Here is a picture of my Excel figs starting to ripen.  I am so excited!  Last year at UCD, Excel was one of the best tasting yellow figs!  I am so happy mine are starting to ripen for the first time!  This tree is about 4 foot tall.  I had to cover the figs....again the birds were watching them.  Enjoy!

Very nice, Dennis--your tree is loaded! I should get quite a few off my young tree this year also, but they aren't quite as far along as yours.

Dennis in terms of flavour I have to agree you there I too love Excel first time I had one at adriano's I knew I had to have it.

Is Excel really that good? It must be one of those finicky, very climatic dependent ones for developing good flavor as Gene in DC did not have good results. But NC is not far away and I saw another VA report that it has good flavor.

Is this the same Excel cultivar we are speaking of? I have had it grown in VA--did not taste good. If same cultivar, what would you imagine in NC is the key to allowing such good flavor development? Hotter summers than us perhaps? I can't imagine you get much less rain in NC unless you are doing controlled potted growing (dragging in/covering when it pours) or you're in ground in a special microclimate?

Nice. I just got my notice from uc Davis today. This is one of the fig cuttings I ordered.

Excel is that good. It truly is in my climate. The figs on my 3 trees ripened before Kadota. It has a strong rich thick sweet honey flavor. Those I did not cover, the birds got. We had perfect weather till the end of August. That's when the rains came and soured all those trying to ripen. Now our weather is back in the 80s. and we're having perfect Fall weather. As you guys may know my wife only likes black figs but she thought Excel was excellent and used it in a taste test comparison to other green honey type figs.

Thanks for categorizing Excell as a honey!  First I heard of it.

It does ooze honey from the eye when ripe.

Thanks for posting the pictures, Dennis. Now I know what to expect next year when mine is supposed to fruit and hopefully ripe.

When I bought this tree I was told it was an Excel. But the vendor changed his mind and said it was a Byadi. 
In any case it is a beautiful fig, sweet and lucious. It may be too large to be an Excel as I heard that they average 12 or fourteen to the pound. Mine average that to the kilo or about 6 to the pound. The tree is 4yr old (actually 2 trees in the pot) and will need to be divided and re-potted this winter. I have attached photos. I would love confirmation of variety.