I lived in the San Fernando Valley, about 35 miles north of Los Angeles, in the 1960's and 1970's, in a town called Granada Hills.

John Elway, later to become the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, was then going to Granada Hills High School, which was right down the street from me, and Richard Pryor lived a mile away in Mission Hills. (In fact it was there that he set himself on fire while cooking and smoking "crack", and ran out of his house, on fire, in the middle of the night, in the 1970's).

I lived on San Fernando Mission Boulevard, about a half mile from the actual San Fernando Mission--one of the original missions established throughout California by Catholic priests (I learned).

Close by, they were building the developments of Porter Ranch, and later Porter Ridge, on land the developers bought from heirs of the Porter family, who had, centuries before, acquired the land as a Spanish Land Grant (I was also told--plus, they had a copy of the Land Grant to the Porters on the wall at the development office).

So, in 1968, I lived in my first house that had a Fig tree in the back yard (unknown to me--it was dormant when I arrived).

I found the scruffy tree in a corner of the back yard, against a block wall (ALL back yards are surrounded by block walls in Southern California), and pruned all its tangled suckers away, and left the main trunk, which was about 10 inches (25 centimeters) in diameter at the base, and about 14 feet (4 2/3 meters) tall.

I radically pruned it in an "umbrella" shape--with no branches below 7 feet, so I could easily cut the grass beneath it (without poking my eyes out).

The bark of the tree was grayish-white, with darker gray "mottling", throughout. I had no clue what kind of tree it was until March or April, when it leafed out and later set about 5,000 figs, and later yet, ripened nearly every one. The ground beneath the tree was covered with ripe figs , and I had no idea what to do with them. I couldn't eat them all, and it seemed nearly everyone else in the neighborhood also had a Fig tree--so most just lay rotting on the ground.

The Figs were light colored ("white"), and a neighbor told me they were Kadota. He had a Black Mission Fig tree (which they simply called "Mission") and he told me everyone in the Valley had either a Mission or a Kadota tree, depending upon whether they liked black or white Figs.

I saw many hundreds of Fig trees in Southern California in the 15 years I spent there, and I don't ever remember seeing one that was infected with FMV (Fig Mosaic Virus). The trees I saw were mostly huge and healthy, with NO mottling on the leaves.

I happened to be in Southern California two years ago, and visited a friend in downtown East Los Angeles. She lives right off Brooklyn Avenue, the main street in the Boyle Heights area of East L.A.--a largely Hispanic area made famous by Cheech and Chong years ago, in a movie called "Up In Smoke".

While sitting on her balcony, I noticed what appeared to be a huge Black Mission Fig tree in her neighbor's yard. It was very bushy, and covered the entire south side of the stucco house (ALL houses are made of stucco in Southern California), and it was in full fruit. I estimated it to be about 15 feet (5 meters) tall, and about 50 feet (16 2/3 meters) long, and 15 feet (5 meters) deep (away from the wall of the house).

Of course I had to visit the tree, and meet its owner. He was a grown man, who told me his father, now deceased, had planted the Mission Fig many years before. I ate a dozen Figs, or so, which definitely looked (inside and out) like Mission Figs, and tasted as delicious as they looked.

I saw no sign of FMV anywhere on this huge tree (bush), nor could I detect ANY infirmities. It was double healthy.

He happily agreed to give my friend cuttings when the tree went dormant, and he pruned. My friend sent 3 cuttings to me late last Winter (about February), and all rooted easily when buried 4/5 of their length in garden soil, early last Spring. They grew to 3 feet (1 meter), or so, this past year, and I see no sign of FMV on any of them.

They're now potted and in my basement. I've yet to test their Winter hardiness, and wasn't about to kill them all, trying.

My point: I read here on this forum that FMV is prevalent in California and the West (particularly in Mission Figs), and wonder whether it truly is. Could it be that it's only prevalent in figs that have been sent from the infected collection at UC Davis, and from those Davis figs sold, given or traded to others? Are the posters reporting it prevalent those who are getting infected cuttings from Davis, only, or getting them from others who have gotten them from UC/Davis?

Of course I'm a bit out of the loop for not having lived in the West for 30 years, but when I lived in Southern California I saw no sign of FMV, and I saw no sign of FMV in the East L.A. Mission Fig a few years ago (and now in my basement).

Is there anyone from California on this forum who has not received infected cuttings from Davis, who can comment on their Figs, regarding FMV, and can comment on the percentage of figs in their area (NOT from UC Davis) that are or aren't infected by FMV?

I REALLY don't want to start another FMV discussion/debate-- that's been done to death. Just wondering what's become of all the healthy Fig trees of 30 years ago in Southern California--and wondering how many NOT infected by FMV still remain.