I don’t see any signs of FMV in any of my plants, but I know many have it as it is well documented like RdB has it, all plants. Yet I have not seen symptoms in years. It produces very well too.
Nothing wrong with trying to keep a clean orchard. I gave up on that. I am a Medical Technologist whose specialty was viruses (and bacteria and fungi). I’m retired now. You know we are talking about 30 or more strains of FMV. Sure some are really bad, but most are not. The last thing FMV wants to do is kill it’s host. You tend to go extinct that way.
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Not true. A specialized generation of females overwinters in bud scales; they begin laying eggs again at bud break. This is well-documented. And there’s no other way I could’ve gotten the mites. And a bleach wash—which I performed—did not kill them.
Maybe. But no one has documented what temperatures are needed to kill the mite. It could be that actual bud death through winter topkill is needed to completely dispose of any remaining ones. Again, no one knows for sure. I spotted a live, slender, light-yellow eriophyid on a young leaf on an overwintered in-ground this spring. And I treated this and all trees repeatedly last year, and have acquired no new figs. Anyway, very possibly a fig bud mite—though I can’t be 100% sure. I treated everything again—with sulfur, spiromesifen, and spinosad. I suspect these things are tougher than many folks think.
Could be, though one would think the stress of the rooting process would make expression of symptoms likely. Incidentally, I had a spare one of these—a Longue d’Aout—that I rooted in the fall; and I’ve decided to stress it a bit, permitting it to become rootbound in its tall treepot and watering but not feeding it for a while. It’s stopped growing and it looks chlorotic, but—so far—no mosaic symptoms.
Fig virology is still in its infancy and I’ll admit I’m just a layman, but it’s apparent that not all fig viruses (of which there are around 10 that are known—and three viroids) are the same. I think there’s definitely something to the theory (expressed elsewhere by Brent) that FMV and perhaps other viruses which cause symptoms in figs are not systemic, but move on an intercellular level, very slowly, through the plant (absent fig mites, at least). Some viruses have been found in asymptomatic plants—fig badnavirus-1 (FBV-1) being a very common one—but there’s some question about whether these are directly involved in the etiology of FMD.
Of course, I will continue to watch my plants for symptoms.
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Welcome Jeremiah! I’ve always appreciated how you dig into the research and made such an effort to help others. I found it terribly frustrating to constantly be at odds with other members who parrot popular opinion. Not to mention disgusted when new growers would seek help and show pictures of diseased plants out of concern only to be told not to believe the problem they see with their own eyes is real, or be blamed for not fertilizing properly. It can be very hard to help someone with little personal experience when there is a united front telling them differently. It’s a very lonely situation, because people who are committed to growing figs for fruit rather than sticks often vanish in the current environment.
@Drew51 I remember sending you 2 trees in your first year growing figs, which was 2015. That’s not 7 years 
So pardon me for suspecting there could be some other exaggerations in your post.
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As do all viruses. But it is not so slow.
They are systemic is another way to put it. They use a Protein carrier molecule to travel when outside of cells.
I was counting pigeonpea sterility mosaic virus (PPSMV) and maize red stripe virus (MRSV).As they are definitely related. And other related viruses. probably about 30 of them. Well then we have strains and their are hundreds of them. Viruses evolve very quickly.
We have been studying them since 1933.
That was not my first year. it’s 6 years not 7 though. My bad. 2013 is when i started growing them.
That’s not what I remember, and I thought we had sorted this out previously. With @fruitnut sending you your first cuttings in 2015.
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Thanks, Brent! And thank you for sharing your expertise and experience with new growers! You’ve helped me out a lot.
I know what you mean. It is very frustrating. Sometimes I feel like nobody’s listening. Anyway, this seems like a happenin’ place . . . so thought I’d move on over!
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You may be right, as you can see even back then i was confused! I did have a fig tree as a house plant, but it doesn’t really count. I don’t think it was an edible kind anyway.
I have since eliminated your plants btw, I needed to cut some, and they didn’t make it. Well I still have one, it’s being cut this fall. I still have the cuttings fruitnut sent that rooted. I eliminated one of them, keeping the others.
