Im showing pictures of my small plants under a 6500k grow light single strip. I have learned a little about fig mosaic mind you im just a novice at gardening its fun for me 2 things for me i learned what to look for the oddball spotting weather its different shades of green spotting or sometimes a type of yellowish in the leaves, to put it another way, the chlorophyll in the leaves looks bad but sometimes not to bad and can be hard to spot without a nice closeup look and im trying to point this out in this thread a little for some not to familar with it. Another sign from what i have read on this disease that not only affects fig trees but also tobacco plants and potatoes to name a few is mishappen leaves such as the case with my large trees that show a few mishapen ones but not the spots in the leaves. I always thought the large ones Hardy chicago, EL Sals, and my 2 unknowns were virus free but in reality they are not as they have the mishapen leaves not a lot but just enough to notice otherwise there very healthy from pictures i have posted showing them on my patio and always bear hundreds of figs each year. Did one of my trees infect the others the answer is NO, even my unknown from Bari italy which i rooted myself and grew it by itself one winter indoors some years back showed the mishapen leaves, they all had it from the beginning. Can 1 infect another YES through pruning shears, bugs biteing one and going to another and doing the same. So i personally think that most of us have this virus thru one means or another and some might think no not me but take a real close look this growing season for what is mentioned above and with a trained eye you will know 1 way or another i think weather mishapen leaves or the spotting. Most trees deal with it very well and a small few have a hard time like the black ischia. There is a cure for an individual plant but thats for another thread. Here are some pictures of my plants and a brief description of what your looking at. I hope this helps some.
Martin
Kalamata leaf underside looks good, just wait till next picture

Below is same Kalamata leaf looking topside notice if you can what i call a slight yellowish type in the chlorophyl

Below is my Madeira leaf underside, see the dark green spots

Below is my Madeira leaf topside showing the spots

Below is Argetile leaf underside, although that 1 leaf looks bad the overall condition of plant is pretty healthy and grows well like the other ones pictured, i have noticed some plants dont show the virus in all the branches or leaves, is it in the cells of the branches that dont show it i simply do not know the answer but i think it would be but thats just speculation on my part.

In the future i hope to post pictures of plants thriving outdoors as im sure they will with some care as usual and im truly thinking they will turn out like my bigger container trees. As for my Black ischia well thats the real challenge for me as the 1 i have is quite sick and im hopefully getting some more sticks from ucdavis to experiment with.
I also want to give thanks to the folks and you know who you are that took the time to root , package, go to post office and there PRECIOUS time in doing the above for me.
MANY MANY THANKS!!!

Thanks Martin. I think I have a few just like yours. That is something that we all will have to adjust too. If they are give plenty of figs. I don't care.

Great pictures Martin. Certainly helpful in spotting the signs. I've been doing some reading on this topic as well and I think I agree with your comments. As I think back to this past season, I recall quite a few misshapen leaves and some discolorations that are likely the result of some level of FMV. It's encouraging to know that most trees can tough it out and still be productive.

Thanks dieseler for taking time and posting.
Refereeing the last 5th photo of Argetile (Argentile?) in diesler post which shows a bad leaf, will it not be better to remove that one leaf since probably in its current state it is not helping the plant but can be a source of mosaic spread via biting bugs?

Ottawan,
i can't remove that leaf its me favorite one!  ; )

yes thats true, and brings up another question which i cannot answer and only speculate at, if there is a healthy looking branch with no signs of the FMV on same plant that shows FMV on some of its other branches leaves is that one branch mosaic free or is the FMV within all the cells?
If that branch somehow is mosaic free then a cutting could be taken free of the virus?
I ran across and i cant remember where that the FMV affects the cells which help or do make the plant grow as they are suppose to keep on splitting and therfore multiplying and making the plant grow. Which brings me to think about my black ischia and the FMV it has for it does not grow, oh it grew its leaves back after i cut them off and grew them back very slowly in the same place the originally were just to fall off again, then i uprooted the plant soaked the roots in Superthrive which contains they say 50 combined vitamens and hormones that plants need and replanted in fresh good potting soil. The plant started to grow what looked like healthy leaves in the same place again but then fell back off, it refuses to sprout in new places on the plant itself and i imagine it might sprout new leaves once again . Although the one horizontal branch now looks like its starting to shrivel, did i finally get it to meet its doom im not sure yet as the main trunk would be all thats left and its about thick as a marker and kind of ancient looking it that makes any sense . Total height i think is about 8 inches. So i have hopefully some sticks from ucdavis coming as a backup to further experiment with, i just think the FMV somehow affects this type of fig black ischia more so than others but dont understand why so , (im just average gardener but im a curious one) i would think that the fig tree has basically the same internal structure makeup as the next fig tree so why does it seem all ischia trees are so badly affected? Sorry about verring of your question and long post.

