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Willow Leaf Ficus

18 years ago

I have a willow leaf ficus that has been in it's pot for about 2 years now. When I brought it in for the winter, it dropped all its leaves. It is just now starting to get new leaves. I noticed at last watering that there are tiny bugs in the soil which is mostly gravel with a small portion of soil. I don't know if they are jr. fungus knats (have seen some adult flys in the house but not that many in this room), but they are so small I could hardly see them with a mag glass.

I wanted to repot it in spring, but would like to get rid of the bugs before they spread to other trees. Could I pot it now at the begining of a growth spurt or should I wait til spring and treat the soil now? If treat the soil, can you make any suggestions.

Thanks in advance

Jim

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Comments (2)

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
18 years ago
We have just turned the corner on the shortest days of the year, and though daylength is increasing, it's still a very poor time to consider a repot of your tree unless it's a dire emergency, or unless you have excellent indoor lighting and good temp/humidity levels. Replacing lost foliage places a heavy demand on the energy reserves of even trees that were growing vigorously before defoliation. What you're seeing shouldn't be confused with a "growth spurt". I would look for a remedy other than repotting at this time to eliminate the soil insects. When your tree has regained some vitality & about to begin growing aggressively (late June or early July where you live) repot if needed.

Gnat larvae can often be eliminated by allowing the soil to become quite (but not completely) dry between waterings.

Aggressive pruning and thinning of foliage when you bring the tree in in the fall will allow more light to remaining foliage & help stop the near complete defoliation you describe. It's less demanding on the tree to remove half the foliage to save the other half, than it is to allow all the foliage to remain, only to see the tree defoliate completely.

Al
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
18 years ago
I was in a rush & forgot to mention that diatomaceous earth, sprinkled on top of the soil will kill any insects it contacts. It is made of the glass-like skeletons of tiny organisms (diatoms) and works by piercing or slicing through the exoskeleton & causing death by dehydration.

Al
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Almost ..... If those branches are bar branches (last picture in your first series), and it looks like they are, the extra chop would be on a plane between just above the slightly higher branch to just above the lower branch - almost a horizontal chop. The slightly higher branch is then trained upward & the slightly lower branch becomes the tree's first branch. As it is now, the branches occur at nearly the same level. The reason I mentioned that is because I judged the Detroit area bonsai show last year and remember there was a F nerifolia that probably would have rec'd recognition if it wasn't for the fact that the lowest 2 branches were bar branches. Just a side note: I find it absolutely amazing that I can't put a face to a name worth a darn, but I remember all sorts of seemingly unimportant information about plants. I can also look a tree over briefly in the course of my travels, & then remember whose it is/was several years later when I next run across it, and even see what work (even if it was substantial) was done to it in the interim period. ;-) Al
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