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I respect you as an accomplished grower Drew. I’ve got strong opinions on FMV though, based on my successes and failures.
I took some pictures today of one of my first and favorite varieties, Barnisotte. I got cuttings from the USDA in 2007, this is an original tree. It started out with some pretty severe FMV, but I planted it in the ground and the symptoms got better. I sent cuttings from a vigorous sucker to Art on F4F (he sells cuttings on eBay sometimes under artamyconnor if anyone is interested), and I heard back from him that his plants had no symptoms, which is really what clued me in. It has been through some tough times (I even left it out over winter once in a container after I dug it back up), so you can’t really tell that it is 12 years old. It has had decent vigorous growth recently after dying back 2 or 3 winters ago.
But, it still kicks out symptomatic growths from the roots, and symptoms are also creeping up previously asymptomatic growths.
Here are some 2nd generation trees, I got something like 5 asymptomatic cuttings out of 7 a few years ago.
What is interesting about the one with the badly cold damaged trunk is symptoms have not returned even though the growths at the top are under heavy stress and hardly grew at all the past 2 years.
Here’s a few 3 generation trees. I also stress these pretty hard when transplanting into compost socks, but no return of symptoms.
As another example, a tree I bought from Bass about 8 years ago. It came with symptoms and did basically nothing it’s first year, but in the second it kicked out a vigorous asymptomatic sucker that grew to about 5 ft. and i pruned away the older growths. I have not done any serious pruning since then, it is pushing 8ft. but only grows a few inches a year on something like 40 branches. It reliably produces an early condensed crop of figs for me, so I have just left it alone
But 2 years ago I saw symptoms return on a couple lower branches, this year the highest symptomatic branch is at about 4 ft. The top branches remain asymptomatic as they always were, and are producing better.
I’m sentimental about this tree, so it pains me that I will most likely have to prune it severely in the near future to push some vigor and help it fight the virus.
@alanmercieca this is what necrotic spots on figs look like.
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The problem is that a lot of people think that they have FMV when they probably don’t, so it can be very hard to know who to trust to get cuttings and plants from. If the fruit shows signs of FMV as well as the plant, or if a plant is tested to have FMV then it’s obvious. There are some people who have symptoms of FMV in a fig tree of theirs and their tree bears lots of fruit eventually, the figs look normal, the tree looks normal, and their trees eventually grow like weeds/stop looking dwarf. Unless some major FMV testing is done on every tree that shows any FMV like symptoms it will be lots of confusion. I find that most people who have grown fig trees with FMV like symptoms/yet don’t want fig trees with FMV only worry about the very obvious signs like fruit deformity, sick looking trees, fig bud mite infestations, that sort of thing.
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Like the trees I showed above though, you might be forced to prune eventually and delay the crop. And there is no guarantee that pruning will remedy the stunted growth. Another tree I have from the USDA has never made a healthy leaf, it’s one more potential problem, I’ve got enough of those already.
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Thanks, I have only seen what they look like on ripe or nearly ripe fruit, I forget how ripe, it was so many years ago. Photos on F4F.
The only Etna type of fig I have is ‘Dominick’ from Jim Cooper, it has never shown any signs of FMV, in case you might want a Etna type without any signs of FMV. It grows so well that it has been compared to an elm tree.
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Hmmmm, maybe heat treatment followed by tissue culturing, do you think that might rid of FMV?
I have had few problems with infected trees. Well when young it’s hard to get them going. If they really have the virus? I don’t know? I assume they all have it and call it a day. I never ever seen necrotic fruit.
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There are some tissue culture techniques that are documented to be very effective at getting rid of some viruses on their own. The most effective from what I understand are called “regeneration”, with various methods such as “embryogenesis”, “organogenesis”, and others I’m sure. Basically what they do is take something like a section of leaf and set it on tissue culture media that has certain growth hormones which make it form callus tissue, then they use a different hormones to make that callus form seed-like structures that will each become a new plant. The problem with that is it reverts the plant back to a juvenile form, and can potentially cause mutations. Based on my early experience buying TC figs I think that is what agristarts did originally, because the plants grew like seedlings with lots of suckers. I’m just making an educated guess though.
