When Ficus b is moved from dimmer to brighter, it rewards you with back-budding & better o/a vitality. When you move it from the greenhouse or a bright location to a location with "... a decent amount of indirect sun (when its sunny) for half the day while the 6' gets about half that", the trees normal reaction is to shed leaves. I've explained the mechanism many times, so I won't go into the physiology of why this occurs. The light you describe may be enough to allow the tree to survive, but it's not enough to allow it to thrive - it just won't be happy. Ficus b appreciates full sun, unless it's variegated, in which case it may need some protection during the hottest part of the day, depending on where you live. Ficus b leaves have a very thick cuticle, so there is no reason to mist this plant, and misting is ineffectual anyway. I grow well over a dozen, maybe 2 dozen perfectly happy Ficus b plants indoors and out that never see a drop of water on their foliage other than rain. Water established plants when the soil is dry to the touch at the drain hole, or wait a day or two after the soil feels dry. If you're watering so a good amount of water passes through the soil and out the drain, you're watering correctly. If you're concerned with the soil remaining wet too long and the root rot that can accompany that condition, you need to take a closer look at the soil the plant is in and perhaps plan on repotting into something more forgiving before summers end. Once the current canopy is done shedding, new leaves will appear, but the weeping habit of new branching as it extends will be much more pronounced than old branches grown under more intense light, unless you get the plant into better light. Good luck. Al

@JMJ 4Life Really sorry to learn about your tree. I assume some part of the root mass is fused, so the soil/root mass remains intact like so: If the answer is yes, unpot the plant and set the root/soil mass on a stack of newspapers, rags, old towels, dry sponges - something that will PULL excess water from the soil. Allow it to rest on the wicking material for an hour or two before returning it to the pot it fits. Use a wooden "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water, because with no water loss from foliage, the plant will require very little water. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips in order to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions - which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma and creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell' (more reliable than a 'moisture meter'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) works better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half or in several pieces, depending on how deep your pots are. Sharpen both ends of each tell in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell's tip comes out nearly dry. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al

We recently moved into a new house. In the middle of the front lawn there is a group of small trees. It appears, based on my limited knowledge that some of them are apple trees, and one is a cherry. I found a picture of this house from about 2 years ago, and it had a very small apple tree in the same spot bearing some decent looking apples. I'm thinking someone wanted this other tree (what I'm guessing is a cherry) instead of the apple, but didn't remove enough of the tree. thus the multiple trees in a single location. I was hoping I could get these trees Identified, if possible, and what to do about keeping the trees. I live in the Boise Area of Idaho. the wife and I both want cherry trees in the long run. But we are poor and probably can't buy any trees for a few seasons. So looking for advice / identification if possible. For the pictures please see: Drop Box Link

The last two remind me of herbs. Second to last looks like some kind of basil, and the last might be a mint... like spearmint or catnip. Easy to tell by rubbing leaves and sniffing.