Here’s the progress on my Violette de Bordeaux to date.
Planting 2015-02:
Pruned 2016-03:
Today:
Immature fruit:
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Looks productive Mr Richard
Looks good. VdB is one of the best all around producers for me.
I guess you don’t like to cut grass…not sure I could live without a lawn. Laying down starring at the clouds and falling asleep on a summer day is a requirement for me.
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Where I live, the price of municipal water is tiered on usage and the watering times for a lawn are severely restricted. To maintain a 12’ x 24’ lawn (in addition to my fruit trees) would cost an extra $225 per month and I’d probably get fined for doing so!
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In CA, we don’t grow grass, we grow straw 
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Not me, I grow grass lawns. I’ll pay whatever it takes, and do whatever it takes to keep them looking good. Having a nice grass area to look at and walk through is one of life’s simple pleasures. Bare dirt is not good, and those drought tolerant landscapes that are popping up everywhere just look horrendous.
Back on topic: VdB is hands down my favorite fig.
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I agree. There’ll be no bare dirt by summer’s end.
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I figured you were in the desert or CA. Not sure how you guys can manage with the drought as its hard to relate when everything on this side of the country is the complete opposite when it comes to water.
Yeah the water is very expensive, having seen grass my whole life, I could live without it. I have to cut mine because of the spring rains every 4 days in the spring. It becomes very old quick! I need to cut it today, Thursday, Monday etc.
A new grass is available. It grows a lot slower, you have to cut about once a month. it also has three times the root mass, so watering is a lot less. It’s called Pearl’s Premium grass seed.
VDB is a good fig, Many super good figs around. Amazing how many. I have at least one from each flavor group. One fig I want to add, I had cuttings but they failed to root, i was super bummed. I’m thinking about grafting the cuttings next year, Anyway Coll de Dama Blanca-Negra grows both black and white (green) figs on the same tree, even on the same branch. Not just a novelty either as the Coll de Damas are some of the best figs around. The B/N was collected by the very famous collector Monserrat Pons. His book is amazing if you’re a fig collector.
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Frozen Joe is eating VdB brebas in Phoenix. He just posted this vid:
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Shouldn’t he be Baked Joe by now
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Richard, your fig tree looks terrific!
The one planted in Frozen Joe’s video looked very close to his house. I thought fig roots are supposed to be invasive. If they are kept pruned to a reasonable height does anyone know if that helps prevent foundation issues with the roots?
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It varies by breeding and cultivar. The VdB is far less aggressive than say, Mission or Kadota.
It varies with cultivar and climate. In colder climates the plant is less active in winter months so controlling overall plant size (including roots) by pruning might work. However in our climate it is not the case. The roots are active 12/24/7. So I would not plant Mission within 16 feet of my house, but I have planted VdB about 12 feet from the NW corner.
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The tops of the tree are now 4 foot high with about 50 fruit sets.
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Its coming right along!!!
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5 feet high.
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Richard, I bought some VdB cuttings a couple of years ago off of ebay from what I think was a reputable source. The figs that it is now producing are bigger than I thought VdB should be. Do your figs get this size?
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Not Richard here, but…
That’s big for VDB but not out of range, if they are all that big I might wonder. The Breba for me tend to be bigger, and every time I think of VDB I think of this pic of VDB Breba. You can guess what happened next as I extended my arm with my awkward camera skills it was gone. I never even saw him in the camera wasn’t until I looked at photo i saw
this
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Mine are starting to ripen now and several are that size 
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“Man’s best friend” is certainly a lot happier, thanks to you. Looking at the picture, that’s not the first fig he has sampled!