5 minutes at 1 gallon per hour is 10 oz of water every 3 days. Livermore averages 86*F in the summer, and we've had lots of heat waves where it's gone into the 90*F quite often. It also looks like you've lost leaves too. I suspect that is not enough water for your tree in your climate. I'm in the Santa Clara Valley, not far from you, and I water my container citrus quite a lot more than that. I've been watering them with probably a half a gallon (32 oz) every 3 days, and more when the temps go over 90*F. Citrus will drop fruit if they are too dry or too wet. I'm betting yours has been too dry. It's also lost leaves too. So, I think it's not getting enough water,imo . Now if you increase your water, I suggest re-potting in a better draining mix. If you try and water more in your average potting mix, you may have drainage issues, which can cause your mix to not have enough air in it, which can cause other issues. There is a mix that is favored by a lot of folks on this forum for growing citrus in, it's called the "5-1-1 mix". Put that name into the search box for this forum and you'll get the recipe. It supports more frequent watering than you've been doing while allowing the better drainage and air retention that that level of irrigation needs. Miracle Gro shake and feed is OK, but it's not a good ratio for citrus. I prefer Osmocote Plus. It works pretty much the same as the MG shake and feed, but has a better ratio for citrus. You can get it at most good Garden Centers.

Oksana - I water with normal tap water, which is from the Great Lakes of good quality. Ozone is used for primary disinfection here, along with Chlorine gas. Calcium thiosulphate is also used for dechlorination and ozone quenching. I used to let my water sit for a couple days, but once I figured out which technology the local water treatment plant is using I stopped. Unfortunately, I do not know the PH of my water. My PH meter should arrive next month and I am curious to see the result. My watering frequency was every 2 or 3 days outside during the summer. Now every 4 days inside under lights since things have cooled down. I am fertilizing every other watering at ~1/4 strength. For fertilizer, I am using two. The first is liquid Miracle Gro 12-4-8 with micronutrients. It has a few micronutrients (there are very many for plants). The second is DNF Gro which is a two-part liquid, 2-0-2 and 0-1-3 with different micronutrients. Once my EC meter comes in, also next month, I am planning on taking some additional measurements as well. Could you share what you are using as well?

i think plants can recover without leaves too though. trees shed theif leaves in autumn and still grow it back. dont know about ficus elastica, but its a tree too if im right. Not quite. You are right about one thing-plants can come back after a complete defoliation if they have enough energy to do so. Here's the thing-you're comparing deciduous trees with tropical plants. Deciduous trees are made/are used to annually shedding their leaves during the autumn season. They store up tons of energy during the growing season and store it in their branches and trunk before shedding their leaves (I think-I'm not too well versed with this kind of thing) However, tropical plants are a different story entirely. Their natural habitat does not see a proper winter (temps below freezing, snow, etc.). They have more or less consistent warm temperatures all year. They are not designed to annually shed their entire foliage system; nor are they adapted to withstand winter conditions. I believe they do store energy, but not to the same extent as deciduous plants do-tropicals don't worry about the winter season. This means that if something happens which causes all of their leaves to drop, the plant will be stressed. If conditions return to normal, the plant should slowly grow all its leaves again. Too much of this, however, and the plant may run so low on energy reserves that after one final defoliation it will be unable to push a leaf and will die. It's important not to mix deciduous trees and tropical plants-if you put your ficus outside during the winter and treat it like a deciduous tree, it will most likely die and not come back during spring. If exposed to cold temps (below 50*F) cold damage will occur to its leaves and/or branches. If it stays too cold for too long, the roots themselves may freeze-resulting in the death of the plant. Now onto your plant- but i have to worry less about overwatering with perlite anyway, right? Again, not exactly. Perlite helps with a little aeration, but unless the soil mix contains a LOT of perlite overwatering will still be a problem. Keep using the wooden dowel method for the future. How are outdoor temperatures right now in your area? If it's warm enough, perhaps you could put it outdoors and let nature work its magic. I'm honestly unsure whether or not it'll come back, but I do agree with what others have said-if this plant does end up dying, don't feel so bad about it. It'll be important that you understand exactly why it died, so you don't make the same mistake again with future plants.

We've been in the 60s-70s F pretty steadily since I took it outside with nighttime temps occasionally as low as 50F. Plenty of sunny and rainy days with no long stretches of just sun or just rain. I have it under an overhanging porch roof on a table because I lost a few branches to rabbits last year. It gets direct sun from about noon-7pm every day. I've been fertilizing with Miracid (I know, I need something nicer) every two weeks since I put it outside. Thanks for the replies so far; I'll try to put up a photo tonight.