Does anyone know of a good tiny species of (preferably native) fish for stocking in a rainwater fed circulating pond of about 200 gal to at least in part help with mosquito control? I’m thinking maybe a live-bearer guppy cousin of some sort?
The biological control (dunks) worked well for a couple years, but there’s some new species of large, clumsy mosquito that seems impervious to the dunks, so I’m hoping for a breeding population of aquatic predator.
Your question seems good enough to be an independent thread so it doesn’t get lost in this long chat. I sure would like for it to be cause I’m interested as well.
Which of your pomegranates gives you the most edible fruit?
If you are talking strictly volume of fruit, hard to beat wonderful. I don’t find it the most flavorful, but its not bad.
Greetings Seattle Figs. I have a desert king tree I’d like to get your advice about.
I’ve read that it’s impossible to get main crop figs from a desert king in the PNW since we don’t have the necessary fig wasp around here. Evidently that’s not a problem, since desert king produce a phenomenal breba crop, not requiring fig wasp pollination.
All of that sounds correct, right? If so, perhaps I am growing one of the strangest desert king fig trees in this region.
I planted this tree in the central Willamette Valley a little over 5 years ago. It’s about 8 feet tall, 6 feet wide and really happy, growing a few feet away from a south facing cedar fence. Despite the seemingly ideal location, with sufficient water and nutrient rich soil, the tree hasn’t produced a single breba fig in the entire time. Seemingly even stranger than that, it produces main crop figs by the dozens each week from late August until early October. These are fantastic figs too: extra large, sweet and jammy.
Have you ever heard of a desert king tree behaving this way? Not just making main crop figs in the PNW, but also failing to make any breba figs. Obviously, as a PNW grower, I had purchased it for the breba crop, thinking the main crop was not possible. So far this has been a pleasant surprise to make up for what would otherwise be a real downer.
Since I get an abundant and quite flavorful breba crop from the White Marseilles, I’m not too concerned about missing out on desert king brebas. I would just like to figure out what’s going on.
Any ideas?
Here are some recent pics from the tree. All within this past week:
Easiest answer is it was mislabeled and you have some other fig instead? But I’m just guessing here, I’ll let others with more fig experience chime in.
I also recall hearing that Desert King cannot produce main crop figs here, but then at least one other person says they get them sometimes.
I’d love to see some substantiation. Perhaps there is another mechanism for producing fruit on the main crop, or unintentional sports, or mislabeling.
Is the skin color really that yellow or is it camera’s effect? My Desert King brebas are dark green when ripe and approaching black when overripe.
My ‘will never ripen’ main crop is medium green.
the leaves and the oblong main crops, not dark green figs suggests a different variety than DK fig. what nursery did you buy the tree? i could only guess it could be stella fig
‘Desert King’ occasionally ripens a small number of main crop figs in the PNW without pollination, but the quality is nothing like what you’ve photo-documented above. They tend to be small, with poor color and little flavor. Your fig tree is without doubt the result of a label mix up at the nursery.
I can attest to this. I had a couple DK fruit ripen this week on my large tree. They were the least flavorful fruit compared to other varieties.
Any idea what it might be? Someone suggested perhaps Stella. The only problem with that is stellla are known for having an excellent breba crop. This tree has not produced a single breba fig in 5 years.
These really are phenomenal figs, whatever they are. I wonder if they would do well in cooler micro climates around the region.
The picture is making them look much greener. In person they look distinctly yellowish.
Any idea what it might be? Someone suggested perhaps Stella. Problem with that is the Stella supposedly make a phenomenal breba crop. This tree hasn’t made a single breba in 5 years. Well they’ve started a few times, but fell off before swelling.
I think I should grow one I know for sure is a desert king and see what happens.
I’ve definitely considered that. I’m at a loss since these look so similar to desert king. Someone suggest perhaps Stella, but evidently those make a booming breba crop just like the desert king does. Whatever these are they are a fairly early ripening main crop. It seems odd to me. You would think a fig so large, relatively early and flavorful would be common around here. Up to now, the only fig I can find that’s remotely similar is desert king. And that’s definitely what the label said at the nursery where I used to work.
In your warm area of the PNW you’d be swimming in figs all summer and fall with a real Desert King that, for you, would ripen in July.
Unfortunately I don’t have a good guess as to what variety you have, but I can say you can surely rule out ‘Stella’ as well since that variety has very distinct foliage with long, narrow lobes. Did the nursery you got it from propagate their own figs or do they get them from a wholesaler? Knowing what varieties they carry (or what varieties their supplier carries) would be a good way to narrow down what variety it could be.
I looked up Stella and apparently they have an excellent breba crop, similar to the desert king.
I bought it at a place called 13th Street Nursery in Salem.
The camera is making them look far greener than they actually are. In person they have a yellowish hue.
Will you have any extra cuttings this winter?
Sure. Let me know when you’d like them. Will trade for what you have!
My Stella went more than 5 years before producing the first breba figs.
