Here the birds have no idea what a fig is? At least this year. VDB is named correctly. What a striking fig! The first one is at last ripening on my plant. Really not far behind you guys. A testament to the hot summer we are having here! Yesterday in the evening light it looked more purple. I need it to hang more, getting there. It sure goes through a lot of color changes. I’ll pick it when it starts to crack.
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Drew,
Is your VdB ripe yet? Good luck.
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No, I’m going to give it one more day. (leaving town tomorrow) The plant has about 40 figs. It’s turned purple now.
Interesting the color changes,and the neon-like colors.
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40 figs!
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A guess, let me go count them…
Wow, how strange, I counted, and I counted 40!
Florea, and MBvs have about as many. All are 2nd leaf.
Florea has been producing for a couple weeks now. I pick 1-3 figs a day. I picked 3 today. Maybe 15-20 left.
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Down here in coastal-influenced southern California, early January is Fig pruning time. And so here is my VdB cut back to 34 inches. 
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Richard, looks nice. Does the heavy pruning remove all of the breba bearing wood? I planted a vdb last spring and it produced a dozen or so main crop fruits. It has a much stronger fruity taste and somewhat sweeter than my other fig which is Celeste. But both are very delicious. Not sure how hard to prune this spring.
It would in your climate. However in my climate the spring is not warm enough to warrant a breba crop – but fortunately the warm weather lasts so long here the new shoots keep bearing until … now!
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Are you at all worried about pruning during this (much appreciated) rain? Do you take any post pruning precautions? Looks great!
Nope, not with the figs
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I’m thinking of cutting my VdB way back as well. Brebas usually form as small buds and then fall off shortly thereafter.
How far inland are you?
I’m not too far from where the 405 and the 101 come together.
That pruning should work well there.
Ha! No doubt. I thought you had something specific to add regarding VdB brebas. I have such a long season that I’m only really interested in the main crop. ‘Black Jack’ brebas that I’ve had were huge and not nearly as tasty as the main crop. I nicknamed this one ‘FigZilla’:
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I just got my first Violette De Bordeaux. I’m a newbie. I am going to grow it in a half wine barrel due to space considerations. Right now it is 4 1/2’ tall stick. Should I prune some of the height? If I do it will have no branches on it.
I am not a fig genius, but my gut says cut it to just a few inches to a foot. Unless you like bare wood for aesthetic reasons, it’s better to put the branches where you want them than to preserve branches just because they are already formed. I would think that is doubly true for a container.
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Surprised to see a VDB that is tall, most seem to take shrub form from the get go. I would cut it like BYOC and form scaffolds where I want them. I like tree form myself, and would want a couple feet of trunk. You can do anything, it will sprout from the ground if you cut it all off, so you can cut anywhere, or not cut anywhere.
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What is BYOC?
I’d cut it at 18". Branches will sprout in the spring.