Celeste- Breba or No Breba?

[Ogorodnitsa]

Hi everyone! Glad to see you all here

This question has been asked before and there were mixed answers. There may be mixed answers again, but that's okay I took my Celeste indoors about a month ago when we got some nights in the single digits. The leaves quickly grew back and now I have about 6 figs that have already gotten considerably large. Does the Celeste produce a breba? Some have suggested that certain strains do. What do your Celestes do?

[AscPete]

Welcome,
It probably depends on your zone... I've never had breba on Celeste, but I've had them on O'Rourke and improved Celeste.
Most breba are figs that did not fully develop at the end of last season, so if your zone or storage is warm enough, some breba may develop.
Good Luck.

[Ogorodnitsa]

Thanks, Pete...I'm Zone 6B and this happens to be a Lowe's Celeste, which could of course be something else

[Chrisk]

Welcome Ogorodnitsa.
Pete is right! I have 3 different source Celeste trees and none of them produces a significant Breba crop! The embrios have long necks and a pear shape and pop up before even leaves do but most of them fall of . I picked 4 or 5 last season but not of good quality! Main crop is a different story! I saw some Celeste trees on sale at Lowes last year and they looked correct to the name! They even had a couple of those brebas on them!

[Otmani007]

My Celeste produces brebas in July.

[Chrisk]

Hey Otmani, how old is your tree? Inground ? Maybe an LSU strain and when do you pick the main crop? Sorry for the barrage of questions! Celeste is one of my favorite figs! Do you have any fruit pics?

[PasturedFigs]

I get some breba in Julyish too. 8 year old tree originally sourced from Logees in CT. Got some cuttings rooting now - super vigorous. I get main crop late August through early October. Two figs from that tree in the attached pic.

[AscPete]

PasturedFigs,
Welcome to the forum community...

Do you have any pictures of the leaves of your tree and closeups of ripe figs interior and exterior? Thanks.
The picture is not clear, but IMO they don't look like Celeste figs.

[PasturedFigs]

Here's the tree last summer before it got pruned. To be honest, those figs could possibly be Hardy Chicago. I know NONE of the Petite Negri made it to the wife but the Celeste and Hardy Chi came inside from the garden often. Fresh crop shots can be had this season.

[AscPete]

Thanks for the reply.
Picture still doesn't have enough detail, but it does look more like Hardy Chicago than Celeste...
Please post picture if you can later in the year. Thanks.

[Chrisk]

Good morning fellas. I have to agree with Pete again. They do not look like a celeste at all. Nice looking figs nonetheless ! Thanks for the reply and have a great day Yall!(a couple of pics of my main crop celeste,first two weeks of August).

[FMD]

My Celestes produce so early that the very few surviving brebas (if any) get confused with the main crop.

[Otmani007]

Hey Otmani, how old is your tree? Inground ? Maybe an LSU strain and when do you pick the main crop? Sorry for the barrage of questions! Celeste is one of my favorite figs! Do you have any fruit pics?

Tree is about 8 years old in-ground, but died to the ground last winter. I will check my photo album on my iPad to see if I have any pics of the fruit and will also post pics of the leaves as one of my potted trees is already leafing out and has some figlets already.

[armando93223]

I need to put Celeste back on my list.... I had a small tree that died......I think being in California, Texas or Western states, we have longer summers and the trees have probably adjusted to it. I ate a few kadotas in December, not sweet due to the cold but OK.

[Otmani007]

Tree is about 8 years old in-ground, but died to the ground last winter. I will check my photo album on my iPad to see if I have any pics of the fruit and will also post pics of the leaves as one of my potted trees is already leafing out and has some figlets already.

Here some pics of the fruit as well as the leaves. Leaves are of a potted tree, which I air-layered in August off the mother tree that died back to the ground last winter. Tree came back to life with a vengeance.

[COGardener]

Ok, I've asked this in the past, but how many Celeste variants is there? ChrisK and I may both start a Celeste hall of fame, a whole pot or garden section dedicated to nothing but Celeste...

[Chrisk]

Lol , good one Scott. celeste is my middle name. Chris Celeste K. What can I say I just love the darn things and they seem to love me too. Every fig tree I buy from the big box stores (TyTy) lol,turns out to be a Celeste! You know what they say, you can't beat them ,join them.