Hi, i was looking about this morning about fig tree's and ran across a brief article and was wondering if anyone knows more information about the article, seems like you have to become a paid member maybe to know or read more.
Here is the link

ELIMINATION OF FIG MOSAIC FROM FIG SHOOT-TIP CULTURES BY THERMOTHERAPY

Martin

The problem is not whether it works (probably does), but, after you have a clean tree, where do you plant it to keep it from becoming re-infected?

Hi Martin,

This article involves using a timed heat cycle on the young trees and then meristem culture of the growing tips to eliminate the virus. In the center of  the green tip of growing plants, there is a  nearly microscopic section that is dissected free (probably under a dissecting microscope) of embryonic leaves. That piece is placed in sterile growth media and stimulated to grow leaves and roots. The meristem doesn't usually have much virus in it anyway because the cells reproduce so quickly.

http://trc.ucdavis.edu/egsutter/plb171/lecturespdf4/14-Virus%20elimination.pdf

Another technique describes grafting the meristem tip onto virus free  seedling figs.

I'm with Jon on this one--and then what do you do with your virus free fig?
Are the healthy figs we have virus free? Some of the UC Davis cuttings that I started this spring show very little signs of mosaic, some of the same variety are stunted. What causes the difference?

scott

Scott

Say i have a virus free fig  tree to begin with and no other fig tree's,  to help me understand more what would be able to infect that tree with fig mosaic?
Can a bug carry it from something other than a fig tree and infect it ?

OK, you have a disease free tree. Are all of your neighbor's trees FMV free? Are you living n Northern Nevada, hundreds of miles from no one? The Black Mission tree that is the parent for my "NL" cultivar, to the best of my knowledge and ability, has no other fig tree within several blocks of it, but over time it started to show signs of the virus - hasn't made any difference in its performance - so whatever the vector (a wasp or something) probably has a pretty good range.

My understanding from USDA is that they do have the technical ability to produce "clean" fig material and produce a virus free tree - but they consider the FMV to be "ubiquitous" (their word), even in the wild. So they assume all ficus carica to be infected, which would make the time and expense pointless.

I was curious as i know little about FMV looking at different site i have found different types of Mosaic other than for fig tree's one example is the tobacco plant . What perked me was i have read certain types of fig trees are hurt much more than other types take for example the ischia black ,and also other types still thrive with it, i have never seen anyone on any forums show a picture of ischia black tree that is a good size and good producer, maybe because most stay away from it because of this. I was just curious if this process was easy enough for a simple home gardener that has some success at growing things if i could do this process and for personal use have a plant such as a ischia black grow possibly like a fig tree perhaps that has FMV but it does not affect it like it affect this type in such a dramatic way. Do i have to much time on my hands perhaps but i cant help wanting to try it if is possible for a average gardener, if there are other trees in area that have this FMV i could easily grow to decent size if it works then introduce outdoors once its strong and hardy to see what then happens, if then it gets infected perhaps it will be strong enough to grow like others that do well with FMV.
Martin

The question is this: is Black Ischia a crappy growing tree which happens to also be infected with FMV? Or is it crappy growing because it is infected. Has anyone ever seen an uninfected BI tree to be able to determine what might be the correct answer? I am not opposed to someone trying to eliminate FMV, just hoping for eyes wide open before/when making the attempt.

Pesonally i think its crappy because of virus takes comtrol much stronger than other types of fig tree's as it seems some tree's show it more than others so maybe some are greatly affected by it more than others and perhaps the ischia black is one of them. Well if i can i try my best one day to experiment and see what actually happens i ran across a kit but these are kits for tissue culture (leaves) and not the shoot or meristem. Not cheap at 100.00 but life can be short so i enjoy trying different things.

usually for meristem culture you would want to use murashige and skoogs media

http://www.phytotechlab.com/detail.aspx?ID=471

for  a look at meristem culture, here is another


http://journals.gotea.ro/horticulture/article/viewPDFInterstitial/476/507

a lot of time the donor (virus infected) plants are stressed for several weeks by growing them at an elevated temperature (30-37 degrees centigrade) before removing the apical buds, disinfecting them, and dissecting out the meristem.

