I am always looking for fig varieties with a good yield of brebas, since that is the only crop I get.

Quality and taste is important too, but this post is about yield.

This summer I found a branch on a English Brown Turkey with 13 brebas on one shoot from last year.

This is the highest number of brebas I have seen on any one branch of a fig tree, by far.

All 13 brebas reached maturity and were eaten by the owners of the tree.

It has to be mentioned that this tree is growing against a sunny wall, and the tree is pruned severely every 2. year.  I call the tree "Fejø EBT unk". In my opinion it is the standard fig variety of North Western Europe, the European name is "Brown Turkey", The American name is "English Brown Turkey" but it goes under so many aliases, both in Europe and in The US. Of cause it may be a superior clone, but i have no reason or data to suggest that its a special clone. If it turns out to be unique, we could name it "Fejø" after the small Island I live in, and where every garden has a figtree of this kind.

If anyone finds a breba-cropping fig variety that can ripen 13 breba figs on one shoot, please take a photo and tell us about it !  (I am also interested in varieties with super good taste and fewer brebas, but lets discuss those in another thread !) 

The US's very own Desert King is the most obvious cadidate to have potential to beat this record, but there might also be other contenders ? - from Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Turkey ? Untill I hear from my friends in other coutries, I will claim the World Breba Record  for FEJØ ! -Oh and no offence, but this competition is for countries with a frosty Winter season, where figs Loose their leaves - Tropical climates is a different story. 

 
   

Fig looks great!  Looks like a great addition for cool climate growers!  How old is this tree? 

Age seems to be one of the determining factors as to how many figs a tree produces. 
Also of course whether planted in ground or potted, climatic zone, pruning techniques and growing culture... 

Of course in zone 6 I couldn't possibly compete with PNW or warmer climatic zones for the size of fig production. 
I have 2 figs trees that have performed very well with breba production the last 2 years (Sicilian Red and Sicilian Black JR).  They each ripened  18 and 20 breba figs and are only 3 years old(Nov/13).  
For now you hold the title but I think these 2 figs would be good candidates to give you a run if planted in the right environment.

Get a Mead, they produce like that all season. Mine has.

Doug

Just a thought and probably a silly one but I noticed that the branch appears to be bent downwards. If you tie down the branches of apple trees so that they arc down towards the ground it causes them to be more fruitful. Is this the case with figs?

If you bend down a branch, the vigor gets reduced and the tree puts its energy in the fruits. This has something to do with auxins and cytokinins I believe. In apple trees this will lead to more and bigger fruits. Fig trees can have only one (or exceptionally two) figs per node so you probably will not have more figs but bigger figs if you bend the branches down (which is still nice).

English Brown Turkey is a variety that produces a fig at almost every node. The figs on the new wood are the “main crop” but they don’t ripen in our climate (I call it the “waste” crop). Only the figs on the new wood that are small enough (pea size or smaller) will survive the winter and can grow out next year as the breba crop. Ideally you would want to delay the formation of figs on the new wood as long as possible so you have mostly small figs that can survive winter. I haven’t found out yet what would be a good way to do that. Increasing the vigor (fertilizing) could help, but you don’t want long new shoots that haven’t hardened off before winter. Helping the tree to enter dormancy earlier by reducing water (or light?) could help, but it’s difficult to do when the tree grows in ground.

Hi,
How big are the roots on that tree ?
How productive were the other limbs of that tree ?

I'm asking because , if on a tree with 10 branches I cut say 8. The remaining two limbs will have all the sap for them and grow longer and thus produce more brebas figs the following year (provided that the winter does not interfere ... ) .
But, If I keep 10 stems with 5 brebas, I get 50 brebas. I would get 26 to the most with the 2 stems ...
My BT had some 40 or 50 brebas on the whole tree. How many brebas in total did your tree yield ?

Jdsfrance, I think you are right in asking this question. If we want to compare the breba productivity of different varieties, it would probably be better to compare the average number of brebas / branch. But I must admit that 13 breba figs on a branch is impressive! My EBT only has 3-7 brebas / branch, but I princh my tree after every 6th leaf to promote branching (and fruiting).

