As a new fig gardener - I've learned a lot from this forum.  This winter, I began with 7 Marseille Black cuttings and was able to get all 7 to root.  I moved them to cups of vermiculite ... and they all survived to their current 1 gallon pots of very light soil and vermiculite.  All has been well and over the last month I've been exposing them to some filtered sunlight. All was going well ... then one suddenly died.
Now, I've detected some blackness on some of the leaves ... and those leaves then die.  This seemed to proceed the sudden death of the first plant. One other possible clue ... I've noticed some tiny glossy dots on the leaves that are also on a nearby maple tree.  Maybe this is normal?  Maybe something left behind by a bug?  Maybe a clue.
In an effort to rule out nutrition, I fed them their first fertilizer by way of some Fertrell Super-N (4-2-4) in water.  Can't say I notice any change, but they haven't gotten worse since yesterday.
Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated!  Pictures attached.

Forgot to toss out another thought ... I have some Fertrell Seacide that I could use to treat the plants not yet affected if the thought is a fungus or wilt.  Here is a clipping about Fertrell's Seacide from their website:

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"Prevents fungal attacks on plant tissue. Seacide has shown to control eggs, larvae, and nymphs of insects and adult and soft bodied insects. It helps control pests such as but not limited to; aphids, rust mites, spider mites, leaf miner, mealy bugs, psyllids, thrips and soft and armored scale. Apply until plant runoff occurs for maximum benefit. Best if applied early in the morning or in the evening, to avoid leaf burn and evaporation.

First of all, welcome! Have you fertilized with anything else?

i'm very new to figs also. the first picture looks like FMV. the second picture looks like sun damage.

pete

No, I haven't fertilized with anything other than the 4-2-4.  I've been really cautious to slooowwwwly introduce them to sun ... I was almost afraid I was delaying them from full exposure for too long.  I've really babied these little things to the point my wife thinks I'm crazy.

Agree,  there is definite sun damage on your leaves.  I am going to GUESS the reason why......

My guess is that you waited much too long to introduce them to sunlight. When you wait too long this happens ........the branches are flimsy and the leaves that develop are thin and "super" tender.

Until you get your plant into some sunlight it has to live off of its "stored" energy reserves. New energy (and strong growth) only kicks in AFTER photosynthesis begins when it is growing in stronger sunlight. Yes, you want to SLOWLY introduce your plant to sunlight.....but you cannot wait months to do so. Because in the mean time that little plant will continue to try to grow and try to find some light. Under those poor light conditions, that growth will not be very strong and it will be super tender.

Your plant does not need fertilizer at this point. It needs to get into some sunlight......again, introduce it gradually. In its "super tender" condition it may take a bit longer. 

You did well to have roots on all of your Marseilles Black cuttings......many beginners have had problems just getting to that point.

Best of luck to you..........

Dan
Semper Fi-cus 

i would have to concur with Dan. It looks like it has a good root system so it may lose the affected leaves but it will make new ones. Set it under some shadecloth or filtered light for now and let it adjust.

I wonder if you used,any herbicide close to the plants ,like round up.?
If you did that is why!
I have never seen a Marseilles vs black in this bad shape.
This is a super strong cultivar thriving on neglect if in ground.
After you get them used with sunshine just plant them inground somewhere ,and you will have to do nothing,to have fruits,not even pinching,like it is done on other cultivars to make them produce fruits.

How about cleaning products? I have never seen a leaf struck dead like that. It could be a fungus, get them more sun and rain and wind.

Hey everyone ... sorry I missed the extra replies - I checked back in to give an update and saw several more folks had chimed-in. 

Thank you for the help ... I'm glad to report all the figs are still alive!  I took a picture this morning to share with you.  While I'm now reading the suggestion to hold off on fertilizer ... I gave them a little more this morning (whoops).  The first shot a couple weeks ago seems to have helped them - but it is very weak organic fertilizer so I think they will be okay. 

Your diagnosis of sun exposure must be spot-on ... I put them under an umbrella on the deck so they only get a couple hours of morning direct sun - everything else is indirect.  I'm nervous about moving them to full sun!  You'll see in this picture some of the leaves that were damaged but also LOTS of new healthy growth.  Thanks again for the help!  -Ryan

Don't be nervous, just take your time.

I don't even keep my potted trees in full sun.  They stay in filtered sun all day.  What is the rush to put them out in full sun all day?  They're just babies.  Why subject them to that kind of stress and torture?

Thanks ... that is a good point.  I WOULD however like to get them in the ground at some point.  Just not sure when that should be!?

Well Alan, you may have spared me from completely killing the remaining 6 fig trees (one died of the seven).  Was thinking they should be planted THIS year ... wow ... good thing you spoke up!  Okay ... I guess I should get them back on track from their sun exposure ... and plant re-pot up to a larger pot (one gallon size now as they are only about 6 months old)... keep in the large pot over winter ... and get plan to get them planted in the ground this coming spring after frost.  Right?

welcome to the forum.....sound like you will do well. 

