I found a Negronne for sale but i did not know if this was a good fig, does anyone have any good things to say about Negronne? is it a top 10 black must have fig tree?
From 1 to 10 , what does it rate?

which fig is better , Ronde de Bordeaux or Negronne?

Negronne and VdB are similar, if not the same fig. it does almost well every where. however, the taste will wash out in heavy rain. per herman, Nero 600M does much better in rainy condition.

my VdB did very well in 2011 with good weather cooperation. extremely strong raspberry flavor, super sweet. however, we had ton of rain in 2012. it was still edible, but no where close to the quality it had in 2011. the very last VdB i had last year was VdB that i missed picking. it was after the rainy season, super sweet and ton of raspberry.

Negronne/VdB and RdB are supposed to be similar in taste. but, i heard RdB has thinner skin.

The Negronne fig is delicious.  The skin is so thin you can rub it off just by touching it.  This will be the third year for my tree.  It has produced figs from the very first year.  It is planted on a south facing wall.  The only other winter protection, I did pour a bag of leaves around the base of it this winter.

Very hard to beat a nicely ripen Negronne/VdB. So far my personal taste is there are many good tasting figs like Hardy Chicago, Nardi Black, Rosetta, etc that are better tasting than RdB. Greatest benefit from RdB is its earlyness.

Just to emphasis, just because it's common, doesn't mean that the bordreaux family of strains aren't a must have.  They aren't super heavy producers, but they are reliable producers, and aren't finicky in terms of giving you good figs (tastes good young, tastes good in variety of climates and soils, etc).

If you're going for something a little rarer, go for Barnisotte or Violette de Sollies (closely related strains).  Those, and Ischia Black round out this sort of fig.

from my 6or 7 varieties tasted.. Negrone was and still is my favorite. Many thanks to Kiwibob!

paully22, you don't get brebas from your VdB?  My PN brebas, and satellitehead's Negronne brebas are really, really good.  I strongly suspect that in the South, RdB's earliness doesn't count for much when we can probably grow Pastiliere instead. 

I have 3 older Negronnes and (2) 1 year olds. I would certainly recommend.
I sell and give away this fig with complete confidence.

I think we get a bit carried away here searching for new varieties at the expense of some of the more common ones that perform very well. I'm as guilty of this as anyone on this forum, but I think we (I) send the wrong signal to newbies about having to have the expensive new "ebay fad figs". Obviously there's a lot more money to be made from sexy new rare varieties but the golden oldies should get more respect then we (I) give them.

I know I am starting to collect more individuals of the varieties I like and am keeping them in bigger pots as 500 non producing figs in little pots hanging around so I can brag about having them is a road I don't want to go any further down. I'm not condemning those that do -- I'm just more of a farmer then collector, I find.

I hope to produce enough figs this year so I can hang out at the farmer's market and turn some folks onto ripe figs.

But -- anyway -- "yes" to Negronne, in my opinion.

It's a great fig.  The skin tastes like concord grape and the dark red interior tastes like raspberry jam.  Plus it's common so it's not that expensive.  It ripens figs pretty easily.  I'm trialing lots of figs and will certainly thin the herd but Violette de Bordeau (Negronne) is one I think will always be a keeper.

@shah8.........give it some protection from now till end May and walla, nice figs to enjoy. Sudden cold temps(frosty) in the night & early morning will result in brebas aborting.  Plus if you can get main crop to ripen by end Sept, it is a real bonus. Negronne/VdB main crop is productive.

VdB aka Negronne is definitely worth growing. Purchased last year as a 3/4 gallon plant early June 2012. It was one of the most productive varieties. I removed more than 3 dozen figs due to end of season (onset of cold weather). I tasted only 2 or 3 and they were good, so they should be even better this year. Even with visible FMD it is a strong productive plant. Attached are 2 pictures from last fall and current pictures of mother and the sucker which was removed. Breba are currently forming and enlarging on the mother plant.

get both.. VdB and Hardy Chicago. i think there are number of different VdB and Hardy Chicago going around. rafed, i think, has number of different VdB and it's one of his favorite. i have VdB from Paradise Nursery. if i have to keep only one fig, it will be my VdB. now.. per martin, the Hardy Chicago from Paradise Nursery is like eating ribeye steak. very "meaty" taste. i also have Hardy Chicago from Paradise Nursery due to generosity of one of the forum member. HC Paradise Nursery grows like a weed. can't wait for this one.