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is there hope for my Ficus Benjamina?

15 years ago

I have just been bombarded with 4 plants. One of them is a ficus benjamina. I believe that its pretty much dead. It still has some green leaves on it though, but most of the stems (I guess thats what their called), had dried up dead leaves on them. I pulled all the dead ones off, but I am wondering what to do next as far as caring for the plant. I was wondering also if I should give it some plant food.

Comments (2)

Mentha
15 years ago
Do not feed it! Give it way more light and no drafts and it will grow it's leaves back. Benjaminas are way sensitive to climate changes, give it time and a lot of light and it will be bushier than ever.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
15 years ago
I often see the advice given that you shouldn't feed a struggling plant, but that idea really isn't founded in good science or plant husbandry. You only need to ask yourself: "What if the plant is under stress/strain BECAUSE of a nutritional deficiency?" to realize that with some plants, if you follow that reasoning it's a death sentence. What you really need to do is identify the cultural conditions that are causing the stress/strain/decline and correct.

Drafts don't bother Ficus. After all, they live in the outdoors and go through typhoons with only mechanical damage. It's when you introduce chill along with the drafts is when you start to see abscission layers forming and the accompanying defoliation. Ficus will tolerate a fair amount of gradual chill (as when left outdoors on the porch as autumn approaches), but sudden chill, as when exposed to sudden cold drafts, is the culprit that causes leaf loss.

Ficus is not especially sensitive to ALL cultural changes, but it IS especially sensitive to the sudden chill already mentioned, and decreasing light levels. Those two cultural changes are the worrisome ones. With warming temps and increasing light levels (within reason) Ficus will reward you with increasingly robust growth.

If you answer a few questions, perhaps we can figure out a plan ....... Have you checked for insects (carefully/thoroughly, including scale and mites)? Are you watering it so the soil always feels wet, or allowing it to get almost completely dry - too dry? When you water, are you watering so at least 10-15% of the total volume of water you apply runs out the drain hole and are you sure the entire soil mass is getting water? How long since it has been repotted/potted up? Have you fertilized it - how often - with what? Have you looked at the roots - are they tan/whitish and earthy smelling or black and smelling sour?

Al
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Thanks! :) Your rooted cuttings make a lovely little tree but I'm not sure it's gonna be happy in that glass for long. My plantlets haven't grown much for a good while, only they filled their pots with roots. Not sure if the same's gonna happen to yours but if they grow, there won't be enough space. And to flush the medium you need holes at the bottom. All my semi-hydro plants are in normal pots with holes and saucer/cache pot underneath. The ones in non-draining glasses are bromeliads and they only get sprayed with water every now and then. I just wondered, how come your mother plant has plain green and variegated leaves at the same time?
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Hi Mike. If it were mine I would flush it out in its current container and then repot the next day. Prune the roots and remove all the old potting mix you can. Prune the top for shape and to reduce the total number of leaves. I am not sure what the leaf spotting is caused by, we actually talk about the edible fig in this forum and it is very different from other types of fig.
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Update: The ficus which can be seen in the middle of the first image died a few days after posting my first message in this thread. The one in the back of the first image is really thriving now. Since it was the healthiest, I decided to give it special care. It was quite frustrating to see them barely survive, so I read about anything on ficus benjamina care I could get my hands on and made it a challenge for me to get the healthier one to grow. It had artificial lighting as a supplemental light source for the past two weeks and it's like the plant exploded with new growth. In the end it seems like it was a matter of light, which it apparently was just waiting for. It's growing like crazy now. If there are interested people here, I could post some new pictures.
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