Common Fig varieties (not necessarily common)

It has chlorotic spots.

Some growersā€”and I suspect Brent has had more experience with this than anyoneā€”have found that propagating from vigorous, non-symptomatic growth (as suckers) on an otherwise infected mother can produce non symptomatic daughter plants. As he mentions above, he has never seen symptoms on these plants in the course of years of observation. Iā€™ve done something similar on a much smaller scale and with fewer years of observation behind me (though so far, so good). This seems to suggest that, without the mite, the virus spreads relatively slowlyā€”at least in some casesā€”and that taking healthy tissue and putting it on new roots before the virus can reach it can produce a ā€œcleanā€ new plant. The plant may still contain certain virusesā€”this is common----, but may be free of those that are actually disease-causing. If a fig, however, still contains infected cells, I suspect that symptoms will eventually spread, even without fig bud mites. Anecdotal evidence seems to point in this direction, in any case.

Of course, there are reports of plants so infected that they never produce non-symptomatic growth. Also, if fig bud mites are allowed to run rampant, they will continually infect new growth.

In brief, even after the mite is gone the virus/disease remains unless it is ā€œcleanedā€ by creating a new, non-diseased plant. The surest method, of course, is tissue culturing from apical meristem.

It is worth mentioning that mite-feeding and viral symptoms can be confused.

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Too much water , roots suffered, not a big deal. Itā€™s raining again. I moved it to a sunnier position.
Iā€™m not home much and they do get neglected. Even so this is going to be my best fig year ever. Everything is loaded.

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Hereā€™s a frankenfig composed of varieties I cleaned up. The rootstock is RdB, and was the original infected treeā€¦ Sort of, the original root system died, ambrosia beetles or maybe armillariaā€¦ But before that, it set itself a ground layer which survived and has shown no symptoms itself for 2 or 3 years now. On that, I have dfic 069 Barnisotte, and GM #171, which are 3rd or 4th generation away from the symptomatic mothers.

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I thought nothing was wrong with it?

Come on.

My wild Turkish fig seedlings are showing an interesting variety of leaf forms. Hopefully
a few will set good Breba crops.

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Well to be safe I will mitocide my figs. Thanks for spotting that. It looks worse in the photo than it is

I noticed fig bud mite damage on a couple of my potted fig plants in 2019. People said it was no big deal which I wanted to hear. I saw some more in 2020. Tried use permethrin pesticide on once but got sidetracked and did not follow up.

This year, after all figs leafed out. I have had an explosion of fig bud mites. Almost all my fig plants contracted them. I also did not know how easy they could spread. To me, it is big deal.

Many figlets got damaged.

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Looks like thrip damage to me.

With my luck, it could be both.:weary:

I actually saw what I thought was a predatory thrip larvae snack on a fig bud mite through the microscope. Iā€™m no insect scientist, predatory thrips are generalists though and do eat mites.

Looks like too much water, to you.

Yes or possibly not enough. Iā€™m not there enough to tell. It looks like a nutrient deficiency to me caused by the roots inability to uptake nutrients properly. Iā€™m thinking too much water as it is a light green to yellow too. But now you made me paranoid. I keep miticides around for peach and pluot seedlings ever since they killed eight of my pluot seedlings. I was bummed, one had red leaves. They were too damaged to recover by the time I spotted it. So now I spray preventably. As I do all tree seedlings. Iā€™m going to start some fig seeds Thursday when I get back home Iā€™ll spray my figs then too. Just to make sure. Hopefully Iā€™m right about the water as itā€™s not really a serious problem. Easy to fix. I have many figs in smaller pots as is this one that are showing signs of stress. Conditions have been brutal around here. Itā€™s hot here too. My pluot trees are stressed too. I have to come back more often. Iā€™m retired and living on an island for the summer and fall. Iā€™ll go back home in November. Living the life! I love it!! Six Saturdays and a Sunday.

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As I said, Iā€™ve never had a homegrown fig before. I think the more figs you eat and gain experience with, the more able you are to describe it with exactness. It is exactly the same with wine. "The wine had notes of coffee and lotus with a velvet texture on the tongue. :rofl:

The second, riper fig had no tart, granny smith apple tang to it, and it didnā€™t dissolve the skin on my tongue like a walnut or some other figs do.

That said, everyone has different tastes. Some like a sweeter fig, some like a fig with more acid. Different strokes.

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If you know of a readily available miticide that is labeled for eriophyid mites, and not $100+ please do share. Because as you can probably gather, there are people who that information would help.

Again, if you would like help, just ask.

This is very disturbing that you are in zone 6, not the hot southern zone that mites are more common. Wonder how the virus spreads.

I see your plants are in pots. Close distance is one. Then rosy winter storage. And maybe same garden tools.

For my FMV infected plants, I may want to keep them outside. One year I kept several one-gallon fig plants under mulch outdoors. All of them make it through the winter. Then I do not think mites would get a chance to survive.

Not sure how cold is your zone 6 NJ. Where I am it can be cold. Ikept some potted in my attached garage, the rest went into the basement. My two Ronde de Bordeaux in the garage had all branches died back to almost a soil level. Chicago Hardy, no problem.

They all contracted fig bud mites because when I brought all pots (20 +) out on the driveway, I put them near one another. By the time I knew what went on, they spread everywhere.

All the local varieties I have been dealing with are not covered. They have various degree of winter die back. Then come back the next year. Never virus of any kind.

Ok-so would a simple diluted bleach soak kill any mites, similar to what @Jose-Albacete suggests to prepare his cuttings? It seems like a simple solution if you donā€™t think you already have an infestation.

They are so small and delicate a droplet of water would kill them, but that also means they can squeeze into spaces that liquids canā€™t reach.

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