Fig of the Week. #5 Negronne

Negronne AKA Violette De Bordeaux | Nero 600 

Hardiness: Survives Seattle's Winters
Type: Bifere
Fruit Ripens: July and Sept
Fruit Color: Black with red Interior
Taste: Thick strawberry jam very sweet
Fruit Weight: 25grams
Leaf Structure: 5 pointy fingers
Note: Semi easy to root with enough nodes. 3-4 weeks 

Negronne/Violette De Bordeaux Fig is an excellent mission-type fig for cooler areas. Small jet-black fruit with dark red flesh. Rich flavor, good fresh or dried.

Negronne fig often produces a breba crop, very hardy. Good for container culture or small spaces due to its naturally small size.

My Air layered Negronne

Protecting my ONE Negronne Fig

I bought this plant in 2014. I never labelled it and for most of this season I thought it was a brown turkey. It grew one breba this year and was reddish in color until about a couple of days ago when it started turning black. It actually looks like my negronne fig or a Violette De Bordeaux. Sometimes it's impossible to tell what fig variety you have until the fig ripens. Which is why I think it's funny when folks ask for ID help with just the leaves alone.

Here is the fig just a few days ago. It's purply red color made me think it was a brown turkey.


I bought these little mesh bags on ebay for about $12 for 100 bags to protect the ripening figs. I chose green to better camouflage them from the birds. I don't mind sharing with the birds if there is a large bounty but if there's only one special fig to eat, sorry birds you're out of luck!

Update: Negronne air layer

My Negronne is pushing out a ton of side shoots since I started the air layering on it. It was what I intended  to do, so that's a good thing. It was growing too tall and bent. I prefer a bush form in my figs.

Still do not see any new roots yet so It's just a wait and see situation.

Update 8/24/15

It took 4 months but the roots finally grew big and strong on the air layer.

I decided to cutoff my air layer today. I threw the top into a 2 gallon and snipped off the larger leaves so that it would have an easier time adjusting to living off if its own roots.

Here's the base still in the ground. This used to be a twig with no leaves. Now it's lush with branching.