My Black Ischia from UCD last year is in the same condition. It only sent out two yellowed leaves rife with FMV. It was also one of my trees that did not go dormant this year. At lease it did not drop these 2 leaves.

Mid Jan it started growing again and has produced 2 tiny new leaves. The apical tip looks strong. Hopefully this year it will gain the strength needed to survive.

{{gwi:752292}}

Yes,Dieseler,I cut it down in third year back to base,as it was dying,and later on it grew very nice that year and fruited too.
The best tasting fruits no doubt.
Yet this Last Sommer the fruits did not ripe due to cold Sommer with less heat units.
I can also see major winter Damage this winter,sending it back close to ground level,to grow in the Spring.
Yet I think Mine is established and this coming Spring,it will grow fast,and will produce ripe fruits again.
Believe it or not this is the corect and true Fico Nero of the Italians.
So I will keep it and see if I can really make a large tree out of it.
If you want to see picture of my plant,Search Black Ischia in the search Box on this Forum.
Happy Gardening

Thanks for posting Herman
I just saw the pictures and the leaves look excellent, the trunk is nice as well. The figs look terrifc and you rated its taste as a 10, so this is something im going to keep trying to grow as i can be stubborn like just like my plant. I had placed an order with ucdavis for this type along with the plant i have, im thinking since im over fertilizing the 1 i have if it dies i have maybe another to try and do something with. Please keep us posted as to how yours is coming along next season as its very encouraging to see a nice Black Ischia.
Best Health
Martin

Svanessa,
yours looks similar to mine when mine had leaves, i did not see any of those brown spots on mine but the misshapen leaves and the light and dark green in the leaf is same as mine. Please keep us posted on how your does and thanks for replying.I just saw a bud on mine that looks like it has promise but i know it will take forever to open and grow so slowly as it has done before but maybe this spring outdoors might help it or something if i dont kill it with all the nutrients and fertilizer its getting when it needs its watering.
Best Health
Martin
Best Health
Martin

Well Dieseler:The best cure to this Problem,would be to Find a fig in Italy right now,exactly of this cultivar,and Get cuttings from it.
I have a hint that in Italy,this fig has Healthy Brothers,that will make a healthy tree .
Yet,I coresponded with a couple of Italian Gardener and They do not have it But other cultivars similar to it.
I am sure that at one Time It was very popular in Italy,but Probably that just like Here the big agrbussiness decided,It is not enough Large and productive to Perpetuate it and so,Is rare Today.
Best Regards
VS

Herman your very right, i have talked to someone in Italy and what they told me was that name is not familar to anyone he knows and perhaps it goes by another there. Only other way and its almost impossible for us gardeners but has been experimented with is to cut the smallest emerging bud, they dissect the inside and capture what they call the meristem barely visible to our eyes and propagate it thru several process and the end result is a plant that grows free of the virus until reinfected by another. This was all done in a lab enviorment and all the steps are very sterile, tools used petri dishes, extracting equipment etc,etc. It was found that that part they extracted has yet to be infected as it grows fast and the virus moves more slowly and has yet to infect it . But thats basically for someone that has a lab and knows what there doing. I mention this as it is possible but not for the average person to do.
What scares me and i doubt if i live to see it is that viruses perhaps mutate into something much worse not only in fig trees but in other areas of crops as well. Thanks for your input and knowledge.
Best Health
Martin

Dieseler:Black Ischia Name can't be found in Italy,because Phillip Miller,An English nursery man,imported Four cultivars from around Napoly,and Island of Malta.
As he was making his way back to England He lost The Tags,so,when they fruited He Named them new names according to color and where it found the trees(island of Malta).
All Ischias,Black green,brown and white,are names given by Miller,and not the original names the figs will be called in Italy.
So that is why ,is hard to find them now.
They are thre but under their normal name.
I think,Black Ischia is mostly Found under the name Black Fig,Or Fico Negro,or Nero.
This is how it should be looked after in My opinion.
Best Regards

Ciao Martin, No Black Ischia is not the original name in Italy. But remember, off the coast of Italy, In the Region of Campania, Province of Napoli, there is a wonderful Island with many nice people called Ischia. Maybe this is one of the places the above mentioned Englishman took his cultivars back to England from. Island of Ischia is just off the coast of Napoli, ( Naples ) Italia. Okay. Ciao

Thanks for the information , i never new about this Englishman and the backround of the Ischia fig, a while back out of curiosity i did type in Ischia on the google site and it brought me to the island. I said to my self i just wonder if it was possible somehow that type came from there. Herman and Maggie thanks so much for the information.
Best Health
Martin

Hy Guys :Correction:Island of Ischia i ment but For unknown Reason I wrote Island of Malta.
I think I thought that way because I have a couple of black cultivars from the Island of Malta too.
Best Regards

Martin, here are some synonyms of Ischia Black ( Blue Ischia, Early Forcing, Nero)which i found going through some pages of ucdavis edu. files.I don't know if they are going to be any help or not.
Maria