If you are a member passing through South Delta in BC I have some FREE Brown Turkey + Desert King plants in 1 g pots ready for a new home. I followed the excellent propagation guide at figs4fun and produced too many offspring. The parent genes must be good because we have a constant cool breeze here, plenty of shade,it has wet winter feet, suffered little damage during a -16 celcius event  and still the 15 year tree produces 200 gorgeous, sweet figs each year! As a new member I am grateful for all the advice and info on this forum and look forward to learning and helping others...

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your generous offer to the members! Alas, I do not meet the prerequisites. Feel free to tell us more about what and how you are growing your figs. Good luck!

Welcome to F4F. I know people in Vancouver who would like to have Desert King trees.

Any way I could convince you to send a DK in the mail?  I can either send a check or pay via Paypal.   Prune it short, shake most of the dirt off, wrap the root in a moist paper towel, put in plastic bag, mail it priority mail.  Put he cut off pieces in moist paper towel as well, I will get cutting to Ruben.

Ivan, I visited Vancouver 4 years ago and loved it. It was in July and the weather was beautiful. I could see where a BT would acclimate nicely over time. I would love a DK but a little to much distance.

Welcome!!
 

Thanks for thinking of me, Danny! The thought is appreciated.

Ivan, I adore your title:  Orphan Desert King babies in Vancouver BC seek nice parents!  That's a real eye catcher!  You are very creative!

I used to travel to Vancouver 3 x a month.  It was part of my sales territory, but that was a few years ago.  Always flew Alaska Airlines!  Welcome to the forum!  Nice to have you here!  Your figs sound delicious!

Danny, Ivan's in Canada!  Can they ship plants to the USA?  We can't ship to them.  Just wondering.

I think you have a wonderful plan for Ivan's Desert King!  Ruben will take good care of those cuttings for sure!

Suzi

Hello, I'm in Canada if you are willing to ship plants in the mail!!

desert king would be a nice try

let me know

I also have produced too many baby fig plants. If you ask around locally, you might be able to find plant friends who would be delighted to try growing them. The daughter of a friend is 'into' the local grass-roots gardening community (seed swapping, organic, gorilla gardening, etc) and she will give to other plant lovers any extras I no longer want to deal with.  I also am planning to give some of my extras to a 'rustic' feed and seed place I love, and if they can sell them and make some $$, all the better.

If you look around, you'll find many local outlets for extra fig plants that are easy, and people are so grateful. I also admit I like the idea of people in my own community growning better fig varieties than brown turkey.

ps... welcome to the forum. :)

Hi Danny,

I'm sorry but I suspect sending plants across the border may require paperwork (to which I am alergic) and money for government paperwork! DK is pretty common, so I'm sure someone south of the 49th could help you...

Thanks Gina! I've given away a few dozen to friends/family without any trouble and plan to continue propogating and spreading the joy until my future fig orchard occupies all of my plant time.

Hi shootersm,

I would prefer not to stress my babies my mailing them, however, I could certainly supply you with some cuttings this winter. Please remind me in Feb or march when I'll be doing cuttings again...

I would like to adopt your desert king and brown turkey if you have any left. 

ReKelly
Welcome to the Forum. Good sign to join on Christmas day.

Hi Rekelly,

I'm sorry to say that after giving away 40+ plants and a bunch of cuttings I need to keep what I have for now. I noticed someone in Burnaby selling fig trees starting at $10 and if you keep an eye on Craigslist, Kiji and ask around I'm sure you will find some. Local plant sales are also a good bet if you want to avoid retail prices. Unless you have a greenhouse I would avoid Brown Turkey and most main crop figs. Desert King seems to be the winner by a wide margin in our area - but if you have space there are a few others to consider.  A little digging on this site will reap robust growth!

I just discovered this site and your posting.
I live in North Delta and have been wanting to try growing a fig tree for several years now.
My husband promised to remove a very overgrown photinia tree and plant a fig tree for me as a birthday gift.
Do you have any of your Desert King babies still available? Or can you recommend a nursery in the lower mainland that might have some varieties that would grow well in this area?
Thank you!

Hi there in N. Delta! If you only plan on having one tree then I'd get a Desert King. Lattarula (syn. Italian Honey etc) and Osborne's Prolific are also good.
DK is a vigorous grower - mine reached 20' in 10 years without pruning. Lattarula might be better for a small space and restricted roots like in a pot. I would think the local nursuries would have both of these. Make sure to give them full sun. Consider "pinching buds" before the tree leafs out in April to encourage branching. Lots of good info on this site and very generous people. With our mild climate if you planted a 2+ year old tree now and mulched, it  would survive winter easily. Enjoy!

Thanks Ivan.
Now to find a good sized Desert King!  :)

Do you have any nursery suggestions for the lower mainland?
I have looked around over the past 2 years and never seen any at the nurseries I've been at.
I've also looked on craigslist but I would like to start with something larger than a 4" or 1 gal pot.

I googled "figs vancouver nursury" and found Arts Nursery in Surrey has a decent selection and I remember seeing several others also. Might be best to call around. 

Good luck and happy planting. Give it plenty of compost to get it going and it will take off!

Have you seen art knapps?  Some times they have them as well.

Cedar Rim Nursery

Tropic.ca sells desert king as well.

Thanks, will try those suggestions with weekend.

I just got my Desert King Fig from Ray Mattei at Tropic to Tropic Plants in Tsawwassen.
He was very friendly and helpful and has a good selection of other interesting plants such as Mulberry trees and Gooseberry bushes in his little nursery.

Thank you to Chivas for telling me about Tropic.ca

Dinter Nursery on Vancouver Island also has them in stock but Cedar Rim, Art Knapps and Arts here in the lower mainland did not.