Down the road I would like to have as many of my fig tree varieties without Fig Mosaic Virus and was wondering if anyone has tried to do the same and if there is any interest in at least starting a group to gather and search for as many FMV free varieties as possible with exchange privileges within the group.

This would have to be confirmed by a lab test and possibly (if one is available) a kit to test for FMV. Has anyone tried any lab test to confirm the presence or absence of fmv?

Usually it is clearly visible on new growth on cuttings, but sometimes on large and strong growers it is not as easy to confirm.
Does anyone know of any nurseries that mention FMV free trees for sale? I have not seen any...

Ben

FM Virus was never defined,and there is no test to probe if a cultivar is infected or not.
The money for research that was needed,were never allocated

An interesting follow-on Ben is has anyone propagated a seemingly uninfected tree that later revealed FMV infection in the rooted cutting? I have not.

I have also read that seedling figs dont carry fmv yet I have 2 seedlings that show yellow spots on the leaves. Coincidence?

I'll contact Agdia labs and Critter creek labs on Monday, not sure if they have anything close enough to use for FMV... we'll see what they say.

I do know the Paradise Nursery had FMV free figs ( for the most part ).
I must have ordered fifteen or twenty from them and not one showed signs of FMV.

Too bad I didn't know how to store them better at the time so I took a big loss. One time was due to vandals and couple times were due to inexperience.

Too bad they are not in business anymore, Sybil and Rob were among the greatest.

FMV free fig trees are definitely out there and are usually found in isolated locations. I have FMV free specimens of Black Mission, Adriatic/strawberry, and Beall.......as well as most of the LSU bred figs. 

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

I have a few mature plants that show zero signs of fmv, but when I root new specimens, they show fmv.  Even a few I have got from collectors that claim they are fmv free, show fmv upon rooting. 

I think the FMV to figs is as common as the Flu to us humans.

How strong are you to avoid it or how weak are you to get it?

Small young and newly rooted ones show it but later it goes away.

Some never heal and some never have it.

What about researching treatments that would lesson the effect of FMV. If the majority of figs carry the disease, perhaps some kind of supplement might be more effective than isolated, possibly uninfected tree collections.

The virus is spread easily by leaf chewing insects. You would have to separate the virus free cuttings from the ones which are known to already have the virus in order to maintain virus free conditions to the next generation. If you root a virus containing cutting right next to one which is free of the virus......any bug chewing insect could easily infect them all.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

Dan, It is my understandin from research done in Turkey that it is spread only by mites, not any leaf cutting insect, and also not by pruning shears or other tools.

Ben to my knowledge there is no kit outside of a lab to index for FMV.

Ive had perfectly normal looking plants for several seasons then i noticed the virus for whatever reason suddenly appear.
Also it hides very well after showing early in season on some plants for example my Vdb.

To date what has shocked me more is not the virus on the leaves but on the fruit itself seeminly causeing them to drop . I have shown those pictures as well in past and recently with not much interest in those threads.

But to cure FMV it has been done and the plants were then indexed after 1 full year and remained virus free - grown in lab conditions.
I have  2 files that were sent to me with the promise of not putting them online because they are paid publications.
This was 3 years ago and probably more "detailed " information on how exactly this was done is freely available now i dont know.

I did dabble around trying to see for myself what a fig meristem actually looks like with the aid of my jewlers eyepiece in this thread link below i started nearly 3 seasons back in post# 11
 and i think i did get to it from pictures i have seen of one online in the past.
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3095055&highlight=mosaic+virus

I know longer worry about the virus , just the virus in the fruit that im now watching is what concerns me because i will have to destroy several plants if they keep dropping there fruit cause of it.

I bought a Tashkent fig tree from Raintree this year. Tree looked horrible. Stunted, curled leaves and little growth. Then a root sprout appeared and is shooting up, no signs of anything-Actually beautiful, lush and green. I am now trying to air-layer it but even if successful, it still carries the genes for FMV. It may appear again or it may not.

My initial response from AGDIA LABS,

"Hello Ben,

  I’ve done a little searching on Fig mosaic virus, and unfortunately there are no tests available since researchers are still trying the characterize the virus. Often, although we might not have a specific test for a particular virus, we will have a general PCR test that can detect the pathogen along with other related viruses. Fig Mosaic Virus was just recently put in an ill-defined group called “Enamoviruses”.

