I moved a hose sprinkler to where it would spray the tree and ran it about fifteen minutes in the hottest part of the day for a couple of days. The fruit drop stopped; now one fig is nearly ripe and others are starting to darken. Could be coincidence, but I think I'll keep spraying them every few days and see what happens.

Ken,

That's good to know.  Thanks for sharing.

Mine used to do this as long as I remember. Maybe 20% of the fruit fall. This I hardly see any fall.

Only things that are different this year;

1. Decent spring rain. (I has been dry and hot and dry for the past month or more)
2. Trimmed the tree a little in the winter.
3. Gave it a good dose of home made compost.
4. Gave it a shot of lime in late winter.

In past years I tried irrigating when it got dry but that did not seem to help.

It could be that the tree cannot support all the fruit based on the nutrients available. This is my thinking now. My tree is in ground and about 10yrs old.

My opinion is that there are many strains OF Celeste AND SOME ARE ONLY PARTLY PARTHENOCARPIC ,SO not too much one can do but try Improved Celeste from LSU,or O'rourke Celeste from same University and problem solved.
One other thing is to find a Celeste that someone else have that does not drop period.
Tho is hard to find,I think I found one but till I see it with my own eyes I am skeptical.

I think Herman is probably right.  I have other varieties that also show stress from the heat... but they don't drop their fruit.  Celeste and Barnissotte are my only 2 figs that dropped fruit this summer (besides Desert King, which is supposed to drop its main crop).

Hi Noss and everybody else!

Viv you said " It appears that Celestes need the rain and cloud cover"
In the summer we  hardly get rain, but we sure do get the hot weather & clear sky's.( I believe our weather gets hotter than it does in South Louisiana)

@ Jon....I sent you an email

Unfortunately, I spoke too soon in my previous post--even with a nice rain yesterday and high humidity, it's dropping figs again. Oh well, at least a few of them are ripening!

@ Noss,

Good lord willing ya gonna have one of dem Celeste plants B4 this year is done!!!!! 

Noss, mine is two years old from a UCD cutting. With such a nice rain, I didn't see any point in turning on the sprinkler.

Celeste from UC Davis did not Drop the second year when I had about a dozen fruits,and after that ,it dropped every year in the 3rd,forth,and fifth,when I discarded
Vivian:Growing from Tissue culture is OK,What I said is that some grow Them from Pollinated Breba fruits(seeds),in places where the wasp is present.
The seedling come out looking like Mother somewhat,but it gets genes from Father too,and sometimes it gets the dropping gene,that is the problem.

My IC are fine but days ago when the temp were 104, my LSU Gold Celeste did drop a few figs....about 10 and the same with Chico Strawberry aka Saratago even though they were watered twice on those days.

I do not have the answer about Celeste, but for any fruit tree to drop its fruit is self preservation. It must do to survive, for whatever reason. The tree is lacking something or is trying to produce more fruit then the roots can handle. The first part could be lacking water or to much water( lacking good drainage). Also the soil ph or nutriants could be lacking. Maybe try removing some of the fruit early, say 30%, and see if this helps. Less stress could mean better fruit. Myself, I'd rather have less fruit thats very tasty then more dropping to the ground. I hope none of the science guys beat me up with big words, just trying to help. By the way, hello Joe or Mr. Frozen

Hi Luke.  I heard the weather in NJ this summer feels like it's Arizona!  Stay cool up there.

Hey Joe, Triple digits on saturday 100+.



luke

Luke,

Is that the temperature or the humidity?

Well ,Doctor Leon Deprest told me Burjassote Grise drop fruits just like (some)Celeste! He Noticed,in New Mexico.
I noticed Pastilliere does the same!.
I am sure there are many other cultivars deficient at persistency,but in warm climates where fruits can be pollinated by the fig wasp,the fruits develops just fine.
Once you get the tree outside the fig wasp reach ,that is when it is noticed.

Herman (Vasile), Am I reading this right. Does the Celeste have in it's DNA a need for pollination? And this being one of the reasons for dropping fruit? Very interesting.
Joe: I beleive temps and humidity are bout the same. Very hard for me to breath in these conditions. Relief on Monday, I hope.



luke

I think that Celeste might be dropping uncaprified fruit as a response to stress from the heat. It would be interesting to see if the fruit were caprified if it would not drop them.

Luke, it's 108 here today... but at least it's a dry heat... that's what I keep telling myself.

Celeste has a deficiency of total persistency in the genes,not a need for pollination.
Yet some fig cultivars do produce ,Female and mule fruits at the same time in the main crop,and the need for pollination,,on the Female fruits might be the reason that they Fall out.
You see the fig tree reproduction is very complicated,with many type of flower,Female male,mule,perfect,etc.
Nobody ever sorted it to total clarity,because every cultivar is unique and different compared to another.
Celeste do not drop from lack of water or Heat.
If it will be the case ,then CECIL, Celeste that they harvested more than a thousand fruit last year,and this year under enormous heat and dryness in Texas, would have had aLL THE FRUITS DROPPED.
iT DID  KEEP ALL THE FRUITS BECAUSE tHAT cELESTE IS A cELESTE WITH SUPERIOR GENETIC MAKE UP,and Totally persistent.
Of course not all Celeste in Existence are made from the same material,I could say most are not.