You have to be fanatical here. Most all of these diversions work, but only until the birds recognize them for what they are. Cannons may work for a week (or much less). Fake owls, snakes, aluminum pie plates, mylar strips, etc. the same way. Doesn't take them long to realize that the diversion really isn't a threat. If you rotate through a number of diversions fairly quickly, each new one will keep them away for a short time, but you have to be fanatical about doing it and switch tactics before they figure out they're being gamed. This might buy you some time to get the cherries closer to being ripe. The other solution is one of numbers. If you have more cherries than the birds can eat, you'll have some for yourself. Plant 30 acres of trees, or shoot every feather you see! I occasionally blow my stack after watching trees loaded with pie cherries turn yellow on the way to red and never get ripe enough to eat and put chicken wire or a net around a tree or part of a tree.

Folks, I've ordered BLACK plastic labels for years-the only place to get them is from England, and only online through their site (they don't sell in retail outlets even in the UK!). I adore them, because black totally DISAPPEARS into your garden! They have tons of shapes and sizes, and loads of other products as well. A bit pricey,due to shipping from the UK, but not onerously so. It is unbelievably worth it, to ahve neat black labels unobtrusively residing amid the foliage. The Essentials Company, April House, Davey Lane, Charsfield, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP13 7QG, U.K. Tel/Fax: 01473 737567 email us at info@theessentialscompany.co.uk http://www.theessentialscompany.co.uk/Black_Labels.html You have two options for labeling your tags: 1. A very fine point, white permanent Sharpie. Not as permanent as I would like, (though holds up pretty well here in MD), and you should have neat handwriting and perhaps block print. 2. I'm about to buy the Brother PT1000 labeler, as I've been reading it stands up to heat, sun, frost, etc. ** I'll use BLACK tape, with white letters, stick it on my black plastic plant tags from Essentials, and see how that goes. Cheers, Merry

Bamboo, I put it in one of the biggest pots that I could find at Lukas, but the problem was that it didn't have a flat bottom and was not draining properly. When I took it out the roots were all the way in the soil, that is why I am saying even a dwarf fig tree needs room to grow and a pot it is not the best environment. When I got the tree it was probably in a gallon but the Negronne which was smaller in size grew so fast! it did look like a strong variety. They said that the best time to take cuttings are in the fall, I will keep a cutting for you and I am going to grow at least one more for myself being small size I can find a space some place. When there is a will, there is a way.:) Your VDB looks very healthy and soon you will be tasting some good figs. Here is the guilty pot where I had the fig Silvia

Good luck with yours theanimala. I'm with you on the regular Electrolux over the Icon. To correct some of my earlier comments, I looked at the regular Electrolux again at Lowes last night. It does have a grill below the control panel that vents directly out into the room and there are vent holes at the top and bottom of the door that apparently draw air from the kitchen down between the door panels and out the bottom. I guess this is to keep the door cool??? Then I went to look at the other ovens on display. All have some venting at the top but many are smaller than the one on the Electrolux and some have small louvers to direct it up or down. Most of the ovens, including my Dacor, also have slots above the oven box (between the broiler and the control panel) that line up with slots in the section of the door when the door is closed. It looks like the air flows from above the oven box, then down between the door panels and out the bottom. Does anyone know if there's a major difference in functionality between the two methods? I'm pretty much sold on the regular Electrolux as long as it doesn't make the kitchen significantly hotter than other models. As to my concern about the continuous gap between the glass panels on the Icon door, I had to laugh when I justlooked at my Dacor oven and it had the exact same thing. ALL the ovens have vents, thus the ability to get gunk between the layers of glass but this does give a little easier access. I guess reading a post about someone getting gunk between the glass of their brand new Meile made me a little paranoid. OTOH, the glass on my oven door is black so you wouldn't be able to see any gunk between the panels anyway. I'd still be a little nervous about all that open access to glass on the Icon.