PS. I have a climate question...say someone lived up north, like the NE PA/Pocono area, where its rarely super hot, and has long cold winters. If someone up there had a green house with climate and humidity control, could they get a good crop? Or does the actual position of the sun itself factor in?

Thanks!!

Kadota has a simpler leaf:

But yours is very pretty.

I have a Kadota, and it looks nothing like yours.

figeater, nothing like ladygabe's or nothing like fignut's?

Crap! Does anyone know what I have?? I'm gonna go to Lowes and act like I'm really mad! Maybe I'll get something free! Or at least discounted, lol!

If anyone has any ideas, please, I'll take any educated guess.

~M

Lady, absolutely not, this is not a Dottato (Kadota) also, fignuts pic is not a good representation of this variety either, need a more dominant leaf pic, if this is it, then it isn't either. Careful buying from these places. I will get help to post you a pic of a Dottato asap. Ciao and i feel bad for you Lady gabe, more fig misidentification. It is a nice healthy tree however. Ciao

Dottato leaf, and main crop.

Hello Everyone,
Maggie (Italiangirl74) asked me to post this Dottato picture for her.
Nice Italian Lady .
I post this link also its a nice website showing her plants.
Enjoy
Dottato
{{gwi:798855}}

Here is a link that might be useful: http://sites.google.com/site/mediterraneanfloragarden/

Grazie Martin!

Naaah! Don't feel bad for me Italian girl. If you read my last post (and the first when I ran and got the plant) you'd see that I went into it without expectation. I bought it at lowes simply to buy it. Not because I expected the real thing or had any high hopes. Now, I simply want to know what this is! Perhaps a run of the mill BT? As soon as they are ripe, Ill open one up and post more pics!

~M

Anyone else having posting problems? The site won't keep me signed in or post my reply...Trying again.

Italiangirl, thanks for your help, and please don't feel bad! Back when I bought the Lowes fig it was on a whim. I got it with no hopes or great expectations. I'm shock that just 3 months later I even have figs!

Now, I just want to know WHAT it is! When the figs ripen (they seem to have stopped growing??) I will open them up and post more pics. Hopefully between now and then, someone will be able to give me some idea!!

Thanks again!
~M

Buying figs anywhere is a crap shoot and the big box stores tend to be some of the worst. I prefer to buy my trees and cuttings from people who are fig nuts who are nuts about labeling.

Fig names and fig identification is often a source of contention. Fraud is, in my opinion, a pretty strong word, even if the fig in question is not the usual variety commonly accepted to be Kadota. There are a number of possibilities, including inadvertant mislabeling by the nursery that supplied Lowes. Kadota, by the way, is a name commonly used in the U.S. for a great fig with a long history. According to some sources, Kadota is likely the fig described almost 2000 years ago by the Roman writer and naturalist Pliny the Elder. The U.S. name was selected many years ago in California, if I remember correctly, using a combination of the word "California" and "Dotatto" (one of the Italian names for the fig). It is a great fig, very sweet and good for drying. Its pulp is amber (usually). The skin of the fig can vary from green to bright yellow, depending on the temperatures and climate in which it ripens. During rainy summers, the skin of the ripe Kadota figs here in Austin are green with a hint of yellow. During very hot, dry summers, the skin is bright yellow, almost the color of a ripe banana. The leaves of Dotatto, as with many varieties, can vary in the number of lobes. Trying to identify the variety by leaves alone, in my opinion, is a difficult proposition. The way that I can most reliably identify Kadota and the other named sources of the same fig(Dotatto, Binella, Banana, White Texas Everbearing,etc.)is by the shape of the fig (usually globular, although it can be a little more oblong), the pulp (amber), the taste (very sweet, but doesn't have a strong fig flavor), and the timing of the ripening (all of my variants of Dotatto seem to ripen at about the same time, although the ripening time can vary from summer to summer). Of the variants of Dottato that I still have growing, Binella came directly from north Italy and Banana originally came from a mother tree that grew in Seadrift, Texas from the early 1900's., White Texas Everbearing can be traced in a mother tree at a defunct nursery in South Central Texas. My source came to me from the individual who provided the cultivar to U.C. Davis. Ironically, a fig that I bought as Kadota came from Lowes! However, I do agree that buying figs from a "big box" store can be an uncertain proposition. As Forrest Gump's mama said about life, the figs from "big box" stores are "like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get"! Following are some pictures taken several years ago of several of the figs in my collection that I consider to be the same fig, Dottato.

Kadota from Lowe's

Banana

Kadota from Home Depot

Binella

White Texas Everbearing

Nice read mountianman. Thanks for posting it.

I don't think I used the "F" word in any of my posts. Most local nurseries and online nurseries get their stock each year from a wholesaler. The trees are dormant when they arrive and I have never met a man yet who can tell me what variety a fig tree is when they are dormant. I would trust a tree with a Dave Wilson Nursery tag on it though. That being the case I would trust Peaceful Valley and some of the members here over all the other nurseries on the planet.

