I am looking for a tree that will give me a few very early figs. Would Desert king be a good pick because the breba crop is the edible fruit? How cold hardy is the desert king? We get some pretty cold nights down here (especially this winter). I had at least a week or two of nights down in the 20's with a few nights down to 20 degrees. I had an LSU gold and a kathleen's black in the ground unprotected that did fine, but I am wondering if those temps will affect the desert king?

Hi John,
I live in Albuquerque NM and have a Desert King in the ground in front of a south-facing concrete block wall.

At my house, we have nearly 100 nights/year where the temperature goes below freezing.

In the picture
left: Italian Honey, right: Desert King.
Top picture was taken in early '08, while the bottom picture was taken after leaf-drop in '09

I probably go overboard for protecting the trees in winter. I had heard that after a few years, they are hardy enough to handle it, and at least could come back from the roots if killed to the ground. [loslunasfarms said that wrapping the trees here does reduce the dessication by our desert winds]




I really doubt that once established, your Desert King would need winter protection, but I defer to the expertise of others here. One of the main reasons I do it is that without the fig wasp here, all I get are brebas. Since I consider them to be delicious, I want to savelast year's wood so it will produce figs for me.

DK is hardy. It's grown outdoors in Vancouver, Canada with no protection and one of the most common fig tree. Only delicious brebas and bountiful. Ripens in late July/early August. It seems this variant have not done well in the East Coast Of USA. Thus, I am not sure it is good for your zone.

Interesting about the east coast thing Paully. I was going to pick up a plant, but I may just save a little cash start some cuttings next year instead after hearing that.

DK has been an extremely good fig in lower NC. It has been very hardy and ripens the brebas around June 15th. 

Jack, do you have to do any protecting in your area?

I have never used protective covering. My DK is at least 20 years old and has 

Since this relates to Desert King, I'm reopening this rather than starting a  new thread.

The other one got fruits because a Swarm of fig wasp,landed in your area with pollen on their bodies.
Do not count on that one to make fruits every year.
But you can count on Desert King.In Jon area the fig wasp is present,some of his fruits are pollinated and some not.

As a follow up, I just got back from 4 days in San Diego, Dad's mystery tree is now continuously producing lots of ripe figs....so it seems not to be a fluke.  

Here are some  pictures of the figs from my Dad's tree

I am resurrecting this thread because I had put pics of my dad's tree here 3 years ago.

Well, this is now the fourth year, and the figs are MUCH better tasting. However we do plan to graft other varieties onto it



 
 

Hi,
Nice production .
May I ask why would you be grafting ?
Isn't the tree enough productive ? How many figs do you get (approximately and if I may ask of course :) ) ?

That tree is a bit high for my likings ... I would consider some trimming ... to be able to fetch all the figs without a ladder or climbing in the tree.
I'd rather have two smaller trees than an unique big one - but of course, this is my way of thinking - and for now winters helped me keeping them small :( .

@paulandirene, what a lovely tree you have, congrats... 

- How was the sweetness on the scale of 1-10?

- Did anybody here identify this variety?

- what zone is the tree in? that purple lining that I see could be indication of caprification but I don't see much seeds in it. Were there any crunch when you ate them?

On sweetness, maybe a 7 but I'd need to try some more fresh figs to better determine that. This year they aren't nearly as watery-tasting as previous years. (My dad doesn't water it much and there's been very little rain so maybe that's why the flavors are much more concentrated this year.) No crunchy seeds and we haven't determined what it really is.  Zone 10b (San Diego)

The tree came from Margaret a longtime friend of my parents who lived just a few blocks away. She offered the tree to my dad before she put her house on the market some years back. Bless her memory, she lived to be 99 and was active until very shortly before she passed on.

AH, San Diego, so that means you might have Wasps...that might explain the purple lining between the skin and the Meat go the fruit. So, if it's fertilized then why there aren't any seeds in it? or are there, you need to sift one with the pulp and wash through to see what you get in the bottom of the cup.
Are you going to be at Jon's Fiesta 2014? You can try many varieties and bring some of your fruit to show around , maybe trained eyes of few Forum Members can identify it for you :)

Well, I found out something new about Dad's fig tree. I had erroneously believed his neighbor Margaret had planted it, and had offered it to him to remove before she sold the house.  Rather it was growing wild, too close to her house. She asked Dad to remove it so it wouldn't damage the house's foundation. Instead of throwing it out, Dad transplanted it in his own backyard. If I understand, figs do not reproduce true to seed, so we really have no idea what variety it is. 

While the figs do taste OK [much better than in previous years], we do plan to graft different varieties onto it.