When I tried TC on figs the callus at the bottom kept turning brown from enzymes, it was a PITA to keep cutting it off and transferring them to new media.
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Thank you for the information on FMV and tissue culture. Your comment gives me hope! I got my first fig plant in 1998. It was a symptom-free potted (1-gal.) cutting. Although it has undergone quite a few periods of stress since then, it has never shown any sign of FMD. So I’m relatively sure (shy of having it lab tested) that it’s FMV-free. The man I got it from lost track of the plant’s origins, but thinks it’s a Celeste of some kind; the fruit is abundant and tastes like strawberry jam when it’s fully ripe. It’s an incredible fig!
I also got a Violette de Bordeaux from the same man (another 1-gal. cutting, no symptoms), and I’d like to round out my collection with maybe 3 others (to lengthen the fig harvest season and broaden the variety of tastes). But where do I turn? Other than the one man I’ve gotten these from, I’m finding precious few references to FMV-free cuttings. Hopefully one day I can get a Craven’s Craving from Padsfan, since he said the mother tree appeared to have no FMV.
What other sources are there? How can I locate tissue-culture’d plants that are FMV-free?
And does anyone know of any efforts to expand the availability of different varieties that are FMV-free? I’d love to add Hative d’Argenteuil to my collection, but every source I’ve come across has the rote disclaimer about being exposed to FMV. If it’s something that’s being done in labs, surely someone’s trying to develop FMV-free versions of the most popular varieties?! Black Mission, etc.
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tissue-culture can not guarantee FMV free all by it’s self, it just lessons the chance of FMV, FMV tests are very expensive so most people would not test their plants, which is the only way to know if a fig tree has FMV, unless a fig tree is so sick that it’s obvious.
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I myself don’t care about FMV infection. My figs do great even though many are infected. Since I have a few I know for sure are infected I list the disclaimer on all my sales. Also CC is not free of the virus. I got mine directly from padsfan. The plant has a mild case. It’s possible fig mites spread it here, but to think a California plant does not have it is naive. IMO trying to develop FMV free plants is futile. Most figs are sold in the warmer west coast states. Which is where they soon will be reinfected. Just like we have to learn to live with viruses so do figs. Neither virus is going away anytime soon.
I have this plant and it’s hard to grow without grafting it. It has a weak root system. I managed to root it but it took two seasons for it to start growing fairly well. A very slow grower on its own roots. I prefer non grafted figs in my cold environment. I have lost top growth from unexpected freezes. Super happy to have this plant! Yes!! Badly FMV infected no doubt.
If you live in California and don’t spray weekly for mites, I’m not sure how you can keep plants virus free? I try not to get plants or cuttings from California. Although at times cannot be accomplished. Fig mites is the vector for the virus and they cannot survive our winters. Although I do spray for mites once a year.
I do know people who want only clean plants, but that is so limiting for me it doesn’t work for me.
Many of the Pons figs which made there way here are infected. It seems any old fig orchard like Pons, or Thierry’s place have infected plants. UCD is a great example also.
I think I would be more cautious of fmv in LA. The mite lives on feral fig trees so if there are lots in your area a bird or the wind will probably bring the mite in sooner or later. Any trees in your yard with bad symptoms can then pass them to the others. Here as long as I quarantine and treat all new plants and cuttings for the mite I don’t have to worry about FMV spreading. Although, if you have had a fig tree for 20+ years and never saw anything that looked like FMV, it sounds like you do not have the mite in your area either since mite symptoms are very similar to FMV symptoms.
Agristarts is the only company I know that is producing TC trees, you could try asking them about their process and if they have tested them. I remember in their description of petite negra they said that they did test it do be sure it was negative because that variety has a unique leaf shape or something. But it doesn’t look like they sell PN anymore, so I can’t show that to you… Wellspring gardens sells TC plants retail.
I’ve also gotten very healthy plants and cuttings from hermansur on ebay. Only one cutting out of hundreds ever showed any symptoms. hermansur on eBay
It certainly can be difficult getting healthy plants, particularly among collectors a high percentage will show symptoms and or carry the mite. Many of the people growing, and even selling, figs are new to plants and the mite is a very difficult pest to detect and manage so it is a serious problem within the community.
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