Too bad about your plant. The ants were only a sign; the real culpret was the aphids they were farming for thier sweet Honeydew. if you see ants on your plants you know aphids are there too. A[hids can be: the little green things on the ends/new growth; black kinds that are everywhere; furry-looking ones that are covered in a waxy substance that looks like fur; and just flat stem-colored aphids that are hard to see. Whatever.... they were there.

Used coffee grounds will get rid of ants, tried and proven remedy 🙂

Most of my fig trees are put away too.

Questionf or Martin, how did your Violette de Bordeaux do it's first season ?

A little about my trees for all that stop here.

A few trees where late to start main crop, they where so close so I pulled out foldable greenhouses to help with ripening, of course they didn't taste as good as September figs but it was fun.

This past season was challenging, way to hot in July to middle August, end of August cooled very rapidly specially night temperatures dropped to 45 F and lower.

I have read last winter that a few fig enthusiast ripening figs under grow lights, so I wanted to try. I bought grow lights that advertised for flowering and fruiting and got 5 trees in basement, they had some figs of decent size. Figs on them that started to swell after 3 days or so ripened nicely, then the figs that also needed to grow some more before they start to swell had a very little taste, sweetness and flavor, nut the texture and skin was nice soft, it was interesting to wach them doing their thing.

I have now one Unknown Is suspect it is Gino's Dark, Godfathers, Black Madeira and Unknown from Riccardo and Atreano no more figs on Atreano, so I need to wean it down and let it go dormant.

This is Atreano

Violette de Bordeaux ripened in greenhouse and Negronne outside in container that rooted in ground.

Anna

Very nice!

Anna the VdB was just fantastic and tasted just like i recall from years ago when it was grown in a 30g container., plus this was its very first season with the figs.

Can tell this is the same strain that was grown back then by its taste and leaf to some nothing special just a VdB to me a gem of a fig we are all different in our likes of figs such as i will shun a white fig compared to a dark fig i don't grow white fig plants but have tasted all kinds of them growing up from the Italian club Dad belong to. Had figs coming out my ears !

Anyways Vdb will get airlayered for spare next season and look forward to some fig types that were replaced and some new to me types supposedly similar to B. Madeira my favorite fig which i also replaced with a KK one which is just a healthier version and its looks exactly like the one i had for many years. Madeira Island was tasted this season but just 1 or 2 figs Cravens Craven just missed them getting ripe .

A few others like a ucd Ischia black which i also grew long ago and this one seems to be healthier it was topped at about 30 inches in its first year of growing put on some figs but removed.

Its my hope i can stay healthy compared to last year and fig plants fair ok in dormancy.

Concerning ants have used tanglefoot on potted plants in past which always worked.

The inground HC had multiple stems unlike the potted plants and was just left as is all those years inground until i saw it go downhill i started to dig it up to see whats what.

I have seen and destroyed ant colonies around house years past but when i took first shovel of dirt i noticed them for they were not above ground at all but underground and then more as i went deeper and around plant oh my i never saw so many ants and they attacked my legs in an instant and had to leave area.

Came back with gas and book of matches and torched the area next day went and saw no more after more digging to make sure all roots were completely gone.

Martin