I'm in Round Rock, but the land I'm thinking of developing into an orchard someday is in Rockdale on the San Gabriel river.
I managed to put a few trees in my yard around the house this spring. The rest are in containers for now.
The trees in my yard are doing great for being less than 6 month old. I'm irrigating them using an auto timer from Home Depot attached to a faucet.
The timing is 20 minutes per day using a two gallon/hour drip irrigation head.
The photos are as follows:
Black Madeira,Col de Dame Blanc,Violette de B from Edible landscaping, Panache, Violette de Bordeaux from eBay.

I am in Granger, just east of Georgetown.

The environment in Round Rock is great for growing figs. Rockdale, may be similar to what I go through in Granger.  I find I have only until about mid-March to plant trees in the ground.  As much as possible, I try to get them into the ground before then.  If not, the heat overwhelms the roots ability to keep up with transpiration.  Planting them with bare-roots seems to help tremendously.  I have found the original root-balls to dry out very quickly in relation to the surrounding dirt if the tree is not bare-rooted.

So you put them all in the ground? What kind of soil do you have and how often do you irrigate?
Which one is the most successful and delicious fig in your collection?
I have over 40 or 50 in 5 gallon containers but it's my first year. I tasted two figs from my collection so far Celeste and Texas Everbearing. I only had few figs from those two.
Celeste is great but too small, so I need a lot of small figs to really enjoy it. Not to mention that it drops its fruits.
The Texas EverBearing that I had was huge and great but not as sweet as Celeste. It was an early ripening fruit.
They say that you need a few years to really know what you have and for the tree to reach its full potential.
I'm not sure that keeping trees in a container for 5 or 7 years is the right thing to do.

Hi Allen,

Did you try the Turkish Figs?

Yes, I grew in containers in Houston (RKN+ soil) but when I made the move to Granger (about 4 years ago), I tried growing in the ground.  My soil (if you can call it that) is and old corn field.  It is deplete of nutrients and there is a thick layer of hardpan about 10" down.  I've typed several times about the growing conditions I face.  So far it goes something like this:

The trees push out most of their growth during Fall after the heat summer begins to subside (it's happening now).
The trees are still mostly green when the first cold front come through.
There are no wind breaks to the north or south of me.  Consequently, the cold comes with much wind.
The trees sustain damage... usually near 100% of the top of the tree.
In the spring, the cold damaged trees are late to start growing.
There is not too much growth on the trees before summer bears down on them.
The trees push out most of their growth during Fall after the heat summer begins to subside (it's happening now).
Etc.

I have struggled to get fruit from my trees, and am looking for ways to break the cycle and get fruit on the trees to ripen in the heat.  Irrigation has not helped since I do not feel justified in providing enough water to effectively cover the area during the drought.  So far, my best tasting dark fig is Aldo (but it really does not like the heat) and best light fig is Sanford (it is my most heat tolerant variety).  Celeste is an excellent variety.  I left mine behind in Houston due to RKN.  It is a small fig, but a prolific tree.  I am, however, partial to smaller figs all else being equal.

James,

Have you seen this movie? Back to eden...

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11883/Back-to-Eden

I never had a chance!

Yesterday I covered my only two De Dalmatie figs with a paper bag hoping to protect them from birds etc..
I thought that I will be able to sample this fig in my first year, but it wasn't going to happen.
It looks like those Texas birds were smart. I went out this am to check on my only two figs and they were not there. The paper bag was torn and on the ground and the figs were totally gone.
The funny part was that I thought that my paper bag was going to do the job. I guess the birds had their eyes on my figs and nothing was going to stop them.
The only thing I'm left with is yesterday's photo.

I have not found an effective bird/critter deterrent other than netting the trees.  I have an idea to build a "rodent breeding structure" in the field with a release mechanism incorporated into it.  I FIGger if I can release, or better yet, catapult an X (pick one: mouse, rat, rabbit, etc.) from the structures on a regular basis, the birds of prey that eat the road kill in the area might become a permanent overhead fixture.  They can keep everything away from the fruit.

I have seen the video before.  Unfortunately, there are only two major sources of shredded trees in the area.  One is the Bartlett Electric Cooperative, but they give theirs to a not for profit boys/girls group in Killeen and the city of Georgetown who used theirs to feed the free mulch program they have.  I called the private tree service near me (not too many) and found only one who was willing to dump.  He's only called me 3 times this year, twice he wanted to dump unshredded bushes and once I was out of town when he called.  Realistically, I need about 600 yards initially for 6" deep and over 200 yards/year to add 2" to the field.