Nobody,(Comercial nursery)can guaranty free fig mosaic stock.
I am sure,in USA ,there are many old,single figs growing in Backyards,that are free of fig mosaic.
You want to find those trees,take cuttings,and grow them.
Now when you get a new young tree coming in,you suppose to keep it isolated,(FAR AWAY)till it grow leaves,to see if it carry the virus,and if it does,you have to Discard it right away,before it will contaminate your main tree.
Hope this will help

FMV has been discussed several times. In opinion of some renowned experts, like Pierre Baud, all the fig trees of old varieties are infected. The supposedly FMV free trees are really those grown in good conditions that don't show the symptoms, but the virus is there. On the contrary, in stressed conditions (water deficiency or waterlogged, etc...), the symptoms tend to appear. That is the difference. Some varieties are more prone to show the symptoms than others.

I have several varieties grafted in the same tree, and sometimes there are leafs of a variety that show symptoms and the other varieties are apparently healthy.

Do you really believe that any tree of those old varieties (some of them several hundred years old) can be free of FMV?

In any case, it is mainly admitted that FMV is a minor disease.

Daniel, It might be of interest to you that FMV has been eliminated in fig stock by applying temps of 37C to excised and growing shoots being grown on an agar medium in vitro. This was done by a group of scientists in Spain. I have not seen any published reports of this being done in the U.S.

Thank you for the feedback. So how reliable do you think observing a tree for a period of time for symptoms would be in determining its status? Are there any good galleries of pictures that would demonstrate the leaves of a tree with signs of FMV?

elder,
That's very interesting. Do you know of anyone that has tried that procedure in a home setting? Thirty-seven degrees C doesn't seem hot enough to eradicate a virus. It seems I saw a post on the forums that advised how to do in-vitro in the home.

37C is about 99F, and that's a pretty heft amount of heat. If you are truly interested in the in vitro process I would advise going to the web site of Kitchen Culture Kits. A word of warning, it is not just a simple procedure, and without a hood with a Hepa filter and positive airflow, and an autoclave, the chance for contamination increases.

Plus, after several weeks of this heat treatment, they dissected out the growing tip of the plant likely under a microscope and implanted it sterilely in the growing media (meristem culture). Its not just the heat alone, the shoot tip is naturally low in virus since the cells are dividing so quickly.

Axier has a good point. Can a fig variety that has been around for hundreds of years never have been exposed to fig mosaic virus?

As I understand it, Paradise Nursery (which closed last year) was a source of FMV free fig trees. I have a few varieties from them, and may have enough to trade next year. Perhaps this is the best solution, keep you collection limited to a few desirable varieties and trade with similar minded folk. If infection is inevitable, at least you've gotten a good start in the first few years.

CM