Hi Pino,



I will keep an eye on the two Sicillian Black JR and Sicillian Red, they sound like good candidates. Do you have a Photo of them !?

The fig tree is probably 20 years old.

I don't care so much for holding the title, I would rather find more fig varieties with this cropping potential, and learn more about pruning and growing breba figs !

Hi Doug, don't know Mead, but I will check it out !

Hi Doric and Timo, I agree with the point that a downwards growing branch might promote the forming of breba figs. But I have seen some upwards branches on this tree, that also had 7-9 breba figs. It seems that shoots with a particular vigorous Growth can do this. So definitely pruning severely to promote new annual Growth is one part of it, and fertilization might be another.

Hi JDS and Timo: Yes, if you don't prune severely, the tree will have more shorter branchlets, and on each one will be 0-3-5-7 figs normally. Tipping the summershoots will further promote branching. I cant say how big the root is, and I have not calculated the total number of figs on each branch, think I will need a horticultural student attatched to the project for that. - or we will hav to employ the help of some horticultural institution to make a field trial. But I also think that if "We the fig people" pool our observations we can learn a lot towards understanding of breba-cropping.

Thanks for all comments to this thread, and remember: Keep submitting Pictures of record breaking breba cropping  varieties ! - even if it is on a more branching tree that as been tipped or pruned differently.

Thanks for photos Pino. They look very good, and obviously have a good potential to form brebas.

Keep us posted on their Progress.

Thanks Michael!

Next I need to learn how to prune breba producers like these so they produce 1st crop consistently year after year.
Have seen a video where an in ground Desert King was pruned using thinning cuts not sure how that works for container grown when you only have a few main branches. 

You mentioned that the owner of the EBT in post 1 that the owner prunes this fig severely every 2 years, can you elaborate on that?
Thanks

Apart from DK producing a good breba crop, other good breba producers Osborne Prolific, Latarrula, Gilette, Ariane, Granthams Royal, Giehbulb, Morena. Taste wise, Granthams Royal beats all.

@Pino - I can send U LdA tree. I have 4 trees, 3 of them in pots and a large in-ground tree. Ripening now.

How interesting!  I didn't know this.  Could it be because of the concentration would be to the branch that is arched down?

@ Pino
>> Next I need to learn how to prune breba producers like these so they produce 1st crop consistently year after year.

Well, I think that you may also need to find someway to delay those brebas by one month, Like "Desert king" in your area, brebas come too early, Slightly unstable cold weather will wipe them out.

Pino, The owners of the record breba tree does not use any specific method in pruning, they just cut the branches way back, and remove some entirely, otherwise they would not be able to get into the barn that the tree is standing in front of ! I guess this leads to massive regrowth of long shoots, with lots of brebas as result.

Pino, I could also have sent you an LdA, But it is less complicated if Paully will do it ! LdA Works very well for me. 2-3 brebas on each shoot, and as long as I can leave them on the tree, untill they are fully mature, they taste very meaty and figgy, I like them. My tree is still in its formative years, so I have not been able to test pruning tecniqes on it yet.

I think the most interesting demonstration of pruning for brebas, is done by Bob Duncan on Youtube :

Thanks for the link Michael!  Nice video by Bob in BC not sure if he is on this forum.
 
If I understand Bob is suggesting training the fig tree;
1. first 3 years
-  focus on building the frame of the tree for size, shape and permanent fruiting arms
2. every spring repeat this pruning;
- cut back the fruiting 2 yr old branches to 2"
- thin out any weak or hanging 1yr old branches

Sounds great for PNW. 
This method should also work for bifarous figs since the main crop will produce figs on the new branches from the 2yr old stubs.  Although you may get less figs since you are leaving some 1yr old and 2 yr old stubs.

In my area will I need to find a way to protect the tender 1yr old branches during winter (-25C) or grow these in containers.