  There has been a lot of research  recently on viruses in figs, and there a couple of other pathogens, Fig leaf mottle-associated virus and Arkansas fig closterovirus, that we can detect using our Closteroviridae Group PCR Test. Our PCR testing can be more expensive than other tests in our catalog. The current price for testing one sample (up to ten leaves) for Closteroviridae is $172.89. Each additional sample would cost approximately an extra $16.00.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Debi

Deborah Groth-Helms

Manager, Testing Services

Agdia Inc.

Hi Ben ,
 Uc Davis appears to have done some study around 2005 i never saw a follow up perhaps due to funding constraints.
Here is link.
There have been other studies but they are fee based sites.
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/391-303.pdf

Wow, who knew there were like over a half a dozen viruses that infected figs?

http://ddr.nal.usda.gov/bitstream/10113/47395/1/IND44475845.pdf

http://www.sipav.org/main/jpp/volumes/0110/011017.pdf

More reading from UF ISAF about common fig diseases:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pg010

I still say that there are not varying degrees of FMV infection.  I think it is more likely that plants which appear "heavily affected" by FMV are infected with both FMV and one or more other viruses (see links explaining other viruses in the post above this one) like AFCV-1, AFCV-2 or FBV-1.

I will say this about FMV........

I have traveled all over South Louisiana in order to find new fig varieties and have visited with many many fig trees and their owners. To find any fig tree which has ANY sign whatsoever (i.e. even one single infected leaf) of FMV is very rare indeed.  FMV-free fig trees are the rule and not the exception in my area.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

It is not uncommon for totally mature trees to show NO sign of FMV.  In fact, most trees I have which are heavily affected by FMV "grow out of it" by the time they are 2-3 years old.  Adult trees are much less prone to show symptoms.  I have received cuttings of supposedly "FMV free" trees and propagated them in an isolated area only to find FMV-like symptoms when the cuttings are in the first year, and those signs disappear by year two or three.

The only way for anyone to truly know if trees are "clean" is to (literally) test for FMV.  We don't have a way to do that.  I wouldn't be surprised to find that even the healthiest looking tree is actually infected with FMV.  Then, I would also not be surprised to find a tree which seems "more affected" by FMV is also infected with, say, both FMaV and AFCV-2, for example.

We also have no way to test to see if FMV is truly the infection causing the problems we see.  Clearly, there are half a dozen viruses that infect figs, and some have similar symptoms, some are (apparently) more harmful than others.  Who is to say that what we are seeing in our trees is actually FMV without a genetic test?  It could actually be FMaV that is infecting them, or FBV-1!  OR maybe it is an AFCV virus strain!  We really have no way to know.

Hi,  on that web site ( http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pg010 ) it states Horticultural or Citrus Oil may be used to manage the virus .

What I do know for sure......is what I have seen and what I continue to see with my OWN "well calibrated eyes". There are very few fig trees in South Louisiana (young or old and in between) that have EVEN ONE single FMV distorted leaf on them....or one distorted leaf from any other virus and/or other fig disease. James Robin's trees did not have any FMV on any of them when I first discovered his place quite a few years ago. The cuttings that he obtained from UCD California and which he rooted taught him and me what the disease looks like.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus.

I don't have x-ray eyes nor microscopic eyes, so I can't say what's underneath the leaves.  Maybe you are different, but I don't have superhero vision ;)

I can tell you that I'm infected with the "mono" virus and have been since I was 13, but I show no signs of it.  I test positive every time I have ever gotten drastically ill, and I always test positive.  I'm lucky, I'm apparently only a carrier of the virus.  Humans are not the only species that contract a virus and show no symptoms.  It doesn't mean we aren't infected.  Sometimes we don't show the infection until our immune system is compromised by another bacteria or virus.  Plants are undoubtedly the same (we are all living tissue).

I guess the only way we will ever know if your eyes are that well calibrated, or if there is any such thing as an "FMV Free" tree on this planet will be having some kind of genetic test.  But we would need a genetic test for all of the other half dozen or more viruses which infect figs in order to see what is actually showing mottling and shape distortion of fig leaves, since this is a common symptom amongst multiple viruses, it's not just isolated to FMV.

It is extremely easy to spot an infected leaf or branch on a fig tree.......no special talent or glasses of any kind are needed........... (;>)

To say that all figs trees have FMV and that we just do not yet see the symptoms on the tree is like saying we all have cancer and we just do not yet see the symptoms on the person. IMO, that is ridiculous. There are lots of FMV free fig trees that are growing in isolated sections of this country.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus