Verdolino - an early Paolo Belloni variety gifted by Mario

[Netstars]

I was fortunate enough to be gifted a small tree of Verdolino from my buddy Sod and it has grown nicely this year. I was excited to watch my tree go from 11” in height to 53” this year. It also surprised me with one fig.
Mario shared cuttings with Sod and Sod forwarded the kindness sharing with me.
My tree has lignified nicely and should go in ground in Oregon next spring.
I think Mario would be happy to see four people share the first fig off my tree.
Verdolino is an early variety and that makes it a no brainer for people growing in cooler climates.
The fig has a nice skin and shape that should also shed water in wet, humid climates.
Special props to SubmarinePete for being the first to report on Verdolino.

https://youtu.be/Rq7wXWaPz10

[Netstars]

This is Pete’s video.

https://youtu.be/9qHL_UfcXd4

[Netstars]

We all enjoyed the fig and it was a very good fig for the first fig off a tree.
It was a light berry fig that was very refreshing.
Nice tight eye was an added bonus!

[Ktrain]

Been looking forward to this one.
Mine was so slow to root and grow....still it is only about 3' tall.
Has figs on it but don't think they will ripen this year.

Something to be happy for next season.

Thank you for the review.

[Netstars]

I found it to be a very slow grower in year one and much faster in year two. My tree also lignified completely and that is a good sign of potential hardiness.

[Ktrain]

Mine is fully lignified, I was worried about the winter storage if it was too small and not hardened off.
But I am more confident now it will make it through storage just fine.
Hoping year 2 is like you said.

[Gold Figger]

We have had several off of our newly acquired young tree. The ones that are good are very good, others have been mediocre. All of ours have been well ripened with a lot of brown sugar spots. A couple spoiled on the tree while i let them hang to see if they would dry in near perfect weather.

[Netstars]

Thanks for the add Walter - I bet it keeps getting better with maturity.
I have a feeling this one will shine in ground.

[Gold Figger]

Netstars good tasting video. I managed to root up a NdE and it has moved out of the humidity dome so it's looking good so far. it's probably a month or so from shipping it

[Kid Fig]

After a few months from up potting mine into a 5 Gallon pot - it has just decided to put on growth.

I just love the idea that I can chomp on them like
they were a stuffed jalapeno pepper!


I want stuffed jalapeno peppers now...

[Netstars]

I have not had anything to eat today - now I want stuffed poppers as well!

[Kid Fig]

LOL! Im.looking at Jack in the Crack or maybe Das Weinerschnitzel

[tinyfish]

Definitely a good one. I was fortunate to receive my Verdolino directly from Mario(RIP my friend) and last year it needed 85 days to ripen. Ripening time should get shorter as the tree matures.

I am anxiously waiting to try for the first time Mario's #48 Castel Trosino which looks like it will be a nice size fig.

[Sod]

Thank you Tony! 😉

[Netstars]

Mario kept calling me a young pup in our communications. I was complaining about getting older - I am 64.
He had a great sense of humor.

[zone5figger]

My Verdolino has ripened a few maincrop figs, the fruit size increased substantially over last season and it might be a tatch earlier; more or less on par with early Mt Etna types. Quality is quite good. Looking forward to comparing it to Green Michurinska which is starting to ripen some as well.

[Adrian Lee]

I tasted my first Verdolino from my grafted tree, yesterday. I grafted it sometime in April, and it took off, it's over 7' tall now. Definitely a keeper for me. I've currently got about 90 varieties in my collection and looking to cull probably at least 50 of them, but I'll be keeping Verdolino.

[TheBigFatFig]

I don't even want to read much more about new figs but I'm curious about what climate/ growing zone Verdolino is thriving in?

All the zone 8s on here are cooler ones

[Adrian Lee]

I grow mine in the equatorial tropics. It does well here.

[heathfarm]

For several weeks I have been researching Mario and certain figs in the collection he shared. I really wished to have met him or gained fig knowledge from him. Thankful for these forums that I can read all of the beautiful stories.