I reached out to Bill Farhat after reading about him in the Seattle times article
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/allyoucaneat/2013/08/19/a-fig-tree-grows-in-seattle-the-man-his-mission-propagation/
And in Ben's youtube video at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGVQ8TD5iS0

Bill is the original fig enthusiast and has been in the hobby for over 30 years! 

 

That fig tree in the background is in his front yard and greets you as you enter the house. He has maintained it at about 10-15 feet tall but has a span of around 25-30 feet if I estimate correctly. 

His property is beautiful, atop a hill: around 100 feet by 150 feet with a beautiful view of Lake Washington and Mt Rainier. Nearly every inch of it is green with plum, pine, rhododendron, loquat but mostly fig trees. He says he grows over 40 fig trees and stopped counting after 40. When he says trees, he means trees: most of them are 15+ years old and some as old as 30 years.

Varieties: Nearly all his trees are Desert King, Brown Turkey and Black Mission. He has a few Negronne, Olympian and a handful of other varieties. The Desert King/Brown Turkey are the most bountiful according to him. Unlike most of us who like to trial new varieties, he sticks to the same varieties.

He grows a few other plants too: Loquats, grapes (Cabernet), Pine nuts, plums etc. His largest grape vine wraps around the entire house! I've never seen Loquats growing in the PNW! His tree was massive and large enough to be a small shade tree! 

Unlike most of us who like to geek out on the most effective approach to grow cuttings, grafts etc: he is very simple in his approach. He simply bends a branch and sticks a brick on top of it if he wants to do a layer propagation.
He takes cuttings and sticks them in the ground (rather than in a perlite/peat mix with bottom heat and humidity cover) 

While he possibly has a lower success rate with his approaches, his simple approach over many years has created a true garden of Eden.

Whoa!  The leaves on that tree have to be twice the size of his head.  I've never seen such huge leaves on a fig tree before.  Probably the result of mild maritime weather, I imagine.  Very cool write up, Ramv.  

He sold me a potted fig cutting that wasn't doing good, I posted pics here and everyone said it was planted upside down... It died.

I have no problem with trying new varieties and accepted it when I lost many expensive trees/cuttings that are hard to replace.
But, if it's the seller's fault, then I would contact him directly and let him know. He might offer you a replacement.

He actually told me that he plants cuttings as if his life doesn't depend on it, if they come, they come, if they don't, no big deal.

You should reach back to him, I am pretty sure he will replace it.

 

It was fun to visit Bill. I picked up a couple plants from him too, I was going to give them to my sister but none of them made it. LOL. He uses top soil with no additional amendments which isn't ideal for small plants. Bit its ok, it was my way of saying thank you for the visit. He's a fun person to chat with. You can tell he is passionate about figs. His methods are old school but they have worked well for him.

I wonder how many pounds of figs he gets out of his trees.

What is the average and top weight of a King mature fig?
Who proved that King is a strict San Pedro under all locations on earth?
Ariel
Israel

Sas: I am pretty sure he harvests 1000+ of figs from his two largest DK trees. Several of his other trees are somewhat shaded and I dont think their productivity is going to be that high.

Bill says his figs are around 4 oz each. I haven't weighed the figs from my tree: they are a large fig but probably not 4 oz.

 

Ariel,

This is the info you can find in Condit’s monograph of figs:

King. The exact origin and identity of the King fig have not been determined.
About 1930, cuttings from a fig tree growing near Madera, California, were planted by
Sisto Pedrini, Western Evergreen Company, at Los Altos and at San Francisco. The
young trees produced such excellent fruit that hundreds of plants were propagated and
distributed in Pacific Coast states and elsewhere by the King Fig Plantation, San
Francisco. See account by Brooks and Olmo (1949). The King tree is exceptionally
prolific of the breba crop, which often sets three to five or more fruits close together,
somewhat like the crop of certain caprifigs. At Riverside, and in most other inland
districts, the majority of second-crop figs shrivel and drop for lack of caprification, a fact
which places this variety in the San Pedro group of figs. In cool, coastal sections, a fair
percentage of the crop matures by parthenocarpy, as explained elsewhere by Condit
(1950).
Of all the varieties fruiting in the collection at Riverside, the King is unexcelled for the
production of brebas. Few home owners, however, have found the King satisfactory,
because of the severe dropping of the second crop and lack of knowledge as to the
cultural methods most likely to give best results with this variety. Branches of King
trees should not be cut back heavily in winter, as this removes the fruit buds which
normally produce a breba crop. A judicious thinning out of the older wood
occasionally would seem to be the best procedure. The following description is of trees
and fruit grown at Riverside since 1941.
Tree moderately vigorous. Leaves medium, 3- to 5-lobed; base subcordate; lateral
sinuses broad, shallow; upper surface somewhat glossy, rugose; margins shallowly
crenate.
Brebas above medium to large, short-pyriform, often oblique, with or without short,
thick neck; average weight 88 grams; stalk short; ribs present, but not prominent; white
flecks variable, large and widely scattered in some, small and numerous in others; eye
large, scales chaffy or straw colored, semi-erect; color green; bloom prominent; meat
thin, white; pulp strawberry; flavor rich; quality excellent. (Plate 16, A.)
Second-crop figs uncaprified, medium, with or without short neck; color greenish
yellow; pulp amber to very light strawberry; seeds few, tender, hollow. Caprified figs
with stalk very short and no neck; average weight 45 grams; color dark green; pulp
dark strawberry; flavor rich; quality good. (Plates 12; 16, B.)

I have tasted the parthenocarpy main crop DK. It's not quite as good but it was edible. 

I've never got edible main crop figs from my DK. They appeared to have ripened last year but tasted like caprifigs: i.e. nearly impossible to eat.

Today I harvested all my brevas from a 10 years old King. There were fruits of 115 grams the max but most were in the range 75-95 grams.
The flesh is not red with this breva crop unless it is pollinated as with the main crop.

The main crop is developing well, not caprified and the fruits stay and develop well for the time being

The fruits are very sweet and juicy despite the heavy crop
I do not like the fruit softness and the zero shelf life under my hot conditions
Deapexing shoud be practised.

I use just now the soft fruits in yugurt

Here's a look at the unripe brebas from my tree: Still have till early Aug to ripen.

 

The way I get the King brevas is in a terminal cluster, not along the branch. This enables me to cover but the apex full of 8-10 fruits with a big organza bag.

Mean while and as true for today 2 fruits from each new growth cluster dropped but the rest new 8-14 fruit are developing rather fast and are fine. Unfortunately the fruits are not pollinated and do not have seeds and  not the deep red flesh colour.