Thanks, "Thisisme"! Speaking of Dave Wilson's nursery, take a look at his Kadota fig pictures. The shape of the figs look about right, but the pulp is strawberry-colored! I'm not sure whether it is a different variety of fig, perhaps the color of the pulp was "photoshopped", or the different color of the pulp (strawberry vs. amber)was due to a difference in climate.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dave Wilson's Kadota

mountianman I see what you mean. Climate can make a difference or they posted the wrong picture. If I was asked I would say it looks more like a nearly ripe Conadria than a Kadota. Their reputation is impeccable though when it comes to their tree labeling but their picture labeling may need some work.

Mountainman...I suppose my sarcastic way to make light of the situation was lost in translation here on the board. I used the work fraud in jest, not in its true legal sense. So please trust that it was not to be taken seriously.

Do you have any opinions as to what my fig is?

@Thisisme, your comment above...was it a reference to my fig or the one mountainman found at Dave Wilson?

Thanks guys!

~M

ladygabe I was referencing the picture mountainman found at Dave Wilson Nursery.

There are so many fig varieties that have similar leaves, fruit, size, shape color inside and outside and similar flavors, textures, seeds or seedless or open eye's or closed eye's that produce lots of fruit or few fruit. On top of that every one of those things or any one of those things can be different or change do to differences in climates, soils or precipitation or hours of daylight.

I still have a number of varieties that have gone unnamed as do many members. At this point three of my favorites are currently named Big Black Keeper, Big Green Keeper and Big Yellow Keeper.

A Keeper is a Keeping by any other name. A Keeper here may or may not be a Keeper there. A Keeper is what I seek more than any name. For a Keeper is worth Keeping. Any fig by any other name that is not a Keeper a Keeper it is not. Any that are not are banished to the darkness of the rubbish heap regardless of name. While a Keeper is given a its place in the sun. There where it may flourish; its fruits to grow sweeter than honey.

Hi, Ladygabe, a little gentle sarcasm adds spice to life! In answer to your question regarding the identity of your fig, I'll give you my best guess. I don't think that your fig is Kadota (Dottato). Your figs have red eyes (the little hole at the big end of the fig), even though they are immature. None of my Kadota variants have red eyes. Red eyes on an immature fig suggest a darker mature fig, although there are exceptions. The leaves in your picture labeled Kadota leaves most resemble my Mission (Francisciana)leaves. The immature figs on my Francisciana have red eyes. The leaves in some of the other pictures of your "Not a Kadota" fig do not look very much like Mission leaves. The leaves in those pictures bear some resemblance to the numerous (and very average) figs that appear in the "Big Box" stores generally labeled "Brown Turkey" or "Everbearing". My best guess at this stage of the game is "Mission". Post a picture of the mature figs in a few weeks, including a cut fig showing the pulp, and we can narrow down the possibilities further. "Thisisme", you have a poetic and philosophical streak, in light of your "Keeper" comments. After a little research, I think that the most likely scenario regarding the Dave Wilson Kadota figs, is that the figs in the picture are caprified (wasp-fertilized) Kadotas. Dave Wilson's nursery is in the Modesto, CA area where the Blastophaga Psenes wasps and caprifigs naturalized many years ago. Dottato has an open eye and Condit, in Hilgardia (1955) states that caprified Kadota figs have a strawberry pulp. There are some nice fig pictures on his site.

Thanks for the informative post mountainman. I knew that some open eye figs needed to be pollinated and other do not. I did not know that pollinating them could cause the pulp to change color.

As for the poetry, I have written lots of poetry some better and some worse than the one above. Though I have never written a poem about figs before today. I just wanted express my love for figs and my unknown Keepers. I would not trade them for any other named fig.

For now they are but a sweet mystery to be savored again and again. Till the Fall season over takes them and they sleep as though dead till Spring returns them to me once again.

Enough now of poetry as this is not a poetry forum.lol

Good inputs by everyone.

Glad to see Mt-man posting.

thisisme -- I like to adopt your "keeper" references.

Very funny how you defined a "keeper" fig.
Wonder how your experise may define a "best" fig?
(there should only-be-one-and-only-one)...

gorgi I'm not sure what you are saying. It almost sounds like you are inviting me to write a poem about about my favorite fig.

My intention in my first post was to illustrate to ladygabe that she may never know the name of her fig but that she still may love it anyway. To that end I hope your fig brings you many tasty fruit ladygabe.

I did write a poem about my favorite fig though because gorgi made me think about my favorite. Thanks gorgi

Just to make us think of how we all are always looking
for the best fig, but will never know which one it is.
We may find a better one than we have (or so we think -
the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence).

That is one way of how fig collections keep growing,
ending up with many keepers and favorites.
But then again; which one is the very best one?!

So true gorgi. One fig can be so different than another that its like comparing apples to oranges or berries to melons. You simply have to have more than one keeper and more than one favorite.

Always looking for another.

Forgot to mention, that fig collecting, will
also invarably result in some "maybes" and/or "duds";
mosly because of a fig-type/micro-climate (performance)
issue or them being just plain bad...

Hi! I am looking to buy a fig tree. Is the White Texas Everbearing a very sweet fig variety? Does it secrete very sweet droplets from the actual fig when it is near ripening?

It is very sweet and have honey droplets:IF
The climate is enough warm to ripe properly.
It DOES need more heat to get ripe properly than early cultivars such as Celeste or Hardy Chicago.