Really, I promise, this will be the last time I start a post to get this tree id'd.  The pictures are plentiful.  I've been very busy the last month or so at work - Wow this is an active board!!

The pictures start from April and go through July.  The breba was picked on May 24, with the main crop picked from July 4 - about the 18th. 

Some of the figs started out with a slight reddish color, then turned solid green - fully ripe they are very dark purple.

The skin was very dark purple, the interior was amber to a very slight pinkish, the eye is tight.  The taste was very sweet and very figgy, there was no sign of nectar dripping from the eye.

The tree has put on a lot of growth and appears to want to be more of a bush type since there are plenty of shoots coming from the lower part of the tree near the soil line.  Some of those shoots are 3-4ft long.  There are different types of leaves on it - 3 and 5 lobed.  Some have very deep lobe cuts, some don't.  I would say it has put on 18-24" in height.

As for the watering, I have been watering the garden every night for the last 2 months or so trying to save my other plants - I have avoided the fig tree for the most part when they started to ripen.  After the last fig was picked, I have been watering it regularly with everything else.  It is is full sun from sunrise till about 4pm, and that time will shorten as the sunsets earlier and is lower in the sky.  There has been no leaf damage from the sun.  If this tree had a tongue it would stick it out at the sun!! 

I don't know what else to say except  - I love this tree and the figs I couldn't be happier with it except to have it id'd!!!!!

I would really like this id'd so I can trade with confidence.  I have not tried to propagate, haven't pinched or pruned and branches.  I wanted it to grow naturally so I could see what it will do untouched and natural.

If you need more pictures or more details please don't hesitate to ask!

Thanks,

I am not quite sure myself. I remeber somebody suggesting LSU Purple and that seemed right to me based only on looking at photos. At any rate, you have provided more than enough information to trade it. If it is a good fig then it is what it is. To really know for sure it would have to be grown side by side with a known LSU P. So I say don't sweat it. I say post what varieties you are looking to trade for and thank you for sharing the nice pictures, they look like they will probably be stolen and used on eBay ;)

Thanks Brent, I forgot to mention the skin cracks when it ripens

As for eBay?  Oh well, I wasn't thinking about that when I was putting my post together.  I hardly look on eBay - never think about it.  I was on the site maybe 6 times

Martin will catch them, this is a dark fig after all ; ) Don't sweat that either it is a compliment to have your picture stolen, the figs look great.

Joan:Tho it looks like LSU Purple ,inside and out,but more so inside,i,I doubt it is.
Why,Because LSU Purple is very late here and I would think it is later than July 4,for main crop in TExas too.
I could be wrong,but someone from Texas could chime in and tell ,the ripening date for LSU PURPLE in Texas.
If the dates coincide,then it is LSU PURPLE.

Edit note:These are information,from LSU University,about LSU Purple growing in ground in south Louisiana,on university grounds.
It has three crops,(FROM-till)
The first is Breba,between June 30 to 8-18,next is main:Aug 23-Sept 10,third crop after Oct 1st.
Your fig produces fig much earlier.
Unless it produces so early because it is in pot,your fig is not LSU Purple according to LSU.
I have a spare LSU PUrple I would be glad to trade for a layer of your fig,because I need early cultivars here.


LSU Purple 6/308/18; 8/239/10; 10/111/27

They look good for sure. For variety i am not sure but maybe Martin will be able to help. It is nice to have variety name but as long they test good i will not care to mach. Thanks for great pictures.

I bought my LSU Purple as a ~5' tree last Spring and has grown in ground since then. Despite being killed to the soil line this past Winter, it has been producing main crop fruit since July 11. I'm sure, without die-back, it would be even sooner. It is a vigorous grower with large leaves. I do pinch every 2-3' and this year is already at about 6' tall despite being under bird netting since it began to ripen its crop.

Hi Ruben. I think you got it right they look the some. Nice tree and figs how do they test like.

Hi,Eden!

They taste good. Getting better with age. Kind of bland initially.

Ruben, why did it die back?  Did you have an unusually cold winter?  Ours was unusually warm!  I would like to know what to do this winter.

Looks kinda like Beall also.

Jason, I was thinking Beall, but couldn't put my finger one it. I think it is too "blond" for LSU Purple.

My Beall UCD is tri-lobe leaf, purple skin, med size fruit, purple outside, tan/yellow in... Could fit.  I have one from UCD, just planted its sister tree at my neighbor's house last month.  

Ruben:As long as there is not a leaf under that fruit,that fruit is a Breba fruit,even tho it grows on new growth.
Young plants or plants that die to ground have this particularity,they grow elongated Breba fruits.at the beginning of the Branch.
Those are sexually female flower,while the Mule or asexual flowers grow on new branch above the leaf base.
Tho it is not noted any way in the study of figs ,it is something I found out myself,after a long time of observation.
These First fruits act like Breba and ripe like Breba ,but grow on new wood ,only on young trees,or killed to ground trees.
Yes Your LSU produced ripe fruits early,but not main crop fruits.

