From what I have read, Desert King has a large self fruitful breba crop and a light main crop that needs pollinating. Do I have that right? I am presently rooting 6 cuttings of it. Are there any other varieties that come to mind that have an especially large breba crop? I have a short season here so would like to up my early season production.

Thanks
Chris

q1 yes
q2 search "Breba New World" (pitangadiego) Jon posted a great thread.

I will. Thank you very much.

Chris

I have/had 2 unknown fig trees for 5 and 17 years, none of them give me sweet figs or all figs drop before ripen.

Last year August,  I tasted one "Desert king" fig, It was large, juice and very sweet from Co worker, He told me that Tree was only 3 years old with tree size 8 FT tall and 6 FT wide and produce 100+ breba.

I learn that My area is PNW area with very weak SUN, where only limited number if fig trees do well and "Desert king" probably the best and reliable tree with biggest breba Crop.

I bought 7 "Desert king" fig trees and I planted 4 in ground but unfortunate weather quickly turn bad, Ground freezing, flooding, I am hoping that 2 of them alive in this Summer.

"Desert king" here bear a big size of figs, it doesn't need pollinating,  It is about 80 -100G size, very sweet and juice with pink flesh, it bears a reliable big Breba but almost no main crop, it bears small main crop only once every couple years, it needs figs wasp to pollinating which do not happen here, Some report that figs taste bland but some report that taste sweet and jammy.

Fig trees are very picky, Desert king do well here but many other fig tree do not do well here, But I think that you are in NY, I am worry about that it can not handle the cold weather in your area. you might ask other people on what type of fig trees do well in your area.

Desert King is hands down the best tree for breba crop in as far as quantity and quality combined . Most breba figs are mediocre on other varieties , but desert king breba are awesome and plentiful . It will likely need winter protection in your area or the breba figlets will die. if I was to only have 1 fig tree in a short season climate it would be this one because the figs ripen late July to early august during the hot days of summer as opposed to the main crop trees that start ripening their figs in early september and later.

John

Thanks for the input. I might just have to keep all 6.

Chris

No problem guys , you've made a good choice with this variety , its a well tested variety unlike many of the figs of the day you see everyone getting excited about lately .

John

I picked one up as I'm in a short season area. I will protect it in the winter. Well hopefully I can get some cuttings to root. I have them in moss now.

In my zone, we find Granthams Royal is No.1 for brebas in terms of taste. Productivity & reliability is similar to Desert King.
So far it has been hardy and no winter protection here in PNW.

Paully knows his figs , especially breba crop types , so if he recommends Granthams Royal then put that on your list .
Hey Paully do you have any pics of the fig cut open , I've seen one but it doesn't seem to be fully ripe.
John

Thanks for all this information on Desert King and its breba crop....when I purchased my tiny one from Ebay, didn't know anything about the subject. Just want mine to grow and show me what it can do here in the SE zone 7a.
LJ

Hi Paully22, Can u sharing some cuttings? I just live beside the same river as you at down stream near Vancouver.

chrisb9341   this observation may be of interest t you.  I have 2 figs in pots, both 2 years old last summer from Wellspring.  A desert king about 5' tall in the spring bore one fig , A lsu purple about 4' tall in the spring bore 12 figs both ripened by Aug.  nothing later, I didn't know about breba crop at that time  For the early figs the 2 year old LSU was productive.  I also have cuttings (many) from an unknown neglected fig at a unoccupied house.  The former occupant says the figs ripened by Aug (breba ?) and bore hundreds of figs.  The trunk is 12" in diameter, untill the polar vortex in 12 and 13  This year a few figs on the new growth (many suckers 8-9 ' tall), to late to ripen.  I can send cuttings when they root , last spring the cuttings did not root,  my other cuttings were 85% successful.  remind me in April if interested.  From the forum comments this may be a relative of celest.
No comment on taste as I have had little to compare , this year should be more productive.

I was just going to stick with the 6 potted trees I have been growing for last 4 yrs . but only three had a few figs so I orded 5 more for spring delivery one will be a DK .






....

Oooh, big roots!  Wow, everything about that fig is huge!

Thanks Willei, the LSU purple sounds like it would be a nice addition. I will try to remember to remind you in April about those cuttings.

Chris

Is it winter hardy?

I wish that I can get granthams royal and Florea, they seem great fig and fit my NPW area with weak sun.

Here are Desert king, Granthams royal, Florea in our area  ( Forum pictures)

 
 

Pictures show you how productive those fig trees are, also they do not drop figs before ripen here, However, For me,Good Fig tree need to be very sweet as well.

Accounting to 2005 UC davis report
http://ucanr.edu/datastoreFiles/391-301.pdf

Desert king's Breba fig is aprom = "King" figs, brix = 15  ( As sweet as sweet grapes)
Granthams royal fig is aprom. = "Dauphine" figs, brix = 21.3 ( Sweeter than sweet grapes and as sweet as pop)

If you can find information on Florea, Please let me know, It seems that it grow breba and main figs same time, and I wonder how sweet this fig it.

Desert king is fast grower, I guess that It is about 3 - 6 years old.

I bought a one year old desert king in Sept-2015, It was already 5 FT tall, It is dormancy now and protected with home depot free plastic wrap plus 5/8" pipe insulation.