For a still rooting fig twig; any bad-looking, sick, ugly, you-name-it  leaf, it is very much better than NO-leaf-at-all. Leaves (with the initial roots) do help produce much of that initial energy required by that poor twig to trive (assuming one stll wants the twig).

dieseler
Miracles do happen and one will be a fig tree with mosaic on one branch and not on another unless the plant was without mosaic and a branch got it now which means it is just a question of time for it to spread to other branches. If it was from a cutting from a Mosaic inflicted plant then all branches should have it. but different branches can show it differently or the same way.
(Caveat: I am not saying this based on any botany knowledge but just common observations).

I also have a fig plant that has not changed in size from 4" for the last 7 months. It dropped all leaves sometimes ago and now it has pin-head size green dots for possible shoots but the dots have not grown for a number of weeks. I keep it away from my other plants because I suspect mosaic.

to join the fun ... I have a Ventura cutting that put out four very nice leaves. Or so I thought until I put it in a sunny window and now I see it has FMV for sure. Should I get rid of it or see if it grows well or not? Also, how bad is the risk that my other plants will get it? I know they say all figs have it, but can they get it worse from another infected plant?

Gorgi,
yes your advice is right on as usual. I always leave the leaves on until later along with branches until i start to form it to take on a tree shape as i favor that shape in the containers . I always look forward to your posts.

Ottawan ,
you say this
(Caveat: I am not saying this based on any botany knowledge but just common observations.

to me thats the best way period and i understand what you mean thanks !

Steve give it a chance as if you toss it you never know what you lost only a fig tree with FMV, i kinda glad i did not know about this FMV when i first started out but in hindsite i did see  some of this spotting on those large trees on patio when they were young, just did not give it any thought one way or another at the time, now i dont see it only this way in the mishapen of some leaves, i know the trees have several different leaves and thats not it as i can still see it by some of  the leaves that are badly distorted. I wish i had the means back then to take pictures but i did not. Those are the pictures i have shown in the past of the large trees on patio that i speak of.
You can isolate your particular one if you choose to keep it. As for the ischia black i have i will continue to fuss with it one way or another until it dies and do the same with the ischia black sticks i get from ucdavis as i have lots of time to at least i hope.

Thanks Marting for the advice. I think I am planning on keeping it because it looks like a good fig based upon the F4F information. It was just disheartening to see it so obvious on this cutting that seems to be doing really well otherwise. It's like having an ugly baby :o)  you know deep down it will grow up to be just fine! Sure hope no one gets offended by that little joke.

Steve, there are no ugly babies.
But there are ugly people in this world, as i have seen more than my share in almost 30 years working for the rapid transit system in chicago, from the down and out homeless , shootings, people being rob yes the whole ten yards right in my face. I truly could right a book on these things, ill stop now.
But a baby brings brings new hope.
I know Steve what you mean no offense its meant not to offend anyone, but truly those fig trees can be quite different when hard hit.

Nobody says you don't love an ugly baby ;) and that's my point - watching this little guy grow is a joy and why it's bugging me that it has FMV - it didn't do anything to deserve it. Of course, I will love and care for it just like the rest. And I agree with you there are quite a few ugly people in this world (referring of course to their actions). I've seen a few of these myself.

Then there are the good folks of this community ... who share their experience, help others and give selfishlessly. Stay well.

Picture of the infected Ventura cutting. Looks worse in person than in the picture.

Steve,
if you keep the fig plant let us know how it does this coming season.

USDA considers it ubiquitous. County and State Ag departments in CA do not consider it an issue at all. Most, if not all, plants that exhibit symptoms (splotchy or deformed leaves) grow perfectly fine, often into huge trees, and bears tons of fruit. Some trees "seem" to be more affected, but there are no uninfected trees for comparison.  Not all trees are infected, and not all show symptoms, and most only show symptoms during a portion of the season. I cannot name a single nursery selling uninfected stock (Paradise claimed to, before closing).

Update on the health of the Ventura. Attached are recent pics of the plant from the earlier pictures. As you can see, now that it is putting out growth, the leaves look healthy. What I have noticed is that FMV shows more when a plant is stressed and less when it is growing strong. The earlier pics were right after it was potted. The newer pics are during a period of strong growth. You can still see the younger leaves that showed strong FMV. The newer leaves show no signs.

Steve,
looks like it will deal with FMV well , glad you did not dispose of plant.
I have feeling you wont see anymore leaves like that 1 on the bottom , just an ocasional odd shaped one.
Steve im curious so maybe later in season if you could post again about plant that would be nice.
Best Luck

Martin,

I certainly will follow-up later. I've also seen the same behavior on a few of my other varieties (stress = more FMV expressed). Typically on the small recently transplanted ones. Once they are off and growing, very little deformed or discolored leaves.

So far I have been feeding infected plants with a higher nitrogen and stronger fertilizer every watering and it seems to make the paler, more infected or mosaiced leaves darken up quite a bit and start to grow more.  I know it wasn't nitrogen deficiency as I feed healthy trees less and they are more green.