Trees might react to cultural conditions (changes/limitations) immediately, but the symptoms often appear slowly, just as the results of less than perfect conditions might not be made conspicuously manifest until well after the plant was subjected to the cause. Very often, Ficus will be grown in full sun for a period, then acclimated to lower light levels for a period before shipping. At the time they are shipped, they might be stuck in a dark box or truck for several days, then jammed together indoors in a greenhouse or store where the lower leaves are completely shaded. The result of all this shading might not become conspicuous for 2 or more months after what caused it occurred. If a grower can't figure out what's wrong by X-ing off all the most likely problems (over-watering/poor root health being a really big one, insects, disease, light, temperature, nutritional issues), it's often most productive to forget trying to isolate a single cause and concentrate on making sure all the cultural conditions the plant is influenced by are as close to the sweet spot as possible. Have you grown other Ficus in the spot the one pictured is in and kept them happy? Al

Hello, Thank you for the quick responses! I try to water when it's dry (although some people said, let the soil be moist still), but I will try the dowel method. (I have just been using my finger). I figure I'll stop watering for a bit and see if its that, because I had just watered him recently and he's still going downhill. Now almost ALL the leaves are drooping, the bottom ones are turning yellow and falling off. I seriously have no clue why. Is there anything else I could do? I moved him a very short distance to a window that has a bit more sun (he was ONLY getting indirect light). It's warm in our house. I thought misting the leaves would help, but maybe I should stop? I used a cactus potting mix, a miracle gro potting mix and perlite so it has nutrients, but is also well draining. I even added some orchid fir bark because the original pot from the greenhouse had some in it. Not very much though. The pot has good drainage holes (It's only sitting in the basket). I haven't fertilized because I have read not to fertilize a hurting or shocked plant. Should I have moved the roots around when I potted up? I only water with filtered water (no rain water because I'm in Canada and we only have snow right now). Thank you! It is gorgeous, but it won't be if all his leaves fall off! :( Thank you so much for your help. I am reading the article and it's full of great information. Thank you so much for providing all of that! That's incredible. I would love it if you could help me keep my fiddle leaf fig from circling the drain!

The tape is to keep the cat away?The lean is no problem. You can correct that when you repot, which won't be quite the chore you think it will be. You can prune and repot at the same time. Pruning on most (by a wide margin) tropical trees should be done in mid to late June (in northern hemisphere) when trees have high levels of energy and their ability to make energy from the sun's light is peaking (Jun 21 in the N hemisphere). Your tree already has a sort of lazy-s trunk, which would be called an 'informal' upright in bonsai. Personally, I think the trunk is much more interesting and natural than trees with ramrod straight trunks. The lean can be corrected simply by changing the planting angle when you repot; or, by pruning the top back to a leaf pointing in the right direction, which would be back toward an imaginary line extending vertically from the point where the trunk exits the soil. This is a Ficus retusa cutting I started in a pill bottle. Your tree has exactly the same growth habit. If I want the top of the tree to grow to the right, I do nothing, because the top leaf and the new branch forming in the leaf axil (crotch) will naturally grow in the direction of the leaf. Keep in mind that phototropism (plants' tendency to grow toward the light) will trump that response. If I want the top of the new tree created to grow left, I simply remove the top leaf by cutting through the trunk just above the leaf growing left. This is called directional pruning. A third way you can change the direction of a branch is by guiding it mechanically. You can tie a strip rag or soft rope to a branch and move it into a new position.The arrangement above is moving the right branch even more to the right with a piece of metal bar. Then, by gradually tightening the wire, the middle branch will be pulled to the right so it's almost centered between the other 2 branches. You could also use a piece of coated copper wire wrapped around the new branch to guide it. This is a cherry branch ^^^ I just cut to show you how easy it is to bend with wire. Repotting is important. If you can't handle the tree now, what will you do after you've potted up another time or two? Root congestion is a slow killer and robs your tree of huge amounts of potential, & the amount of potential stolen increases until there is no potential left. You can easily reduce the pot size and soil volume by half if you repot, so there is nothing but upside associated with it. Prune all branches back so only the 2 leaves closest to the trunk remain, then prune the top back to a leaf pointing in the right direction. It should be about a foot taller than the branch on the right after that branch has been pruned. I just noticed you live in SoCal. You can do the pruning now if you decide to follow my suggestions, and repot any time in June. BTW - this tree shouldn't go in the ground unless you correct the root issues first. There is no question it will be a problem tree if planted out without rootwork. I bare-root and correct root issues of every tree/shrub I plant. I've seen hundreds of trees that don't grow once in the ground or have large sections of dead branches on one side because the owner dropped a rootball in a hole, covered it with soil, and called it good. Al

Did you use a medium specifically formulated for potted plants - a potting medium? Inexpensive water meters are rather useless as they measure electrical conductivity, not moisture levels, ....... better to use a wooden 'tell'. It's pretty apparent you have an issue related to over-watering and the lack of oxygen that accompanies it. There is no way to determine if the root system is compromised by a pathogen w/o examining it. Look for dark, rotten roots or roots from which the outer covering slides off easily. At a minimum, you need to make sure you have watering under control. 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 leads 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. It 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'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends 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 comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al