During a recent visit to Florida I talked with a person from the Tampa Bay Chapter of Rare Fruit Growers Council International , www.rarefruit.org ,to see if there were favorite ways for folks in the area to deal with nematode problems.
I was referred to a U. of FL  publication called The Fig , fact sheet HS-27,by T.E. Crocker  March 1994 , that listed several nematode resistant Ficus species that some people use as a rootstock for Ficus carica. The species listed were :
F.racemosa (sometimes sold as F.glomerata)
F.cocculifolia
F.gnaphalacarpa
Do any members here have experience or knowledge about grafting onto these ?
Have you found it worthwhile ?  

You know I met a guy through facebook who said he was grafting ficus carica onto other rootstocks to resist nematodes. He is in Gainesville, FL. He seemed to have good luck with it. Must be a Florida thing.

These rootstocks are very cold sensitive , but I've heard that some growers in FL get by with some soil heaped up to the graft union for the Winter.
I'm interested in which rootstock is most successful  in case I can graft some for my parents in Fl. eventually.
If they can survive as far north as Gainesville that would be encouraging.

Kerry,

It sounds like you're onto something that may be worth a try. I think piling soil or mulch up around the cold-sensitive rootstock could be the answer. As long as freezing temperatures don't penetrate any depth into the soil, it should work for N Floridians. Just don't forget to move the soil back down below the graft union in spring.

I think there are one or two varieties that are native to the southern half of the state (I think Ficus citrifolia is one of them). I know the temps aren't the same there but I also know that they experience frost on occasion as far south as Naples & further. Most native trees are not effected by these frosts so you know that they at least withstands temps down to 30 or so.

Personally, I hope you give this a try. It would be nice to hear how this works out for you. Please keep us posted.

Bill ,
I only get down to Florida to see family once a year , so I won't be doing anything soon.
Just trying to see if any members here have found this to be useful and which of the rootstocks is best.
I have heard of a couple of people in the Plant City , Fl. area who are doing this , but did not have a chance to investigate further.

I could see this being a possibility in the Plant City area. It's warmer there than say Jacksonville or Tallahassee. But not nearly as sub-tropical as you go further south of Lake Okeechobee.

Looks like grafting on these nematode resistant ficus species is not that common of a practice.
I will need to talk to the fellow from The Rare fruit growers council to get more details. From speaking with him before, it sounded like nematode problems were a major limiting factor to healthy figs in the area.

Although I am a newby to this forum, I have been lurking here for years. Here in Hillsborough County, Tampa- Plant City. One of the major problems with grafting to a different root stock is that it does get down below freezing. The lowest I have seen it was eighteen degrees. It truly depends on the year and the protection afforded the trees. If your grafts were to suffer cold damage, then what would sprout in the spring would be your rootstock. Figs this far south are mainly seen as dooryard fruit. This is how the University of Florida has been treating them. I too would like to see more science put into RKN research concerning figs. However, with the fruit not being a major player in the ag field, I am not holding my breath. The best answer for me has been to grow them in pots.

This topic has gotten me wanting to buy a potted ficus tree to graft a fig cutting onto - just to see if it can be done :).

Please keep us updated on your successes/failures. 

Bill, if you are going to experiment with a ficus plant, you may want to consider using a mullberry source as well, since they all belong to the same Moraceae family. Just a thouhgt.
Frank

In my area of Florida we do have RKN like every other part of Florida but you rarely see a fig plant set back from it there are big old figs all over this area but most are Celeste or BT.

Some varieties may be more suseptible to RKN and suffer but grafting is risky when most years the figs burn to the ground here.

But I too have my collection in pots many varieties are in ground with a back up in a pot but so far the in ground don't have it but I go overboard with organic matter when I plant

 A three gallon pot will have a 3'x3' hole of compost, manure,native peat and pine bark fines and RKN don't like that kind of enviroment.

navillus ,
Thanks for adding your thoughts and the fact that you have come to just keeping them in pots.
 I also am just thinking of figs as a great dooryard tree there for my parents, as of now for them I've planted 5 in 25 gallon sub-irrigated pots and a few in smaller pots.
To have the option to put them in the ground on a nematode resistant rootstock would be handy and it was good to hear from the fellow at the Tampa Bay chapter of the Rare Fruit Growers Council www.rarefruit.org , Charles , that he and others in the county had good results with the rootstocks. He is in Plant City and he told me of a guy near Bartow, also using the grafted figs , who maybe had a small u-pik fig planting along with muscadines, not clear about that.
I guess they were grafting low enough that piling some soil around the graft union for freeze protection was not too hard , but I really didn't have time while down there to follow up like I wanted.

Jim ,it is interesting to know that there are big old figs all over your area of Florida. I was surprised when driving around Tampa this time , keeping my eyes peeled for fig trees , I never found one. Do you think rkn pressure is really variable around Florida ? I guess I could look that up somewhere.
Thanks for adding your soil mix recipe for planting in the ground.

Best ,
Kerry

Kerry,  LSU Purple is supposed to have nematode resistance, and it was bred for southern conditions.  It's supposed to be a good fig (after a while) and could be planted for itself, or tried as a rootstock.

Mary Ann ,
I sent an LSU Purple down with the intention of planting it in the ground down there. When I asked the guy from Tampa chapter of RFCI about LSU Purple, he said in his experience the nematode resistance wasn't that good overall.
So , I planted the LSU Purple in a sub-irrigated pot to grow for another year while I figured out what to do.
Kerry

I have a friend in the Tampa area on the mainland side who has older fig plants maybe 6-8 years one is LSU Purple I have not dug to see if it has RKN but the plants do well they just burn down every year and grow back to 8' or so with plenty of figs.

Its funny about RKN I have grown many different plants mostly in South Fl. all my life and have never given RKN much thought sometimes plants suffer and when you dig them out its obvious they have it hibiscus almost always have them but even in landscaper circles its not a topic of conversation much and as far as planting stuff in the ground here if its not something really rare I wouldn't hesitate if you are just planting for some figs.

RKN in Florida is kinda like alligators you just live with them

That being said no one should send plants to anyone without making sure they are not infected

That's good to hear Jim that your friend has figs that do well in the area , that gives me some hope.
Maybe it is just more site specific than I realized.
The site is pure sand , but I did add a good amount of organic matter when planting. 
I did plant 2 figs in the ground there 2 years ago, one grew only a tiny bit and the other planted close to the edge of a brick patio has grown some ,but a whole lot less than those in pots. I was hoping that as it gets older it can get enough roots under the patio where there should be fewer nematodes and it can get really growing after that.

How long does it take to grow F. glomerata from seed to grafting size?