I bought a Mission fig tree in NJ last year which originated from Monrovia Nursery. It showed no signs of FMV. Many have speculated that as the trees get older, the symptoms of FMV become less evident. Maybe the trees just need to get beyond some critical milestone and they fight it off. Perhaps some environmental factor (pollution, acid rain, global warming, 9/11, hippy love, Xbox, etc.) has made some trees more susceptible to FMV than others. I have many trees in Houston and the four trees I have in NJ which do not show signs (even recently rooted cuttings) of FMV... not very many of them came from UCD though. I don't know if this means they don't have it, or if they just don't show the signs of it. ~james

jspen jspen you are asking questions for which there are currently no clear cut answers. At this time the sheer number of university abstracts published on the subject is enough to boggle the mind. Not to mention the endless discussions about them. I gave up keeping up on them a couple years ago. This much we do know. What we as lay people call FMV is not. Its only the visual expression of a virus. In fact its not just one virus but many. Apparently there are many viruses that produce the same visual expression. Each can be spread to plants in different ways. Some by insects, some even through bird droppings. We also know that plants can have the virus and not exhibit any visual characteristics of infection. The only reliable honest to goodness way to know if a plant or tree is infected is by looking into that particular plants RNA. Then you would need to continually test the plant to be sure it had not become infected since the last test. Since visual cues of infection in infected tissues is so idiosyncratic. There are a myriad of theories that have yet to be proofed. One thing is for sure. Without continual RNA testing it is impossible to know with any certainty that any tree or plant is not infected. With what testing has already been done at the university level it appears that these viruses are prevalent and in fact endemic. It is more likely that any given plant is infected than not. In other words if you assume every fig tree you see is infected you will be right more often than not. With what little we already know its obvious that as lay people we cannot effectively fight FMV. We don’t even know if the trees in our yard have it or not. Ask yourself these simple questions. How can you fight something you cannot see? Something that can infect your trees without you even knowing it? Something that more likely than not my trees already have and I have no way of knowing? Again; Nearly every nursery and every fig collection has received trees and or cuttings from three main sources. All of which have long been infected. Not that they are the in any way responsible or the original source. Just stating fact. Not to mention all the collectors selling and trading trees and cuttings that originated from those sources. In closing. You cannot fight something you cannot see. It is utterly futile to fight something that spreads so easily. Someday people much smarter than I with lots of funding will find all the answers you are looking for after dedicating a lifetime research to the subject. When they find all those answers there is still a good chance they will find out its incurable and inevitable. I just don’t want to be the person spending all my waking hours trying to find out. Why would I? Most trees produce well in spite of the virus. Others appear only to be affected for a short time. Other varieties appear to show no signs even when RNA shows they are infected. Given all this I choose to spend my time thinking about other things. If or when a cure comes I’m sure someone will tell me about it. Perhaps that person will be you. One thing for sure. I’m certainly not going to pull anymore trees over it. Trying to fight something I can’t see ludicrous; tantamount to jousting at windmills. A blind baboon brain surgeon with one hand tied behind his back would have a better chance of success.

Read about FMV a lot, its effects, its spreading mechanism and more from post here and at Fig4Fun website by searching with "FMV". Concern about FMV are genuin but reading more will put you a bit at ease. What you are thinking is not impossible but not easy to keep FMV away and that it is not a disaster either. Seaching and reading will be worth your while. Start with http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4768535

Hmmm. My response won't show for some reason. Let me try again: Moses, glad to help and hope this is a problem you never have to deal with. Hoosierbanana's posts about his experience---here, at Ourfigs and at the now-defunct figs4fun forum---are what informed me. Spinosad is organic and very safe---and seemed to control but did not eradicate at my usage rates. A more aggressive spraying schedule *might* get them if they're present. Also, the addition of a manufacturer-recommended adjuvant *might* increase its effectiveness against fig mites by helping it better penetrate leaf tissues. Sulfur is known to be effective against fig bud and other eriophyid mites, and is what is commonly used by commercial growers. I've not tried it, however. I suppose it might burn plants, especially if applied in hot weather. (Sulfur would make a good dormant treatment---and intend to use it this fall . . . . just to be safe.) A microscope would probably be a good investment. I've been using a cheap Carson hand scope, but probably need to get something a little better. The mites prefer the undersides of young leaves, where they tend to blend in with leaf hairs, but can be found on mature leaves, too, if you have an outright infestation. They can also infest buds and fruit, making them hard to eliminate with contact sprays. Spiromesifen is not organic, but has low mammalian toxicity. The form I used---Forbid 4f---is not rated for edibles, but another less widely-available form, Oberon SC 240, is. (Small vials of Forbid are easy to come by on ebay---just be sure to buy from a highly rated seller---, and a little goes a long way: I used at the rate of 1 to 1.2 ml per gallon). I personally wouldn't be afraid to eat figs after they'd been exposed to a preventive spray of Forbid earlier in the season, but that's something everyone will have to decide on their own. Of course, this being my first fig year, I've only got two fruit setting at present. : ) Jeremiah p.s.---Thanks for sharing your results thus far! Is Little Miss Figgy a Bordeaux-type? Seems like I recall reading somewhere that it was a bud sport of Violette de Bordeaux.