I was wondering if any of the members sprays fig trees with copper (sulfate, hydroxide etc...)
My father used to do it several times a year and his fig trees were healthy and had no sign of mosaic or mites.
Sal
10b

I have but only when I have rust issues. I think there is something on the bottle that says its not to be used on food crops, but im careful and only spray the infected leaves.

  This is a timely question -- I was just about to post a similar one but found this post using the search feature.
  Do you mind if I broaden the topic from copper spray in particular to horticultural oil spray in general?

  I recently received a new tree and just noticed a bunch of scale on it.  I can pick off some of the bigger buggers by hand, but I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to spray this tree (and maybe ALL my trees) with some kind of "dormant oil" or "winter oil" horticultural spray to smother any pests that might be lingering.

  Does anyone routinely do this to all their trees for the winter?  Has anyone just done it to trees with specific problems?

  I've come across some recipes on the web for homemade oils (e.g. canola oil, soap and water) that might be worth a shot.

  All my trees are in containers and stored together, so I'm worried about cross-contamination between the trees.

Jim

We spray our vineyard with neem when they are dormant, but the figs do just fine.

Suzi

I read some time ago that scales must be controlled because otherwise they spread and the infestation might become so severe that they suck most of the sap and the tree eventually dies. In extreme cases of infestation Malathion  could become the only solution in order to save the tree. Neem works aspreventive measure but is of little help once the tree has been infested.
Sal

Years ago, my first attempt of growing a fruit tree in a container was a Meyer lemon. It was infested with scale before I knew what was going on. I didn't use anything toxic to fight them, but what I used didn't work, and the tree eventually started to look like it was on it's way out. I put it outside and sprayed it with the hose, many of the scale came off, this really didn't matter. It froze pretty hard that night and I forgot to take the tree back in(I don't know maybe I had given up).
  What I learned is that this killed my tree, but it also killed every one of the scale bugs on the tree as well. Was there any form of scale still in the soil, I don't know, I tossed the soil and started over. The point is, maybe you could put the infested tree out for a freeze treatment. Granted, I don't know if your tree is still very small, or has green wood on it, if either is the case then a freeze is probably a bad idea.
Maybe this is helpful.

Use a light horticultural oil or neem on the scale that has formed the protective shell. It will smother them. If you have crawlers (earlier stage) use malathion. The two can be mixed together to get both. Very effective.