This Improved Celeste was one of the very last young trees to emerge from underground this year after a harsh winter. It has put on 5 nice sized figs that should easily ripen this year. It's in a good location, next to house and cement walk, which makes the delayed growth curious but the appearance of a few figs less surprising. 
 
I'm surprised to be thinking of this cultivar as a useful in-ground fig for zone 6. However others have commented on the power and the speed with which it ripens figs so maybe it will work out. This seems to be yet another fig that needs serious room for its roots to roam. Probably all LSU figs are especially like that, and most figs in general. This cultivar in pots seems to do well for me only if I cut/drill holes in the sides of the pot and let the roots escape into surrounding soil and mulch. Tough to see, below, 2 year old Improved Celeste in a half buried pot with drilled root holes. Pot essentially invisible in this photo:
 
About 12-15 feet or new growth in the past couple months. About 2 dozen figs that should ripen. Crumbled up a Jobe's organic tree spike into the pot, coffee grounds and yard waste around it, always mulch, not much else. By now the roots are surely a long way out of the pot. This is now a 2 year old tree that didn't grow at all last year as a 1 year old because I stunted it by trapping it in its pot.

Tony,
Thanks for sharing the pictures and info.
The improved Celeste happens to be one of my favorite cultivars due to it being early ripening, healthy and prolific.
Is that rust or leaf Mosaic on the newer leaves in the 2nd Picture? Thanks.

Have had nearly no rust this year on any trees, however that is a few spots of rust on I think 2 and only 2 leaves on that IC. The light color markings on the leaves of both those IC trees, not sure, would guess it's sheer stress from rapid growth. Could be FMV, maybe someone can identify it positively, though I've found LSU cultivars to be typically free of FMV or at least much more free of it than many other cultivars.

Should have noted that even with the utterly stunted growth of my young IC trees in pots last year, they did produce quite a handful of great figs. Unquestionably one of the most healthy and all-around reliable cultivars - robust, productive, hardy, short ripening term, visually striking, tasty, not tiny.

Tony,
Thanks for the reply.
IMO, your Leaf Mosaic may be caused by nutrient deficiency and or incorrect pH. Fig Mosaic Disease (FMD) symptoms are also caused by nutrient deficiency not only by FMV. Calcium, Magnesium and Micro nutrients are all required for healthy growth along with the basic N-P-K. Acidic or Alkaline pH will reduce the absorption of Macro-nutrients (N-P-K) or Micro-nutrients respectively.

If you have healthy acid loving plants (evergreens) in the same beds, your soil may be too acidic for the figs to absorb enough of the required nutrients, also composting mulch will rob the soil of nutrients and change the soils pH values.

That all sounds entirely plausible to me. I do grow a mix of other plants in, among, around some of the figs, some of which plants change by the year. The mulchposting, to maybe coin a term, that I do throughout the year seems to have current benefits that outweigh the drawbacks that you point out. Reason being: I need to try to temper the heavy red clay ground here. It is well draining, thankfully, and almost all sloped, but still suffocating to young roots, so I need plenty of mulch to allow the young roots to breath, to retain moisture, and to shade the black nursery pots or new in-ground roots from the hot sun. Plus the constant mulchposting should speed up the process of building up the soil in the beds so that in future years the soil nutrient and soil pH issues might largely take care of themselves. Forgot to mention, I do throw in a little dolomitic lime occasionally both into the pots and on the ground especially where I have pH suspicions. So, this is my current line of thinking and action. The mulchposting seems to have given the figs a strong immediate lifeline of shade, moisture, and air over suffocating clay and under burning sun, despite the questionable nutrient and pH goings on. In future years I'll hope to better address those other soil issues. Though again, I'm hoping that the eventual breaking down of the mulch will take care of many of those issues automatically. I know I could be more exactingly scientific about it all. I'm hoping some of these rough and ready permaculture techniques allow me not to be.

Nice tree, thanks for sharing.

Best,
Tam