I bought this tree when I just began my limited fig trial and error journey this spring, along with Ischia, Olympian, and Black Mission (now it becomes Celeste and Brunswick).  It all started with Ischia I had a couple of years ago. That Ischia from Wallymart had the correct tag name, but wrong picture (green Ischia pic).  These are all common fig and easy to obtain.  I admit that I did not know enough then, but heck, they do not cost much to begin with and from some reviews, taste good and are productive, so why not...  In the process, I asked a local nursery owner for different fig varieties other than the Celeste and Brown Turkey, and he simply just said that they grow well here.  I did not heed his advice well.  Now as I reflect his comment after I gained a little more fig knowledge, I started to question why I ordered the Desert King in the first place.  

True, this tree grows in my zone 8 climate but its major crop is the breba crop for a San Pedro type fig.  Due to the lack of wasps here, its main crop is likely to drop due to the lack of pollination.  I know it is doing well in the southwest and PNW, in Zone 8.  But being in a different Zone 8 in the SE, I am not sure if my Desert King will have a good breba crop if I plant it in ground.  I do not like container fig trees as I have many tropical fruit trees in containers already.  

Has anyone in the SE states in a similar climate had Desert King breba crop ?  Do you need to protect it in the winter for occasional freezing days ?  If so what do you do to the tree?  If this is too much of a hassle, I may not keep it.  Thanks. 

Personally, I'd get rid of it. There are far too many other figs that grow well
here that will give two crops without pollination.

Ray, we have cold spells every now and then here in March, just when the brebas break out for many common fig trees.  Will they drop fruits without protection?  Someone has indicated that freezing temp affects the breba production to the point that only a few left to ripen, depending on the severity of the cold spells. But I think that will be OK because there will still be main crop for common fig trees.  My main question is how bad (or how well) the Desert King performs in our Zone 8 climate for its breba crop. If it performs well, say most of the time it produces a lot of brebas, then I am inclined to keep it if they taste great.  If more than 50% of the breba fruit dropped every year, then it is a goner, even if it tastes great. After all, as you said, there are others that can do well here that also taste great...

If I were you, I will plant other two crops varieties, small breba with big main crop.

You can plant your DK deeper in ground, if will wake up later to avoid drop fruits problem, Also, DK can bear sweet fig with less sunny spot, You can Plant 2 crops varieties at premium sunny spot, I plant them between 2 houses with few hours sun, it bears many sweet figs, Brown turkey at same less sunny spot, no ripen sweet figs.

Ricky: How cold do you get over PNW, like BC, Canada (I'd think VC area) in Feb and March? Over here, it can get to about 20 degrees F for a short time in my micro-environment yard.  When you do have below freezing temp, did you have any good breba crop? Why does planting DK deeper in ground help? I'd think that the brebas are exposed to cold as the reason for them to drop.

For me, the point in planting a San Pedro like DK is not just that you get some decent figs early but also that you might get a lot of them.  The promise of "two-crop" varieties seems dubious -- the two crop varieties I've grown never produce many brebas.  So I'm thinking I'd be way better off if I could grow a few productive breba-only trees next to my productive main-crop trees.  Let each specialize at what they do best.

The question is:  If you don't live in the Pacific Northwest, how do you manage to get the San Pedros to ripen a lot of brebas?

I know that the answer is not merely about good winter protection.  I kept a big DK-like San Pedro in a garage this winter.  Temps never dropped below 35 F.  After I took the tree outside, temps never dropped below 35 F.  Even so, the tree dropped 80% of its brebas in May.  Someone in the PNW suggested that the issue is the variability of temps from high to low (e.g., 60 to 35) rather than the absolute low levels.  Temps in New England in spring are variable, there's no getting around it.  

I think schang's question is an important one.  Do any growers in the southeast manage to get big crops of brebas from DK?  From other San Pedros?  If so, what are they doing?  

In fact, I'd generalize the question:  Do any growers outside the PNW get big crops of brebas from DK?  If so, what are they doing?  

I can broaden the question even further:  Do any growers outside the PNW get big crops of brebas from any San Pedro?  If so, what are they doing?  I picked two excellent brebas from a 2nd-year Filacciano Bianco this week.  A tree bearing 30-50 would be a bonanza.  Sure, I could get 5 times that number from a decent in-ground, main crop variety.  But not in July. 

I have 4 DKs. One in he ground, three in 27g SIPs. All are 7 foot tall and the do produce. It is very hardy.

Joe, I am glad that you helped in expanding my question to a more general aspect for DK or San Pedro fig trees.  Hope we can get answer from those who have them and can share their experience with us.  For now I am more interested in those experience in the SE climate.  

You have mentioned a few points that I forgot to write previously about DK breba crop...One is the earlier ripening date, which I like, but we also have many varieties that do so in late June/early July as main crop, for example, Celeste, Ischia, and RDB.  Another is the green skin/red pulp of DK that I do not have to worry about the birds...Of course, the taste of DK has been praised by quite a few people.  All these tributes had driven me to try it in the first place. But I did not think much about the effect of the freezing nights on the breba crop, even though the duration of the freezing temp is short here.   

Potted fig tree wake up earlier than in ground fig trees.
Because soil warm up slower in ground soil, Roots wake up before top branches, Once roots wake up, It grows first and convert its anti-freeze fluid back to sap, and it start growing leaves and breba.
If you plant fig tree deeper in ground, soils are warmer at winter time, but warm up later at spring.
- trees are slightly cold hardy
- trees will grow more to bush form and more suckers.
- wake up little slower at spring time
- If soils are very wet, tree will die

I like DK, It is very reliable here both in pot and in ground, My 1 year old in ground DK, It has about 15 breba with really sweet taste even in young age, and it has 100+ main crop now, very sad to see them falling.
One of the problem of breba, They all ripen in very short time, Like 10 days, I have 6 4L icecream pails of breba in Fridge now.

I have a possible Fake DK 6 years ago, it was on "Chop" list for first 3 years due to low production of breba and bland taste, 4 years passed, Its breba become very sweet ripening in 10 days and it has a even more tasty main crop for 1 month, because of this, I keep it.

Ricky:  Thanks for your explanations on the root depth vs wake timing correlation.  I do not know if the delay is long enough for protecting the breba fruits in some areas.  For example, this spring is kind of weird here, where we have quite warm Jan/February, but March is cool with a snow day and a couple of freezing nights. Temp would come back up on daylight and snow quickly melted.  This has affected my Satsuma orange and pear fruiting quite significantly.  I did not have any mature, in ground fig tree then, but my two years old Ischia has new leaves earlier than before.  I'd think that brebas would start to break out earlier as well.  I did recall that my neighbor's mature Celeste tree had several brebas in Feb this year, but they dropped later.  I know only a few fruit trees can delay flowering much later to avoid fruit dropping due to cold nights.  For example, persimmon and jujube.  They flower in late April and early May here, when the majority of the trees are done flowering long ago.  Maybe they have certain genes to tell them to do this kind of tricks, though I am not sure if I plant their roots deeper or shallower will affect much of this trait.  

I guess my question is more on the freezing nights impact on the brebas after they have broke out...

<< I have 4 DKs. One in he ground, three in 27g SIPs. All are 7 foot tall and the do produce. It is very hardy. >>

Dennis -- Thanks.  Some follow-up:  What's typical production per tree -- anything like Ricky's 64L?  How does the in-ground tree differ from the potted trees?   Finally, how heavily do you water?  I'm wondering whether the heavy rainfall in the PNW contributes to success there.