Hello Newton,

So I'm going to hold off on putting these little guys in the ground this year and use the recommended "winter training" method and put them in the ground in the spring.  I'm attaching a picture ... when I re-pot into 5 gallon containers, should I bury the original scion?  It seems most of my figs have a really nice primary shoot ... and I'm always worrying that it'll snap off.  Maybe burying the whole thing down to where some of the new growth is under ground would help?  Attaching a picture of one (note, soccer ball is youth size).  These are Black Marseilles from Herman's stock.  Thoughts?

Looks great! I like to have a nice layer of potting mix underneath the roots when i pot up, but you can add more mix to the top as well, there should be enough room to do both. The wood is much stronger this late in the season so i doubt they will get snapped off unless there is some kind of major soccer-ball related accident.

the risk you run with burying deep is the chance of suckering.  if you don't mind having suckers (= more fruit potential) then ... no big deal.

Eventually that 'knot' where it branches off will just "melt" together, swell, and look part of the original trunk (you'll likely not know it was there 5-6 years down the road.

Ha... I like the soccer-ball accident!  I've got a bunch of kids ... so anything is possible!

Thanks guys ... guess I won't worry too much about burying them deep at this stage.  Thanks for looking over the plant pic ... it is helpful to have some extra eyes on the project as I don't know much about what I'm doing!

Really appreciate it.

Well ... I repotted (spelling?) all 6 figlets into 1.5 gallon pots and obviously didn't plant them outside this season (they were only rooted this past spring) as the group recommended. 

They are all very happy on the back deck.  The local nursery said I should leave them out in the elements until late fall (even up to December) but bring them into a cool dark garage prior to a hard freeze.  The fella said they need lots of cool weather to go fully dormant.  Last week we got pretty close to frost and the top leaves drooped but came back.  I'm now a little nervous about the advice since I've been babying these cuttings for 9 months!  Any thoughts or advice?

-Ryan

I usually have to force dormancy by cutting off the irrigation. For small figs in pots, though, it shouldn't matter if they're totally dormant as long as you get them indoors before it freezes. I'll keep this year's cuttings growing actively as long as I can, by keeping them outside whenever possible and only bringing them in if there's a freeze warning. That worked great last year--if I remember right, most kept growing through December before dropping their leaves after a couple of light frosts. 

Newton - I see no injury due to excessive photo-exposure (sun). The first picture shows mechanical injury with some die-back of surrounding leaf tissues as a result of damaged leaf vasculature. The symptoms of sun damage are quite specific and don't vary much from plant to plant. Sun damage occurs in unacclimated plants when high light intensity levels cause chlorophyll molecules to rise to a more excited state than normal. If light levels are high enough, the energy that is released as electrons in molecules return to their normal energy state may be sufficient to form 02- oxygen radicals from O2. These are the same O2- radicals found in H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide, a bleaching agent) and are extremely reactive, readily destroying chlorophyll molecules through oxidation. The entire process and technical term is photo-oxidation, and we generally refer to it as sunburn. The initial symptoms are irregular patterns of silver or grayish coloration of leaf tissues due to the destruction of chlorophyll. These symptoms usually change quickly to obviously necrotic brown spots in most plants, but in plants with very succulent leaves the spots may first turn black.
 
The clear spots you see on the foliage near the maple tree are likely honeydew (excreta) from a scale infestation ..... probably cottony maple scale, but other species are a possibility. The honeydew very commonly acts as sustenance and a good growing environment for another pathogen called sooty mold, which blocks sunlight & slows photosynthesis in a direct relationship to how much leaf surface is covered.
 
The second picture leaves me wanting to say you need to look to the rhizosphere (root environment) and excessive water retention combined with over-watering as being causal of the spoiled foliage that wasn't obviously mechanical injury, which also covers the wilting issue nicely.
 
FWIW - I think fertilizers in the 2:1:2 ratios (as yours is) or 3:1:2 ratios are most appropriate for trees in containers, but because containers are fairly hostile environments for the micro-organisms that break down slow release fertilizers like your 4-2-4, you never know what fraction of the fertilizer applied will be available, or when. If you could find a soluble product in one of the same ratios, I think it would work better for you by virtue of the fact you'll know exactly what will be available, as well as how much of it. The other question is when, and the answer if you're using a soluble product is immediately.
 
I hope that was helpful?
 
Al    

Al / Ken - great information... especially Al's overview of photo-exposure.  

I noticed this afternoon a couple of the plants have a few tiny (the size of a large pea) figs budding.  What should I do?  Let them grow or pinch them off?

pinch.

Cool... thanks Jason - thought that seemed like the right thing to do!  Appreciate the feedback.  -Ryan