JoAnn,

I did not protect it this past Winter. Unfortunately, it was not very cold and still got killed back. Our low was on 12/6/11 with a temp of 26F and a windchill of 19.

@Jason and Jon- I can see a resemblance to Beall, but JoAnn's fig has a glossy skin and is yellowish at the base. Beall has a dull/matte skin with a heavy bloom, more flattened and the stem is often the color of the fruit. Also, Beall has an open eye whereas LSU P does not. Lastly, Beall produces large (~70g) brebas and slightly smaller main crop. But... her tree is still young :-)

That's a good point, Herman. However, you may not have noticed the dried up leaves on the ground in the 5th and last pic. Those fruit started life out with a leaf-buddy. In my climate, it is not unusual for a fig tree to shed leaves during the Summer.

Ruben:The fig intentionally dropped that leaf to concentrate on feeding the fruit(that particular fruit with female flowers inside).
I did know there was a leaf there initially,but that is how the plant behave in order to produce seeds for survival reason.
Very soon after fruit forming the fruit was a mule initially,then something happens and fruit become female.
If that female fruit is pollinated with pollen from male caprifig,by fig wasp,the seeds will be fertile,-if not!
Out of this female breba fruits the apomitic mutation take place and several seeds ,will become fertile in rare instances,in climates where the fig wasp does not live and male trees are not near.
It is why Fig tree survived over thousands of years,in most climatic condition.
No other plant has so many ways of surviving like fig does.

LSU is a very serious learning university,and the schedule i wrote down in
post #5 is internal information from the university,so they witnessed ,first ripe crop on LSU Purple on Aug 23.
Are you going to say they are not correct,and made a mistake.
Personally I side with LSU University,because in my climate LSU Purple got main crop,ripe in October!.

Herman,

I am not saying anything other than what the facts show. LSU's findings are THEIR findings. Specific to THEIR horticultural practices and climactic conditions. What's true there is not necessarily true everywhere. Some would say UCD is kind of "a very serious learning university". Yet we don't all get the same results that they do.

Herman, in response to the edit in #5, I purchased the tree from a nursery on January 14, 2012 in a pot.  It was about 4 1/2 ft tall, and had a couple of hard figs on it,  here it is when I purchased it.  I think the breba came out when the tree started to break dormancy on March 10th. I noticed little figs popping out on April 24th - just looking at pictures from then.  Didn't notice on photo from the 21st.

We had a very mild winter this year with no snow.  The coldest week of the season was 2 weeks before Christmas.  So, maybe with the winter being so mild and it broke bud in March, could explain the early fruit.

Thoughts?

Absolutely JO Ann,your explaining make sense.
If the fig had a couple of fruits so early,that tells that it was kept in some warmer place like a distribution Center,and so it woke up earlier than normal.
I looked at my 2 LSU purple trees and they do have that three lobes leaf like your does.
It must be that this year it is out of it's natural schedule,and next year and the year after it will come naturally to the normal schedule I  pointed in Post #5. If you look at that harvest schedule LSU Purple is one of the few trees that is indeed ever-bearing,and it has three harvests,that allow the cultivar to produce continuouselly fruit all Summer long,of course with short periods in between the harvests.
And your climate is  very good for  2 crops every year,Summer and Fall crops,while the Breba or first crop can be had only when Winter is mild with Temperature not lower than 15F.

I am even happier then I was with this tree!!  The thought of having a second crop is fantastic.

This picture is form 7/24/12 - the bottom branches are really taking off.

Suggestions for pruning will be welcomed.  As stated earlier, I haven't pinched or pruned so I could see how it grows.


I was just on the Encanto Farms varietal info page and read that LSU Purple has strawberry colored flesh.  Could that be due to local growing conditions?  Mine was amber color.

It is because it get pollinated,and when it does,the interior changes from amber to red.
Welcome to the fig confusion!

This March on my way to Houston, I stop by Caldwell Nursery in Rosenburg TX.  There, I saw these huge amazing LSU Purple fig trees.  There must have been 7 or 8 in 15gal pots.  The trees were full of leaves and a few figs.  The trees were 6 years old and 4' tall.  To make a long story short, I bought one LSU Purple.  When I got back to Charlotte,  I repotted it.  After a few weeks, the tree started stressing so I planted it in my orchard.  That worked and for the past 3 weeks,  I started picking figs that look exactly like those in Joann's pictures.  The fig are not enlongated like you see in all LSU Purple figs.   I have another LSU Purple planted in my orchard and the figs are enlongated.  Both trees fruited the exact same time.  

JoAnn, your tree is a LSU Purple.  We have the same tree.  Your tree is a winner.  These LSU Purples are rare.  Next year if I drive to Houston again, I plan on getting another one.

Jo-Ann, on young trees that I am still letting grow out, the main limbs pruned are the ones that are crossing. Look for the lesser of the two branches and remove it. Beyond that a slight trim of the other branches if they are getting too long or have some damage. Other than that I leave them alone. 

SEGeo, I will most likely think of bonsai pruning when I prune.  A couple of months ago, one of the ladies on the forum posted a picture of a beautiful tree.  I saved the picture so I have a reference.