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["Bassem Samaan" <bassem@gardener.com>]

Fig's first crop also known as Breba is produced on previous year wood, the main crop is produced on current year's growth. Desert king produces only Breba, the main crop requires pollination by a special wasp that it's not available in the states (was imported into southern California). Therefore in the east coast if the wood was exposed to the cold, you'll lose the breba. Desert King is not reliable.

Celeste is very commonly misslabled just like Brown Turkey. Celestial is similiar to the original Celeste, but it's different.

You said you "I have a large yellow fig that was called Celeste". Celeste is a dark fig and not yellow. As I mentioned Celeste is very commonly mislabled.


Thanks,

Bass Samaan
http://www.TreesofJoy.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Barbowski" <jbarbowski@gmail.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Figs - Desert King
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:25:09 -0400

Hello Bass,

 

Interesting observation from your web site regarding Desert King (DK). In the 1st year for my plant, 20 or so figs developed, only 4 or 5 matured - they were 'blah', and the remains dropped off. The 2nd year - the same maturing rate, but there were 30 to 40 more that remained on the tree in a green walnut size shape. The cold weather came, and I moved the plant to a special room in my unheated attached garage. On some occasions over the winter, the temp in the room dropped to -10C. The container, a large 18 inch diameter resin pot, was solid on the soil surface when checked.

 

March 15 came around and I moved all my figs outside. They started to wake by the end of March. On cold May nights, they were protected in a small greenhouse. The  DK lost about ten of its thirty 'buttons'; My Capellas and Turkish Browns lost all. The remaining 20 or so started to swell and flourished. To avoid 'tree rat' predation, I kept the DK in my greenhouse. They matured sometime in July and were excellent. Since that time, the current crop of figs from the DK have remained small and green.I always assumed the 1st crop from awakening figs was the 'breba' crop that started from growth in the current year. This over wintering process intimates a revised meaning for me.

 

There is also another fig fancier close by who has DK planted outside. He protects the 10-15 ft plant with plywood each winter. It obviously does okay.

 

I have a large yellow fig that was called Celeste. Do you know if this is the same as Celestial that you identify on your site?

 

Because of the wet summer with reduced sunshine, I find that my figs are 2-3 weeks late. Some are just starting to ripen - the extended season is nice.

 

jmb

 

Canadian Zone 6B just noth of Toronto

 

 

 

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 8:01 AM, Bassem Samaan <bassem@gardener.com> wrote:

We had a warm week in October here in Pa. My fig trees enjoyed iy and yesterday I picked a nice crop.
Here's a photo of some of the figs I picked  with the name of the varieties.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b172/Bassgarden/Bass%20Garden/PA170428.jpg



Thanks,

Bass Samaan
Bethlehem, pa
zone 6
http://www.TreesofJoy.com

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