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sergnic

Pissaluto or Gianchetta fig

sergnic
13 years ago

Italian fig Pissaluto, also called Gianchetta (Genoese dialect) or Bianchetta (Italian).

Twin, light green, of the black Negretta, in French called "couille du Pape" (Pope's balls).

Cold-barren hardy, fruits very small, 3/4", but a lot, pulp dark red, delicious.

Southern rims of the Alps, near the Iseo Lake, Pilzone (Iseo, Italy).


Comments (24)

  • bonsaist
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It looks tasty, what do you mean by it's black Negretta twin?

  • loslunasfarms
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Do you have pics of the inside?

  • sergnic
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The twoo varieties
    Negretta (small black)
    Gianchetta (small withe) are equal in dimension of fruit (small 3/4") but a lot; color of the pulp (red).
    Time ripening (short) 15 days. In same period.
    Equal dimension of tree and shape of leaves.
    The trees are many cold and dry hardy.
    Do not ripen brebas.
    Gianchetta is this, negretta is dark blue.

  • loslunasfarms
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Nice Sergenic, u have mail!

  • rafed
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have the Bianchetta, Everything about it is small. The leaves are very small as well as the fruit and the plant itself. I have yet to try the fruit, Mine is still young.

    A member in both forums will be a proud new owner in a couple days as I just mailed one off to him this morning.

    Rafed

  • gorgi
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How does your Bianchetta differ from Adriano's Biancheta (with one "t"; just spellig?

    See:
    http://www.adrianosfigtrees.com/varieties.html

    Biancheta
    A small white prolific fig of high quality,melts in your
    mouth. Good pot plant.Cold resistant.

    There is also a pic above that (first of 3) showing a small white fruit...

  • rafed
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    George,

    I think the writing in Adrianos website is a typo.

    Rafed

  • gorgi
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi Rafed,

    Yes, it is very possible to be a typo
    (but who knows with all these fig names popping up?).

    I just noticed that you posted within 1 minute before
    me - I had not seen that...

    Yeah, me too have an ~12" newly rooted one - just
    slow small/thin wood so far - must be another dwarf fig!

    The fruit picture that sergnic shows in the 1st post,
    does not look that-small to me
    (maybe b/c of a lack of an object as a size-reference?)

  • rafed
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    George,

    I got mine from Adriano as well as the one I sent today.
    It is a small tree with small figs and leaves no larger than a grape leaf.
    I think it was Nelson that sent me pictures of a ripe one and look just the one pictured above. I guess they grow much larger when ripe.

    The tree is as unique as the Tiger Panache, Sure to start a conversation.

    Rafed

  • noss
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Is the Negretta the little wild fig people talk about, that grows along the edges of fields? And the Blanchetta is just like it, but has green figs, and grows wild, as well?

    noss

  • sergnic
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello friends!
    I am the source of the Gianchetta figs (Bianchetta), and Negretta (Moretta), sent to my friends in the States.
    The names are as written on here.
    The characters of the double "t" are important, because they have meaning in Italian.
    As you write "APLE" for "apple".
    Bianchetta is translation in Italian of the word Gianchetta, that is in my Genoese dialect.

    In the wild, (rarely the plants are grown) are along the towpath, on the rocks, or on the edge of the fields.
    It 'much more frequently Negretta, this is because the peasants, long ago, ate breakfast with bread and fruits, when they worked in the head around, the skin is a little thicker than Gianchetta, and resists a little better withering.
    The plants are not cultivated because, although excellent, it takes longer to pick them up, and above all, both, all come to fruition soon.

    In Italy is still widespread use of shops selling fruit and vegetables. These figs are expensive in those stores, just because no one grows and is expensive to collect them.

    There is a third variety called "Verdetta", even more rare (Little Green), equal to the Gianchetta, except a bit more green color and that matures over a period of time shifted by one week, but in the same way. Never sent in the States.

    Tree size: the size of the tree must not mislead, when I was a boy I had always imagined these varieties as dwarf plants, seeing "bonsai on the rocks" with only thirty or forty fruit.
    Then, many years ago planted in a garden Negretta, became a big tree, though, having thought that it remained a bush, had allowed many stems to grow, now is a great tree with many trunks.
    The fruits are delicious, and when they arrive in stores are quikly sold out.
    They are excellent for jams because the seeds, if any, are small, and pulp is delicate.
    Sergio

  • Nelson E.
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I did get 3 figs from my Biancheta that I got from Adriano, its a very nice tasting fig very sweet.

    Photos of Leaf and Fig.

    {{gwi:835121}}
    {{gwi:835122}}
    {{gwi:835123}}

  • rafed
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hey Nelson,

    Thanks for sharing the pics. Tasty looking fig.
    Can't wait for mine to fruit. I should be lucky next season to taste a couple.

    Sergio,

    Thank you so much for sharing this information. It's been a pleasure reading your threads and hope you continue to do so. Maybe one day I can send you my list of Italian Variants that I have in my collection and you may be able to tell me a bit of their history.

    Till then we all would be looking foreword to your threads.

    Rafed

  • Nelson E.
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rafed definately a small fig, first one that ripened was the size of a penny the other two were double the size. Its like eating a little ball of honey.

    Gorgi, definately a slow grower and seems to be a dwarfing variety also nodes are very very close together.

    Sergio, Georgio Gallesion had Bianchetta as a syn. for Fico Albo and Fico Pissalutto as a seperate variety can you confirm this?

  • dieseler
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I agree with Sergio that they are not dwarf.

    My experience with Negretta thru 3 full seasons is it is a slow grower but there called fig tree's and in time keep growing and growing and growing, they do not stop this process.
    Its my opinion there is no Dwarf fig tree only some that grow Slower than others.

    Last season i bashed Negretta's fig taste out of frustration because the taste i waited for 3 seasons did not satisfy me but there were a few that were excellent just not every fig on plant, mind you it was only first time my plant produce figs for me so i was very impatient.
    Now i think back since its a slow grower here in my yard its also slow to develop taste in its short life with me after all these tree's do live long time.

    When Negretta was mention in this thread i had to speak so im sorry if i stray from its light type counterpart i do not grow light types for personal reasons.

    The beauty of Negretta's leaf stems , the emerging buds, and the fig itself is a site to behold.

    So many many thanks to SERGIO for introducing a real beauty of a type of fig plant here in the states.
    Best Health
    Martin

  • sergnic
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Absolutely Bianchetta and Pissaluto aren't fico Albo.
    Fico Albo is large fruit in breba flat in shape, a bit smaller in second fig, but however medium.

    Gianchetta - Bianchetta - Pissaluto absolutely do not have breba (Gallesio said that has they very rarely and always drops unripe, I've never seen) fruits are smaller (3/4") but a lot, pulp is reddish-red, leaves are as indicated by nelson, pulp become also more dark.

    In summary: are completely differents. As more: Gianchetta is common in my region: Albo is very rare here, and I've seen only in Tuscany, or in southern regions.

    You can see on the net that Gallesio distinguishes Fico Albo from the Fico Pissaluto, each one has its own separate description,

    I believe instead that the fig and the fig tree are the same: Pissaluto Gianchetta or Bianchetta. The description is identical, and there aren't other similar figs (so small), unless the Verdetta, that is a simple variation of Gianchetta in the North.
    Pissaluto is name used now, here, very few, and often only in Tuscany.

    You can see "Pomona Italiana" by Giorgio Gallesio, online
    http://www.pomonaitaliana.it/pomona/fichi.htm

    On bottom there is "testo completo dell'articolo" (full content of the text)
    You can have complete text, but consider that is a pure Italian to begin of 1800, included ancient form.

    YOU HAVE BY "POMONA ITALIANA" QUITE THE COMPLETE PANORAMA ON FRUITS (MAIN OR MINOR) IN ITALY IN BEGIN OF 1800, done from a main Italian Botanist of that time.

  • Nelson E.
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thank you Sergio, for answering my question. It is indeed a very nice fig and I am glad I have it also I have been told by Adriano that it is quite hardy. I just got the plant this year so next season I should be able to post better pictures.

  • sergnic
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Martin,
    it is my pleasure to have friends to talk of figs and plants.
    The problem of growth is apparent to me, that I know how (and where) the figs grow here.
    A little less in America, where figs are grown as if they were tropical butterflies.
    The fig is a beast, he needs poor soil of the fields, without nitrogen fertilizer.
    If grown in pots just put the poor soil with very little nitrogen but with a little potassium and phosphorus, or better, a little q.ty of compost. Instead, the vessel (or land) must be drained, the bottom of the pot or put rocks and sand pit.
    Give plenty of water with fertilizers is such as drugs, will continue to do leaves like crazy, will never stop, until when burst. His cousins (here) these fertilizers do not even know what it is.
    Try to water (a little) when the leaves begin to wilt ...
    Have you tried to breed a cow with Chantilly cream?
    Regards to you and to windy city.
    Hardiness increase if manure less, and water less.
    Sergio

  • gorgi
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks Sergio for the name clarification.

    One (stupid) question (I hear about the "wild-thing"):

    Both the Negretta and Bianchetta (and now new a-name-Verdetta)
    are local to your region; growing around extreme field boundaries.

    How are these (F.carica) figs reproduced?

    My first guess is by vegetative means (aka., cuttings);
    meaning they are all the exact-same.
    OR
    is it by seeds (unlikely) - meaning that the
    the fig-wasp exists there and that there may be many
    close-cousins (unless they breeds true)...

    P.S. I think that there are many (variant) figs in
    California that qualify for the same-name as Mission (?!)...

  • sergnic
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Do you think that it have enough manure?
    {{gwi:835124}}

  • sergnic
    Original Author
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello Gorgi
    Meanwhile, I thank you for your intelligent observation and especially for the fact that if you ask him to say that I was not clear enough for others.

    Here in Italy we have witnessed over the past 80 years a profound change in the abandonment of agriculture. Given the geography of my country, mountainous and rugged, in the past, even for the high birth rate, there were thousands of small villages in incredible places, with people living with little or very little resources.
    Those countries were living only with manual labor of the earth with the advent of mechanization those places could not compete with agriculture in the plains, so they were abandoned.
    They were grown trees, many overwhelmed by the forest are dead, but many trees have survived, often figs, the most durable and most sheltered places.
    The environment "wild" that is returned is what precisely defines.
    Certainly Negretta and Gianchetta were "grown", not in the sense that you understand, but when he creates a slope put a cutting of Negretta, and care was over there. More precisely, then mow the grass around it, but it was not to cure the fig tree, it was just because the grass was valuable for livestock. As I said, then went to the peasant tilling the fields nearby also had to eat the bread with the fruit of the fig tree.

    With the withdrawal of almost all the farmers the best varieties were brought by the man with him, and they are now in areas still under cultivation. This occurred very rarely with Negretti and Gianchetta, which have remained in the bush, "in the wild."
    No one has brought, because it is difficult to collect them, have small fruit and takes a long time to collect a pound.
    Then all the fruits ripen (and there are many) in a short time and then there are not any more. (The Kadota continues to mature fruits for 45 days).
    I think that the two varieties are well defined and NOT generated by a "wild-proliferation," I have traveled many miles and two varieties are the same, and for centuries their presence was due to human spread by cuttings.
    However, it is possible that there are other changes, such as Nerucciolo of island of Elba, or the French "Negrette", but being the people of Provence has the same dialect of mine, and undreds of year ago borders was not so defined...
    Here where I live the Blastophaga psenes lives without problems, (they are at the northern limit of its presence) - I'll send image - and often born seedlings along the ditches from seeds. One of them was born a crack in a wall I have in a vase.
    I'll send image.
    I also planted some twenty seeds extracted from a ripe fig, they are all born, (born with ease) and the plants (except twoo), I gave they, saying it is a gamble.
    I will explain why it's a bet in another message, but perhaps you know.
    I think the variety known to be present, at 95 per cent plants are handed down from prehistoric times, as they are. For unknown (now) I think they are for most part of the same type.
    Nobody here (except me and some other comedy) reproduces by seed figs, and when someone finds a new seedling of the fig pulled up it mercilessly. The fig tree is considered a beast, a weed.
    I'll apreciate your comment
    S

  • gorgi
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks again for the extra info.
    I understand very well...
    Negretta = Negretta, etc.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Impollinator of the fig

  • peak42
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hello Sergio,I can not send an e-mail to you.Send me an e-mail.

    Philip

  • gorgi
    13 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How does the Bianchetta compare with Marseillase?
    (Syn: Blanchette, Blanquette, ...)

    http://figs4fun.com/Varieties.html

    Here is a link that might be useful: Blanquette (DFIC0070)

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