Anyone else growing "Texas Blue Giant"?

I have been growing this in-ground here in Zone 7b, with good soil, plenty of water, and overall excellent care.

But after three years it is still barely 2 feet tall, has visible FMV, and the fruits either drop off or shrivel and remain cottony inside; totally inedible.

I have trees that have fruited in their first year, and most are producing very well by year three.

I have gotten a few decent figs from Raintree Nursery, but the Texas Blue Giant is a 10 gallon dud.

It occupies some excellent potential fig real estate, so it is coming out and to the fire as soon as the weather cools, to make room for a good fig.

Maybe it does better in another climate, but here in the Southeast, save your money friends.

Best wishes to all.

John

North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

John,

I have it. Doing well here and the fruit is very good. Did not get mine from Raintree though. Check out his post http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fig/msg072029117194.html

I have what was labled Texas blue giant but I can't tell the difference between that and my Texas everbearing it may have been mislabled.
They are both big figs and they do well here it sounds like you got a dud tree if nothing else it should grow better mine was 3ft first year from cutting and made ripe figs.
Do you have Texas everbearing?

John....before you send the BlueGiant dud to the big fig fire in the sky, perhaps consider offering some cuttings?   Some may want to try it in their area and see what happens. I hate that it was a "no go" for you.   I have never dealt with Raintree, but it may be worth a try talking to them. 

John, I have a Blue Giant and the plant is about 6' tall and loaded with figs, it is its 2nd year, everything doing nicley but the figs are not ripe yet. So far I am very pleased. I got the plant from Boston.

David   Bowling Green

GeorgiaFig, You may want to dig up some of the roots and check for RKN. They will impede a trees growth. I hope that is not the case but it is something you need to thoroughly examine .

Just another name for brown Turkey in my book.

I got my 'Blue Giant' from Pine Island nursery in South Miami and it seems to be free of any FMV. It is a fast grower and produces very sweet fruits nearly twice the size of my brown turkey. It does have a medium size eye. I will be putting a small piece if scotch tape on the eye on the next near ripe fig and hope the blue jays don't see it.  I think its a keeper.  It is currently in a 7 gallon pot and suffering along with all my figs due to fig rust. I believe it will do very well North of Orlando and for now I cannot vouch for its hardiness.

Thanks so much for your thoughts on this everyone.

I am very happy to hear that others are having better luck with the Texas Blue Giant.

I went out and looked at it again, and I noticed that it seems to be sitting on top of a large fire ant hill.  We don't use any pesticides or chemicals of any kind, having a 100% organic garden and orchard, so poisoning the ants isn't an option.

I wonder if the fire ants might be damaging the roots?

When the weather cools, I will dig it up (quickly to avoid a fire ant attack), throw it in a bucket of water (to get rid of the fire ants on the plant), examine it to make sure it is RKN free, and replant it out in the back 40 and see if it does anything.

It's also possible that it is not a Texas Blue Giant, but just some dud cutting that got mixed in.

Because others are having good luck with the Texas Blue Giant, there is clearly something going wrong with this one.

You can't win them all I guess.  Overall, we are having tremendous success and our figs (over 50 different varieties) all look great.

So I will count my blessings, instead of just my one frustation.

Very best wishes to all.

John

John,

That mound is likely the problem. The ants have probably gotten to the roots while tunneling. Good luck!

John, before relocating tree, I would just water that area substantially and disturb the ants enough to make them relocate. then add some manure worked into the soil, pat it down some to eliminate any air pocket tunnels dug by the ants and mulch it (3-4 inches worth) up to the drip line and see what happens. Ants do not like water and will move if disturbed repeatedly. I have seen it happen on large potted plants many times.

Thanks Ben.  I have already started trying this, really pumping the water in to hopefully drive out the ants.

And the Texas Blue Giant must be reading my posts here.

I threatened to take it out because it wasn't producing any edible figs, and tonight, it produced its first edible fig in three years.

Honestly, it was not bad; pretty good.

I think Jon is right about it being a sport of BT though.

I guess I got a little frustrated (make that a lot frustrated) when the figs were dropping and no figs in three years.

The Texas Blue Giant may prove to be alright after all.

I will give it another year and see if it can pull through.

Thanks Ben and everyone.

Best wishes.

John

I'm in Zone-7b, and I actually forgot to bring my Pine Island, "Texas Blue Giant" treelet - planted into a 5 gallon container - into the unheated storage shed with my "Atreano"    The "Atreano" went into the shed around the last week in December, but  the TBG stayed out in the raw cold until the end of January 2012.  We had a pretty mild winter, but some nights the temps. plunged down and hit the teens.  I lost the top two inches of the stem, and all other buds along the main-stem have sprouted new leaves.  I lost a grand total of three of the topmost buds.  The container was above ground, and fully exposed.

This is the beginning of year two, but really only my first, full, growing season.  The tree was shipped in the late summer of 2011.  I will let you know how this tree performs in the NYC area.  Last year the 4 ft. treelet produced two, late figs, but they fell off before they could ripen.  I'm hoping that this tree will start to settle in this year, and hopefully make some figs.    Bill, from Bill's Figs, and Herman both told me that the only thing that's "giant" about this variety is the breba...which I will not allow to grow.  I'm interested in main-crop figs.  If the tree's a dud, it gets tossed. 

The tree looks clean, and no FMV is showing.  More info. to follow.

Frank

Hi John,

I just read where fire ants are supposed to be able to kill root nematodes, so I doubt they would hurt the tree.  Don't know if it's true, but I've read it in several places.  Didn't make note of where and I need to go back and find that information.

I've heard the same thing about Earthworms.  Frankly, I'd rather have the Earthworms.

noss

I have no doubt the fire ants do not hurt the fig tree.
I had the nesting in 3 gallon potted fig tree and the fig was growing very well with thousands inside there.
Yes I can see no other ,living creature(nematode) living inside that pot,but the tree loved them.

Herman,
Are you sure we have fire ants in NJ?
Or was it some other breed?

Please verify....fire ants in New Jersey?  If yes, they are probably in NY now too.  Not good....not good.

Frank

Ray Givens talks about the fire ants, you can find a Youtube video of him talking about propagating green cuttings and fire ants. I'm kinda shocked to hear they are in NJ. PA is next if not already invaded. Didn't think they could survive our winters, but then this year we didn't have one. 

John, have you tried Baking Soda (not baking powder) or Diatomaceous Earth?

I am not sure if they were fire ants or other similar ants.
All I know is they attacked my hands right away when I disturbed them,and te stimng was strong,just like the fire ants have,so I thought is a kind of fire ants.

I don't think they have reached NJ yet.  Here is the USDA fire ant map: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/fireants/downloads/fireant.pdf

Herman,
That is bad news!
The ants that I have observed locally are:
big (1/2"+) black carpenter ants and the 2 other
(light brown, 1-3 mm) ones that bother my fig fruits.
All do scatter away when disturbed (rather than attack/bite/sting me!).  

Here is a fireant distribution map from this year including both actual range and 'potential range'.

Like Rob's but scarier for those of us in the southwest.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/sites/fireants/images/IFA_Range_of_Infestation2.jpg

I vividly recall squatting to peer at something in the Big Ben Nat'l Park maybe thirty years ago. The memory is so strong, because I squatted right on a fireant nest. Hadn't met any 'til then. Formic acid is pretty potent. Thankfully, they are not one of my anxieties living in Ohio.