Hello, l need some help please. I recieved my fig a bit over 14 years ago. God love its heart it has been through 3 moves and one repotting. It has 11 trunks and is approximately 6 and a half feet tall. All the trunks are skinny and I have most of them bound to a stake, and it is still leaning. I would like to straighten it up. I had this weird idea of pulling all the trunks together and using gardening tape and starting at the bottom taping them all together to create one trunk. Please dont be horrfied, I dont have many plants and reallyhave no training. This one is special to me and would really appreciate some help to make it a healthy and attractive house plant. I live in north Alabama and it currently sitting on the back porch. Thank you in advance.

You're using the dowel correctly. Water when it first comes out dry. I will begin fertilizing per your recommendations--additional info to ensure I am using a good fertilizing regimen would be helpful. I'm not sure how often I should fertilize, and how that will change when the plants go dormant, and when that may be...I would expect that in October they would be at the end of their growing season, but they have both put out two new leaves in the last few weeks. They won't go completely dormant, but they will become largely quiescent or at rest but growing slowly. How fast they grow depends primarily on light levels, temperatures, and nutrition. If you invest in a container of Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, you won't need anything else. Did you read the link I left above about how to deal with water-retentive soils? My plan would be to flush the soil thoroughly asap, then fertilize with a full recommended solution of the FP 9-3-6. It makes more sense by far to tie your fertilizing frequency to your watering frequency. If you continue to water in sips for the winter, flush the soil every 6th time you water and fertilize right after with a full recommended dose. Using a full dose when the soil is still saturated means there won't be a full strength concentration in the soil solution because of all the water already in the soil. People that simply recite the advice that you shouldn't fertilize in winter usually tell you that the plant doesn't need fertilizer because it's not growing, but nutrients are used by the plant to keep its systems orderly and do more than grow, so your plant needs a full compliment of nutrients in the soil all year long. The plan I just laid out will help you maintain the proper ratio of nutrients at an appropriate concentration and prevent the ratio of nutrients (each to the others) from becoming out of balance, which can very quickly become a serious issue if you're watering in sips. More on flushing the soil if you actually plan on following that advice. You'll also find plenty of good info that will help turn your plant around if you follow the link. Speaking of, the plant that put out the deformed leaf is now producing leaves with holes...at first I feared it was pests, but it looks like they are just developing with holes in them. Would this be caused by the same water/fertilizing issues we've discussed? Very commonly, dry air causes a leaf of F lyrata to stick to itself before it unfurls. As the leaf opens, the 'stuck together' part often tears, leaving split leaves, or if the entire piece of tissue that's stuck to another part of the leaf's surface pulls free - a hole. This is very common in leaves that unfurl in winter when humidity is VERY low or in leaves that are in a cool, air-conditioned environment - especially if the cooled air blows over the plant. There are some nutritional issues that can cause weak or dead spots in the tissues of young leaves, but getting on a sound fertilizing schedule should put a stop to that. Al

It is not lacKing any light - as I said and Showed in my post. of course branches are getting longer - where else it this tree supposed to create growth? :) those buds did not just randomly show up on a trunk they are a result of pruning and appeared after someone has pruned it. They are second highest buds on a branch , first ones sprouted into branches. They are not dead Or dry, it may appear so on the picture because what you see is their sheaths still covering them. Those highest buds looked exactly the same in the beginning before growing and sprouting. If I look closesy I can see a peak of a green leaf underneath sheaths so I don’t believe they are dead. If you suggest they are axillary buds - they might be but that still means they are not dead, just dormant for an unknown period of time, so I wouldnt loose my hope just yet:)

I'll give you some homework that should be helpful. It will provide enough information that you'll know what questions to ask. Once you start asking questions, you'll likely get more answers than you bargained for. ;-) Click Me for "Long Term Care of Ficus in Containers. Al