I am not sure about hit of miss thing. My neighbor's Celeste tree bears fruits the second year in ground, while my three years old Ischia white had no fruit till the fourth year, with only six figs for a tree that is 4' high when figlet broke out (7' tall now). I've read that Desert King is an fast bearing fig tree, and in my own observation, the Olympian beats DK in this regard. These two fig trees was treated exactly the same way, same pot size, same kind of soil, same fertilization schedule and amount, and same amount of sunlight and watering...They are even about the same height with no FMV. There are factors that can have some effect on the age of tree that starts bearing fruits, but other things being equal, I do believe that variety (genes differences ?) play a fair amount of role in this.