Fig tree mosaic

In that case there are a huge number of asymptomatic infected fig trees out east. It’s obvious that many are infected. There are lots of infected fig trees being sent from around the country to east coast growers.

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The found figs in the east probably never were exposed here, as most came from the old country. I’m sure some were infected there too.
It seems every tree I get from California is infected.

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These trees were from Onalaska, WA, I allready cut it down to the ground so the young tree from the roots can grow and I’ll watch it. I didn’t want to take a chance of it spreading to my other 15 fig varieties of trees I have since I will be doing lots of cutting and grafting I want a good stock.

Grafting doesn’t sound like a good idea to me if you are concerned about spreading FMV. It was stated above that FMV moves slowly within the tree. Maybe that’s true but it still moves. If you graft a clean fig unto an infected one then you risk infecting the clean one.

I’ve another reason to stop budding figs. They heal in good but often are very reluctant to grow off when forced. From now on I’m only going to use grafting and budding of figs for special situations.

Asymptomatic is the right word and probably a natural product of all the rain, rich soil, and heavy winter damage around here. When isolated from fig bud mites the virus can drop below the threshold of causing symptoms in parts of the plant that grow fast. A plant that starts out with symptoms usually ends up partly symptomatic and a percentage of the cuttings from healthy growths make plants that are also asymptomatic. Not to say that the new plants will be symptom free forever but almost all of the ones I have, have been so far. It explains how isolated trees end up without any symptoms well enough for me.

I’m going to airlayer and root only those plants/shoots that show the least FMV. I’d like to say those that show none but that would be too restrictive. Maybe I can upgrade my plants over time. I do spray for mites 3-4 times a yr. But that’s spider mites not fig bud mites. Maybe it will help.

I got rid of the infected tree, I meant cutting and grafting of the clean trees not the infected one. Considering only 2 of the 15 are showing the virus I think it was worth cutting them out now especially since 10 of the other trees are small tissue cultures I’ve been babying for the last year.

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Good luck Steve, I’ve only been trying to make healthy selections for a couple of years but one thing that keyed me in was people reported back that cuttings I sent them from plants with symptoms showed no symptoms. For whatever reason it is usually a sucker from the crown that ends up not having any symptoms, maybe just the super fast growth or being adventitious buds might help as well.

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I’m in that group. Everything I’ve gotten from you is FMV free.

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That is probably the top bud of a rooted cutting, or the bud it was cut back to after potting. With a graft you would expect more gnarly behavior from where the flaps integrated the donor bud.

I am pleased that one of my figs that has the virus doesn’t seem badly effected in the second flush of growth this year, so I have hopes it will outgrow the virus.