I don't understands whats been happening! I've been watering it despite our lovely Texas drought. I live south of San Antonio, Texas. And overnight my fig trees leaves curled up and browned. I'm not sure if it's going dormant or what the only thing different is the day before is I picked one fig and then the next day....it was like this.

I would be curious to know if an underground critter has destroyed your root system.  Even the fig looks icky.

Not sure, but could it be that your neighboors sprayed it with some herbicides by exident? Did you recently fertilize your grass with weed control in it? Just suggestions.

Good luck
Karla

I would go with the critter theory.  I'd carefully dig around it to see what is going on underground.  You could probably dig a trench around it without disturbing the roots to see if you come across a tunnel.

I live on 15 acres, and that fig tree is in the middle of those acres all around me are Ranchers so they don't spray for anything.  As for a critter, There aren't any mounds/soft spots ect for moles, or groundhogs ect. and my cat has killed off the mice in the area.

I'll try the trench idea

Have you fertilized it recently? BTW, welcome to the forum!!

All good ideas: underground Vaqrmint, Fertilizer shock, hedrbicide like Round-up.

It definitely looks like it has suffered trauma from a loss of water uptake - under-watered, loss of roots, etc. Or intake of excess fertilize, herbicide, edxcretion from a large, full-bladered Doberman, etc.

Sudden changes like this mean a sudden, major change in something.

I haven't fertilized and....other then that I don't know what the hell. All I did was pick one fig...then it goes to crap.

And Thank you btw :) I'm glad to be here!

How long has then tree been in the ground?

It's been in the ground for at least 18years I'm 25 and I believe my grandmother I planted when I was 6-8years old. We've always had it small.

Could it be root nematodes? I mean 18 years in the ground I would expect much bigger thicker branches. Is it posible it was just making it for all these years, but finaly had enough.

Karla

It's very small for such a mature in-ground tree. How often have you been watering it and when was the last time (before this happened)?

If it has sentimental value you should take some cuttings to see if you can carry it on in the form of new plants.

Perhaps cutting it back would also help the tree to recover if the problem is truly root loss (rebalancing the top with the roots).

I've seen that before and I know exactly what it is.  Your tree suffered a major lack of adequate water at the exact time when it needed it most.  So your tree basically gave up and died.  Sorry.  The root system got overheated and cooked.  I lost 2 that way last year at the exact same day and time.

I know Texas weather very well.  I lived in OKC for 3 years.  When it would get very hot outside (above 90 degrees) for many many days, you have to really make sure the water you give in ground plants go downward to the roots.  When it would rain in OKC after a long hot spell, the water would just roll and not go deep enough to plant root systems unless it rained a long time.  I had to water my lawn many hours daily just to keep the grass from drying up and dying.  And adding fertilizer to any plant that lacks water just accelerating the dying process. Because what it really needs is just plain ole water.  Sorry.  I know its a hard lesson to learn.  Today I have an irrigation system with 4 water timers.  My trees will never suffer again from a lack of water.

Welcome to the forum Niongi! Sorry to hear about your fig tree. Does that tree die back to the ground every winter?

I'm also thinking that, if that particular tree is as old as you're saying, then I'd estimate that there has been something terribly wrong for a very long time. I would think it should be much larger, especially in your ag zone.

I hope you are able to salvage something from it. You might want to take a few cuttings and place them in a jar of water at the very least. You could also do a search to find more info on starting cuttings taken this time of year.

I wish you the best on it.