Anyone know if there is a strain of Desert King considered most productive ?

I have a Desert King RT from Jon that is just a year old , so no fruit yet.
High hopes for some nice breba this year. Have it stored where it stays above freezing .

Kerry
Zone 5 NH

I have one from edible landscaping.  Productive but not overly.  I had a different one that I got rid of last year also. 

Ed ,
The version of Desert King you got rid of , how much difference in production was there from the version you kept ?

Any ballpark idea of how much fruit I might expect from a well grown one year old plant of Desert King ? It is about 4 feet tall , bush form with 3 main stems

Have you found it best to prune just after the breba crop has ripened ?
How far back do you prune it ?

Thanks ,
Kerry

Had One from UCD germaplasm,and I discarded,as it was too deasesed with FMVirus.
I have the one from Burnt Ridge Nursery,and it is healthy,5years old ,not very productive in the past,but it seem that this year,it shows a lots of fruits buds on tips,so I think it has a future.

Herman ,
Does Desert King breba form only at the tips or can they grow wherever there was a leaf last season ?

On my year old DK , if it does form breba should I limit the number it tries to ripen ? If it forms 2 dozen it that too much for it to ripen and stay healthy ?

I do not know to say it grows only on the tip or not.
But:You can create many tips by pinching during the Somer,and that is what I have done.

Go with Herman2 suggestion on pinching and you will get to enjoy lots of delicious DK figs, more so by year 4 or 5.

Herman and Paully ,
Thanks for the reminder about pinching.
I was glad to learn about the whole idea of pinching since reading the forum for the past two years. I know it is critical to getting ripe fruit in zone 5 especially.
I did pinch twice last season , so this DK has 11 tips. 

After the breba crop ripens , should I prune it back by much ? Don't want it to get too tall.

That is your bussiness,if you want to cut it short or not.
Mine is still short ,about 3 foot so I do not touch mine.
This is my only container tree.

Someone told me Adriano's stock is the best.  I cant compare to anything else.

So far for me its hands down the best breba in terms of productivity, earliness and taste.  Ate my first ones last year on June 31 zone 6a.

Have to prune carefully with this one.  I have pretty much put a hiatus on pruning this variety again for at least a year or two.  Get too hasty and you wont eat fig one.

Id post a pic but it says the file is too big.  I cant figure it out...

  I have the same problem posting pics.
the pic file can be 1meg max.
Grant
my shots are usually 4-5 megs, so have to stand back about 20 feet, take a wide shot and then do a heavy trimming to get it down to size,
z5b

and nice to know I've aquired a good, if not the best, DK.

I have added a 2nd DK tree so that I can alternate pruning the tree hard and still have a good harvest. All DK trees are planted in-ground. One of my friend kept his tree within hand reach to pick ripe DK figs and via pincing & pruning, he gets to enjoy over 300 figs every year.

Yo Nas, you up for any trading?  The earliest I have eaten a desert king, or any other variety has been july 3rd. 

Wait a minute Paully, you have a friend, in Canada that gets 300 desert king figs from an in ground tree?  If so thats amazing!  Are you up for trading?

Ed, probably you just let your DK ripen two extra days compared to Nas.
My DK also ripened in the first week of July (probably 3rd of July) in Zone 5a.

Ed, I have not seen any large DK grown in pot(s) here except those in garden centers meant for retail sales. Hence when DK is grown in ground and well pinched, located on a sunny spot, you are bound to have lots of figs. It is common to see many DK trees laden with hundreds of figs. These trees are at least 5 yrs old. DK is the most common & reliable variant here. Even my 3yr old DK tree last year have close to a hundred figs. I believe it should give me over a hundred figs this season if the mild winter like now stays till spring.

Glad I started a DK last Winter so I'm closer to tasting what sounds like a great variety. To potentially have some figs in July in New Hampshire would be tremendous.

Would like to try the Adriano variant of DK to compare to DK (RT) from Jon.
Maybe I could trade with one of you folks who has it.

Still not quite sure about how best to prune. Nas , when you say be careful with the pruning what have you decided on as best ?
I will get another started so I can alternate pruning hard as paully mentions.

The main reason I'm concerned about pruning is because this DK (RT) from Jon seems to be a very vigorous one. Most of the bush is 4 feet tall after one season , but one side that wants to be more of the leader is closer to 6 feet after pinching twice. It is in a 5 gallon sub irrigated bucket.

Best ,
Kerry
Z5 NH

Hi Kerry,
The reason you are careful pruning a DK is that it only makes the breba crop. It only makes edible fruit on last years wood.... so anything you pruning off now reduces this years fig production. All the pinching and shaping you did last season on last years new growth was to prepare for this years fruiting.
I would suggest that you decide how big or what shape you want the tree and do any of that pruning after figs.

Grant
z5b

Paully in post #12 you mention pruning hard.
Does that mean something like cut back by a half or a third or ?
Do you have a rule of thumb on how hard you normally cut back DK after fruiting ?
Thanks ,
Kerry

Pruning carefully I mean what Grant said.  You cut off fruit every time you prune a DK.  I have decided to pretty much leave it alone until it gets too tall for my liking.  I mean eventually every tree needs a haircut, but not too often...

Ed, Im in Toronto so its a bit tricky for trading, I think you and I exchanged emails a while back.  If you are ever in Canada, drop me a line, Id be happy to trade if possible...
I think Paul has the same strain...
Good luck everyone...

Kerry, I have no particular fixed guideline on pruning except that I pinched after every 4 or 5 leaves. I keep my trees low, like max height about 8 or 9ft. I prefer outward growth. Any branches that grow towards the main stem are removed. When my 2nd  DK grows to about six feet, my plan is to prune the main tree back to main stem. In my zone its not pratical to prune after late July. No point taking a chance as new growth may not harden sufficiently for winterizing. Thus better to prune in winter.

I have a friend who prune his DK with a chain saw. Literally taking the whole tree out. Fortunately he has acreage and has more than 6 DK trees. He has so many DK figs and he sells the surplus figs.

I think I am the 1st friend that Paully referred to. I  pinch buds on DK twice per year, once just before leafing out in late March or early April, and once again in late July. As has often been noted this has the effect of producing extra branching. The additional branches tend not to be so long (1-2 feet versus 3-4 feet) and to produce a tree that spreads outwards rather than upwards. In addition, I also winter prune any growth that will be beyond hand picking range for the following season. I attach a photo of my 6 year old DK tree from last year. DK in my experience drops very few figs, perhaps 1 in 20 or less, so the great majority of the fruit pictured ripened. On average there are say 4-5 breba per branch but can be not infrequently up to 8 or 10. DK is a super fig - it would be great to find another breba contender for the PNW with comparable quality and quantity - perhaps Dauphine or Lampeira will challenge it!?

That is a wonderful picture and thanks for posting.
Now I can imagine when Paul says hundreds of breba on DK.
The ripe size is a little bigger on your plant than what I get in my 3-years old potted fig tree.

Thanks for your reply and pics geofiz .
It gives me a better idea how to handle my DK , even though mine are in pots like Ottawan's.
Best ,
Kerry
Z5 NH

Ottawan - it is funny about size. Average fruit size can vary from year to year. Last year the fruit were large; perhaps because of moisture in the ground, perhaps because of amount of compost provided - I don't know. Typically DK fruit are around 80-90 g, but I had a significant number last year that were above that - indeed I had several that tipped the scales over 150 g - the one in the attached photo was 170 g - for our American friends that's 0.37 lbs (a 3/8 pounder).