I found a very good article that had some pictures of FMV infected leaves. I have to say their appearance really does look different from most pictures I’ve seen hobbyists post as FMV.
I’m having an easy time finding articles confirming mites transmit FMV and other viruses, but I’m not having as easy a time finding anything to say that sap inoculation won’t spread it as well. Regardless, you bring up a good point that there are other diseases which people are frequently mistaking as FMV when it is in fact not. I recall a recent time I saw someone post a picture of a distorted leaf growing out of a freshly rooted cutting. They were convinced it was FMV when in reality it was quite apparent that it was just a poorly formed leaf that was pushed from a deeply dormant side bud and was followed by normal growth with normal shaped leaves.
This seems very strange to me that it could be such a definite answer, but I’m not a microbiologist so I don’t have any basis to challenge it. Surely at least if you graft an uninfected scion onto an infected rootstock, the virus can travel across the graft union without mites?
If so, then why can’t it enter the tree via a wound caused by something other than mites? Perhaps the bleeding of sap at the wound site pushes out the virus, which becomes trapped in the dried sap?
Yes.
Let’s start with fireblight. It cannot be transferred by shears or grafting. There is a window for inoculation and that’s it.
But F. carica, the fig bud mite, and the fig mosaic viruses are different: they form a 3-way symbiotic relationship. Same with F. carica, fig rust, and the fig leaf mite. And they are very specialized - you won’t find them in say, F. benjamina. Further, this sort of thing is very common in the plant world!
I’ll be in contact with those folks likely in May. If not, then August. One is based in Parlier, a few more in Davis, and another in Chico.
It’s unwise to think about plant processes in Newtonian cause-and-effect terms. Some plants are more prone to sport than others, and under varying conditions. F. carica is thought to be mid-way in evolution from monoecious to dioecious - which could play a role in its capricious behavior. But that’s just conjecture on my part.
I can confirm, the fig trees in my area were healthy for years, until this virus appeared last years in one of the trees and then began to spread to others, especially with the direction of the wind and the infection was (at start) from side of direction of the infected trees. The mites (I saw red spider mite (that infects the eggplant), but maybe it’s a fig bud mite, which I didn’t see!) is the main spreader of the virus. But of course sterilization of pruning tools is important to avoid transmit diseases among trees.
But nurseries/sellars/collectors also have a role besides the mites in transmitting this virus. especially with their indifference and insistence that the virus is present in most figs (maybe that in US?).
They do not appear to have fig rust, nor do they look like mosaic virus I’ve seen on trees in CA. But if you believe it is mosaic virus and it is Spring in your locale then this is an ideal time to treat them.
These look like the leaf symptoms on some of the infected figs I once had—classic mosaic mottling, sometimes accompanying angular and elongated deformations. I also saw vein clearing and ringspots in my infection. The viral discolorations have distinct borders—as here—and are sometimes outlined by dark lines of necrotic leaf tissue.
I am sorry the infection has been introduced into your region. The fig bud mite (Aceria ficus), a microscopic eriophyid mite, is at present the only known vector. Damage caused by its feeding—which can cause variable symptoms, but is commonly present as diffuse spotting on leaves—is often confused with fig mosaic disease symptoms; of course, both mite feeding and viral symptoms can appear simultaneously.
I agree. Seller and collector attitudes toward fig mosaic disease and fig bud mites are often way too cavalier. Such attitudes only lead to frustration and personal expense for hobbyists in regions like mine—but can cause real damage in parts of the world where figs are of economic importance.
If you don’t like the seller’s practices then don’t buy from them. But, if you don’t treat your plants then you are part of the problem. After all, the virus has been around long before hominids started cultivating figs.
Agreed. But it is inevitable when you have neglectful neighbors or home growers.
Or indifferent sellers who have no deterrent to sell infected figs.
I don’t (no any new figs have entered the farm for more than 20 years) but sellers are source of virus spreading to different places. underestimating it and lying to the customer does not help.
What I’m trying to say is that the nurseries and sellers should be prevented from propagating and selling infected trees. Strict requirements worked with potatoes, so why not with figs and other trees.
In the U.S., the federal government does not require states to provide open digital access to their database of horticulturally licensed wholesale and retail plant sellers. Consequently many plants are sold by unlicensed, uninspected sellers on eBay, FigBid, etc. because the marketplace has no programmatic way to verify licenses of sellers. Further, there are states with low taxes (esp. on high income) and as a result underfunded inspection systems and poorly qualified inspectors. I have held horticultural licenses at the production nursery level here in CA for almost 20 years now. The inspectors who come here are thorough. They cross-check everything.
I don’t know of any pest or disease for which a one-time treatment is sufficient. Biology doesn’t work that way. Growing plants is a choice, not an entitlement. If you encounter unexpected cost of treatment then it is still your responsibility. Otherwise as I said above, you are part of the problem.
Many different things can cause FMV like symptoms, even stress can cause them. Trees with FMV can show mild to no symptoms, others can be very sick with it. What is important is to not propagate anything that currently has the symptoms, to not keep anything that is so sick that it’s obvious that it must have FMV, and to not get or share the mites that spread FMV.
I agree with you.
I annually treat against fig wax scale and European red mite as a cost of negligent neighbors.
I treat red mites with 80% micronized sulfur, the same treatment you use with Thiolux, but the difference is I use it in the late spring/summer when they appear, so I will spray early this spring for fig bud mites.
and I got rid of virus infected trees last year, except for the one I showed pictures above, which is the only tree I have of the cultivar, but I cut part of it as a satisfy for the family and because the excessive cut helps the tree (with large roots) to out-grow/overcome the virus and rise some clean shoots, where I will plant them to get some clean trees, I doubt it but I will give it a try. see the pic
Consider me part of the problem, but some problems such as this virus & bud mite, neglectful farmers and unrestricted/unlicensed nurseries, are at the state level to deter and regulate and not on the farmers alone (like the Med fruit fly for CA or citrus psyllid & HLB there in CA)
People who must grow in ground, yet live in a place fig trees can die back significantly do not have the grafting option, and of course someone on the east coast can not air-layer on to someone’s tree on the west coast. Shipping cuttings is way cheaper than shipping even the tiniest of trees, not to mention trees cost more than cuttings if a person is charging for them, which adds up very fast. Some cultivars seem to vary way more than others from rooted cutting to rooted cutting.
Regardless of how fig trees are propagated, their DNA is not 100% stable, that is how cultivars adapt to stressful conditions which sometimes can be a good thing. Lets say that you found a 300 something year old fig tree seedling, chances are that some of it’s DNA traits have significantly changed. Many fig trees that are not seedlings are most likely trees created by rooted cuttings. It’s a very big mess of confusion.
The following fig cultivars are a few that have very unstable leaf shape, until they get older ‘Florea’, and ‘Nero 600m’. It almost seems like their leaf DNA is very unstable until they age.
