Ronde De Bordeaux (Bordeaux like)

[alanmercieca]

'Ronde De Bordeaux' (fig fruit are 'a Resin Berry type of fig', it's in the flavor group 'Bordeaux')

This cultivar originates from 'Bordeaux France', and had become very common and popular in 'Western France'. This cultivar is 'Pierre Baud's personal favorite', Baud says that 'its exceptional for it's taste'.

This cultivar was brought to Mexico by French colonizers sometime before 1962, In Mexico they have a reliable Breba crop year after year. There they are exposed down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius), and up to 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) with no damage. In 2022 at a ranch located in the municipality of Manuel Benavides Chihuahua, in Mexico, the trees of this cultivar there they measured to be almost 49 feet (almost 15 meters) tall, with base trunks of up to .98 feet (up to 30 centimeters) in diameter.

A few fig collectors in the continental USA had legally imported this cultivator in to the continental USA, although there appears to be more than one strain of this cultivator in the continental USA.

It is reliably very productive. This cultivar produces a round, dark purple fig, with a 'shiny almost black' skin, flesh is a dark red with a purplish tone. The figs of 'Ronde de Bordeaux' are very sweet and fruity. Despite all the sweetness, there is a hint of 'acidity' present in it's fruit. It's wine like resinous flavor weakens as it's figs ripen/sweeten. As it's figs ripen they get syrupy almost molasses or honey like, and they get sweeter, they dry out, they soften, their tender skin gets chewy, their skin gets sticky, gets thinner, cracks, wrinkles, and the figs shrivel up. As they ripen their berry flavor strengthens, deepens, improves, gets richer, gets smoother, gets more jammy, and gets more complex. The figs will droop for a long time as they dry out on the tree.

The berry flavor of this cultivar can resemble strawberry, mulberry, concord grape. Other flavors that this fig can resemble are plum, date and raisin, melon, and smokiness. The flavor of it's figs lingers for a little while. If it's figs are not ripe enough then they may have a bitter edge. When ripe the reddish/purple coloration of it's figs will extend into the stem. It's figs have little to no seed crunch, the seeds that crunch have a delicate crunch to them, the figs of this cultivar have less of the white part, and more of the delicious colorful flesh than a lot of other fig cultivars have, as well as they have no void in the flesh, they are filled well. It's figs dry well on the tree, and they are like candy if they dry well enough. The flavor and the texture of it's figs improves with the age of the tree. The figs of this cultivar are said to have a faint coconut like smell. It's figs are even sweeter than the figs of 'Black Madeira' are!

The complexity of it's fruit can be rather surprising, different with each bite. It's figs are good for eating fresh and dry, they are 'small to medium' in size, yet most people's trees of this cultivar have 'mainly small figs' that are bigger than the figs of the 'Celeste' cultivar, bigger than the figs of the 'Negronne' cultivar, than the figs of the 'Violette de Bordeaux' cultivar, the skin of it's figs are thinner than the skin on the figs of the 'Violette de Bordeaux' cultivar. The eye of it's figs are 'medium in size', a fig here and there can have 'a wide open eye', yet most of them have a closed eye. The appearance of it's flesh has an interesting pattern of seed and female flower strands, that looks 'almost organized'!

This cultivar is a very early cropper, yet it ripens one week after Florea if Florea's fruit sets early enough. It has a long growing season. Much of the time 'Ronde de Bordeaux' only produces a 'main crop', it rarely sets brebas, most of it's breba crop falls off. Main crop figlets may start to form early-August to mid-August 'in the ground'. Main crop figlets also may start to form in September. The figs of 'Ronde De Bordeaux' are quicker ripening than most other fig cultivars are, 'Ronde De Bordeaux' (about 70 days from figlett showing up until ripe), which makes the crop arrive even sooner.

This cultivar produces great figs in a majority of USA climates 'including the Pacific North West'. It's figs are normally not tasty in a consistently dry and hot climate, yet shade during the hottest part of the day should help, especially if a shade cloth is used to lesson the heat and the light level, rather than completely shading it. It grows well in the shade, yet like many other cultivars of fig trees there is more figs the more sun that the tree gets if it's not too hot for the tree. It does well in moderate sun hours. Yet like any other fig tree as it ages the more and more it shades it's self, which would take away the problem of it having too much hours of sun. This cultivar is highly split and rain resistant 'above average', a fig here and there splits, yet sometimes a whole crop of figs can split quickly with a lot of rain/humidity.

'Ronde De Bordeaux' adapts to cold well, it's a very cold hardy cultivar, yet certainly not the most cold hardy. It's about as cold hardy as ‘Marseilles Black VS’ is. Both 'Ronde De Bordeaux' and ‘Marseilles Black VS’ had died to the ground at -5F, both sprouted back.

The leaves of this cultivar have unique slender, finger-like lobes, that especially stand out on the smaller leaves, those leaves grow from tiny to very big each year, as the new leaves each year get bigger and bigger the shape does change some, yet not a lot. It's leaves are said to have a pleasant scent!

It grows like a weed, yet heavy pruning in the spring, and die-back from cold can help prevent cropping in some climates, unless you pinch the tips. It grows just as well in pots as in the ground.

For it's figs to be at their best, they have to be very ripe, yet it's figs do not have to be as ripe as a lot of other cultivars to actually be tasty, and this cultivar does not need as much heat as other cultivars do to get a perfectly ripe fig. It's fruit are great even during a year when the growing season starts late/slow. This cultivar does not produce good fruits when the summer is rainy and cool.

[Rodrigo Jesus]

We in Mexico have had this variety for many years, our French and Spanish colonizers as well as the Portuguese were in charge of bringing us these true treasures, in fact, from this RdB some friends of mine have had this fig tree for many years, perhaps 60 or 70 years, one one of them is in the state of Chihuahua and the other is here in Nuevo Leon, in Sabinas Hidalgo. They are huge trees that produce Brevas and Figs year after year, they are subjected to semi-arid climates in the winter they have recorded frosts with temperatures down to -15C and in summer up to 48C in the shade, they are already well acclimatized and they are beautiful, they grow a lot those that are in my friend's Ranch in the municipality of Manuel Benavides Chihuahua without lying to you are almost 15 meters high with base trunks of up to 30cm in diameter. I have them published on Facebook, look for us if it is of interest to you in the group "Aficionados a los Higos Mexico", I am the administrator and I will gladly give you access so that you can appreciate the photographs. Best regards and good weekend.

[Rodrigo Jesus]

Good morning Alan, I realized that you visited us on Face in "Aficionados a los Higos México"... What did you think of our RdB fig trees?

[alanmercieca]

Good morning Alan, I realized that you visited us on Face in "Aficionados a los Higos México"... What did you think of our RdB fig trees?

They look great, I think it is a different strain than the one most common in the USA. this is how the baby leafs of the strain that is most commonly found in the USA looks when rooting indoors in the USA

Here is a photo of the strain that is most commonly found in the USA as a small potted tree growing in New York City, It's the one in the silver metal pot, just right of the other fig tree

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Even in France there is more than one strain of 'Ronde De Bordeaux' so the very obvious yet similar leaf difference in yours is not a surprise to me, the DNA of plants change as they adapt to the changes/differences that they face.

[Rodrigo Jesus]

[Rodrigo Jesus]

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[Rodrigo Jesus]

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