Also  check out this link for "home" meristem culture
http://www.omnisterra.com/botany/cp/slides/tc/tc.htm

 I stood up late last night searching and learned somethings and have come to the conclusion i just cannot do the process properly. Just for fun i used a double edge razor the kind i still shave with to see just whats inside a fig bud, i have a good jewlers eye piece i used for this after cutting my finger a little (that stung) i was getting what seemed like a million tiny tiny leaves unfurling. If you have ever eaten a artichoke boiled and pelled of the leaves 1 by one to get to the heart of it the best part, i reminded me of this process. In the end it simply was to small to hold very very small so afraid of dropping it and not finding it i cut in half inside its green almost a jell like looking substance i just could not ever extract that part along with the some other processes to much for me to do. What caught my eye before this when i cut the bud i looked under it as i had a tiny piece of what it was attached to and i could see some small round circular patterns within themselves it was quite a site whats inside. So in the end i learned a little bit about what is involved and also saw the beauty of the inside somewhat up close as never before. Im used to how nice the tree's look from the outside but for first time i saw a tiny bit of the inside. All in all it was interesting to see except for bloody finger. I want to thank those folks that sent me information and links also, its been a learning experience past few days that opened my eyes a little more.
Thanks for replying.
Martin

I saw some info about heating cuttings to a certain temperature for awhile, to kill the virus, without hurting the cuttings. Does this work?

wrayn

Its possible i think but not sure.
Called Heat Thermotherapy its known to eradicate some plant viruses. The other more used way is call invitro, they extract the meristem and cultivate it.
Here is a little backround in link
http://books.google.com/books?id=oe_liIY_tVsC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=PLANT+THERMOTHERAPY&source=bl&ots=cnZChgilWd&sig=nW6rmK80q0AeIfeKHmSXvh5vMkY&hl=en&ei=WXMxSuXzIo_EMZfgrMMH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

Hello!

 

Yes thats the virus . My VdB also has it and produces well and the fruit is very good , my plant other than the discolored leaves does not seem to be hurt by the virus.

You have two choices: 1) freak out, destroy this plant and all other fig plants which you have and never eat fresh figs again or 2) realize that you can't fix it, that it isn't a big deal, and enjoy all of your fresh figs this summer.

Thank you, I'm now convinced that this isn't as bad as I was thinking. My choice is #2.

Good choice.

Thank you Jon.

We live in an imperfect world, and as the Bhudda said, our suffering comes not from this reality as much as from our clinging and avoidance.

In this case, clinging to an ideal of purity and perfection that is unattainable and avoiding the reality that FMV is an unavoidable part of our world.

The remedy is acceptance, and then we can relax and enjoy the figs.

Best wishes to all.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

Since i started this thread 2 years ago i have learned some about the virus FMV , what it looks like , what it can do etc.
But 1 important thing i have learned is some of the best tasting figs out there
and this is only my opinion - have this virus.

So to keep it short if you want some of the best tasting figs you will have FMV amongst your plants period.

Thanks Martin.

My older plants didn't seem to have this, at least not visibly.  FMV is obvious on three new plants, and living with that is the only realistic option.

I do have a couple questions though:

Will FMV appear on all the fig trees or just a few?

Other than cosmetic, is there any real harm?

The infected plants seem to be growing strong and setting figs.

Hope all is well with you.

Best wishes.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

Hi John,
 sometimes it appears and then hides for a spell only to reappear during the season or following season.
In some cases i've seen appear only in badly mishappen (deformed) leaves and not the spotting in leaves. I had one like that.
There is no harm other than certain bugs that can spread it to other fig plants.
Only one ive ran across to date that it effects the most by stunting it in the plants that  " I " have only is ischia black which is 3 seasons old and still a small looking "slingshot shape" about 6 inches tall only. It put on several figs last season but i took them off to give it energy to the tree itself and will do the same this season as well .

Thank you Martin.

Hope your Ischia makes a rebound this season and then really takes off for you.

We struggle with "Fire Blight" here with apples and pears.  It looks terrible (like all the new growth has been burned brown) and can slow down growth. but we have never lost a tree to fire blight so far.

Blueberries here look like a record crop, as does most everything else.  We started picking the first blueberries this week.  And so far the fake (plastic) Red Tail Hawk seems to be keeping the birds away (or at least the less perceptive ones!).

Hope all is well with you.

John
North Georgia Piedmont
Zone 7b

Some varieties do not show symptoms, but probably are infected - just not expressive. Climate and season (probably temp and/or humidity) seem to exacerbate expression of the virus, while other times of the year, there is little evidence. Spring seems to be worse at my location.

In the UC Davis cuttings, it really seems to me like FMV interferes with the movement of nutrients from the new roots through the "old" bark to the new growth. They seem to do much better if the "old bark" is buried and the new growth is all that is above ground. Jon's trick of over fertilization also helps.

I had one Black Madeira (last year's cutting) that did not grow well all last year and only got maybe a foot tall. The other tree I have grown from the same cutting is 6 feet tall. Since repotting and burying all last years wood a couple of weeks ago, it has started to come around.

So far, FMV  isn't the problem I thought it would be.

Scott