Yesterday Bill Saxon came to my house and took a suv load of cuttings.
He has Salce, Troiano Calabrese, Paradiso nero, Dottato and unknown Italian
if you need any of these cuttings please see him. I wish I could send everybody
some of these cuttings but I just don't have the time. For those that want to 
come to my house and get some you are more than welcome to take all you want.
All the cuttings are from mother trees from Italy.

I see in the Brazilian scholar papers that Kadota, Pingo de Mell and Dottato are the same thing... Why call it 3 different names?

Thanks, Mario, that's very generous of you!

Grasa, as in all fields of endeavor there are lumpers and splitters.  Not all that are said to be identical really are.  And it's often in the extremes of fig growing climates that the differences show up.  So what looks identical in a great climate may show differences in a climate not so well suited for figs.  Or, they may really be the same.   :)

Grasa and Bob:  ... and it was ever thus.

In the example you cite, they come from different languages.  (at least two of which may trace back to Phoenician dialects).  In general, this happens for the same reasons that different languages develop among humans.  Why are there different words in different languages for "fig", or for "person" or for "red"?  The reason is essentially the same.


Mike

Grasa, I call it dottato because it's the Italian name for it, we also call it ottare in dialect. It might be the same as kadota or pingo de mell but all i know my Dottato tastes 100 times better than Kadota and I have eaten both this year. Also they look the same but my dottato was much sweeter and much larger. Also why do people go on here and take a fig that has been around for thousands of years and give it their own name? if you dont know it's name call it Italian unknown or greek unknown or whatever.

mario,

can you let me know how to get in contact with bill saxon? his forum member name?

thanks

Mario, sounds like a real keeper. Perhaps, they think all green figs are pingo de mel, there! I confess being real stupid about figs until this year, when I decided to turn my 22y.old tree into a fence hedge...and whoola, found this amazing fig universe conspiring for me to have more and more figs... so I want that Dottato also. What do I do to deserve one single cutting, Mario?

Mario,
if you can let me know how to get in contact with Bill Saxon, if I can get His Forum ID.
thanks,
Mark

I believe Bill goes under saxonfig on this site, and he also sells on e.bay i am not sure what name.
Pete i owe you a paradiso nero I will send you one as soon as possible.

mario,

thank you very much.

Mario,

    Thanks for your generosity. I will be paying forward, as you suggest.

Mario 
Very nice of you to do that.

Just wanted to bump this thread to let you all know that we still have a bunch of these cuttings left. If you haven't requested any yet and would like some, please PM me and I will get back to you.

Thanks. 

i believe Bill name on ebay is fruitnut

Mario
What you call fig "ottare" my grand mother had a variety she used to call "ottave" and I believe it is the same variety in a similalar or close dialect. My origin are in the Cassino area and I have been looking for that variety for a while. I have got one 2 yrs old Kadota but it has not fruited yet. I am very exited and hope it will fruit this Spring so I can verify it is the variety I used to eat as a child!
Sal

Sal, it probably is the same fig cause I lived about an hour from Cassino. Somebody give me a kadota fig 2 yrs ago, this year I ate figs from kadota and dottato they looked alike but dottato was a lot bigger and tasted 100% better.

Sal, can you tell me about Ottave? I just got cuttings from a friend who is from capruccia insernia and the tree is from his father inlaw who is from Molise. He called it Ottavi and said that was the name in dialect. He just said it is a really sweet white fig. Do you think it is the same as dotatto?

Sal.

     Cassino? First line of defense for occupying Germans during Allied invasion. Scorched earth policy cause near total devastation through the three lines they set up. Brutal, grinding winter or war. Grow figs, not wars!

71GTO it probably is a dottato. Capruccia is a part of Isernia which is the next town over from were i come from, 
which is Fornelli. The dialects are all different, but no matter how you say it, it is still dottato. Dottato is a very good fig,
sweet,white fig and it gets quite large,and an excellent producer.

That particular variety was very popular in center Italy. The tree was fast growing to about 30' and as wide if not pruned. The fruits were greenish-yellow, the skin cracking a little and a drop of honey closing the eye; the interior was juicy and like dark honey in color but once in a while there was a fig with strawberry interior. Excessive rain made the fruits split.
71GTO: My father used to travel to the Isernia area often and trade so it makes sense they would share good fruits varieties.
As immigrants came to North America, I remember as a child, when they came back to visit, many times on their return they used to stash a fig or vine cutting between the linen. Later they used to share the cuttings with neighbors and co-workers but the name was not important: what counted was how good the fruits were.
My uncle traded cuttings with a Portuguese neighbor and the fig he gave away became "Italian Fig" and the one he received he called "Portuguese Fig". I guess this is how we ended up with so many Italian Fig around. (it also applies to others)
Sal

Thanks guys! I had a suspicion it might be a dotatto. Some of the branches still had a few leaves on them and I compared them to pictures of Kadota leaves, which is supposed to be the same as Dotatto. They were different. I do have a Kadota tree I can compare with when they grow. I have read that Kadota/Dotatto does not do well in the northeast, which is disappointing if Ottavi is the same fig. Sal, that is pretty much how he discribed it.