This is how Violette de Bordeaux was performing in Phoenix Arizona,By Grower :Frozen Joe,described on the forum "Figs4fun. As you can see your tree is not near like his. It is young now but if next year it keep making dry inedible fruits ,discard it,it must be a seedling. For now find out PH value in soil and apply powder limestone if acidic,to bring it to 7 ,neutral. Violette de Bordeaux - This tree was an aggressive grower. It produced a dozen brebas. Their quality was from good to excellent. Medium size. Good texture. Fruit rating 9. It produced many dozens of main crop figs. Their quality was from poor to excellent. Medium size. Poor to good texture. Fruit rating 8. The most productive in my collection; it was the best fig this year in the spring and the fall.

I am pretty new for fig grow, this year is my first yeat to harvest fig, I have one Petite Negra, 3rd year, got 4 small fig, slowly riped, at the same time, my chicargo hardy also the 3rd year, show up more fruits and riped quicker, My best fig is the one from North China, fengtai beijing fig, also, year 3rd from bareroot. The tree produced a lot of huge sized fruits, very juicy, start harvest every day starting the end of August. Still have a few to pick, I feel like the ripe depend on the temperature, one day hot like 80 degree, the fig size is boosted, I have to pick it otherwise, the bird got them. I am going to write down the ripe schedule next year for reference. Wendy

Thanks for the tip. I checked this morning and found that the one that has been growing like crazy, producing a ton of fruit AND has already produced a 1/2 dozen ripe figs is a Magnolia fig. The other fig plant that is not growing, but not looking ill either is a Celeste. I am still working on finding the ripening time for each variety... According to this web site... http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mg214 The Celeste is an early July and the Magnolia is a late July / August ripening fig plant. Something is wrong with this picture. The Magnolia is doing fine and is on schedule. However, the Celeste is the one that set fruit, but they are not ripening..

raee - When I did my sister's previous fig the final year that I got chance to wrap it (2007), I actually ended up using an old full-sized comforter to form a tube (needed a step ladder because by then, it was about 6ft tall) and covered that with a heavy tarp... and that time, I remembered to use a stake and bungee it to that in order to hold it up because the previous winter, the wrapped "tube" ended up being bent over with snow and from the prevailing winds that winter. The one thing to note with figs though is that because their trunk/branches contain latex, they are very bendy and can take quite a bit of movement before a branch might break. I was going through some older photos and found one for my sister's original fig the spring after its first year in the ground, not long after unwrapping - (sprouts from the bottom of trunk - top part had died back - 5/29/05) (a couple weeks after the above - can see the original size/shape when first planted and the expanded shoots coming from the trunk bottom vs from the roots - the original was about 3ft tall) 2ManyDiversions - I wish I had thought about using that hot water heater jacket 14 years ago as it is nice and stiff when rolled around a tied-up fig and makes it easier to form a tube without trying to do it with a wire cage (another method people use). The cage method is when people will create the tube around the tied fig and then fill it with leaves and then put something around the outside (tar paper or carpet and/or a tarp, etc). The thing with the leaf fill however, is that over the winter, they will eventually settle and then compact down, often leaving an exposed gap at the top of the tree/bush, so that method seemed to be a bit of a no-go for me in that spot - mainly because of the wind exposure where the tree was situated, with not that much blocking of the westerly and northwesterly winter winds (based on how the neighboring houses were staggered). Often the thing that kills a tree to the ground outside of severe cold, is branch desiccation from dry cold winds (which is why I also used anti-desiccants). Folks just have to try a method and see how it works and then tweak it (although realizing that winters can vary from year to year). And regarding the bungees - I must have bought containers and containers of them. lol I use them all over, including in my car's cargo area, but mostly for some of my container shrubs and perennials as well as container tropicals so they don't tip or blow over. Home Depot has all kinds pretty cheap, including containers of assorted sizes of them (different lengths and thicknesses)! Love my bungees!! :-D