Update: The ficus is doing better!

After spraying the plant for bugs, at the beginning of the month, I started using the rayon wick and dowel methods for watering and also started fertilizing 1/4 strength each time I water as suggested in other posts here on Gardenweb.

The ficus has grown some new very healthy looking leaves with no red spots:

It's amazing how fast ficus leaves grow. I love looking at them as they grow.

Yesterday I discovered a new problem I hadn't noticed before though, nearly invisible insects moving really fast on the soil. I'll have to figure out what they are and what to do.

I am studying and gathering and preparing supply for repotting in gritty mix next month. Hopefully I am not going to kill the plant with my first repotting :)

It's very likely a repot into the gritty mix will solve the issue of the soil denizens. Try withholding water a little longer. Make sure the soil is nearly but not completely dry deep in the pot.

I must have missed your original post. Good job though - turning your plant around! We love success stories.

Al

Thank you Al, I'll make sure to wait a little longer before watering as you suggest.

I just went to a park with my husband to screen material for the gritty mix because we couldn't do it inside our apartment. I guess people wondered what we were doing with bins, trash bags, and sieves in a park :)

It's thanks to all the wonderful information you and other people shared here that the ficus is doing better. I am so happy! Thank you!

Great! Glad to know you enjoy your visits here.

Tell anyone that gets too nosey that you came back to the park to look for more diamonds. ;-)

Al

Today I root pruned and repotted the ficus in the gritty mix.

I must admit, as a first time, it was really scary! I hope I did everything right.

I have a question: I read in other posts I should keep the plant in the shade for a couple of weeks while it's recovering. My ficus it's indoor, close to a very large window. It gets direct sun early in the morning and bright light the rest of the day. What should I do to keep it in the shade? Just make sure it doesn't get direct sunlight in the early morning? Or should I keep the blinds close all day long?

My ficus is not doing well.

All the leaves are bending down, including the ones at the top that were very healthy (the ones in the picture I posted a month ago). Plus on the 2 trunks there were new leaves that were still developing and now they look like they are dying. The trunks also aren't doing great.

I don't know if this is normal due to stress or if the plant is dying. Is there anything I should do?

The advice to put the plant in shade after re-potting really refers to plants that are outdoors....so keep yours where it was.

Most importantly, keep the mix evenly moist - even if that means watering lightly every day. Do not let the mix go dry while the roots are re-establishing themselves.

Josh

Thank you Josh! I'll make sure not to let the mix dry. I did spray it yesterday and I'll keep checking.

how much did you root prune? You have a large leaf canopy there. It is probably in shock. It may lose some leaves re-establishing itself because it has a smaller root system.

I tried to prune 2/3 of the roots and leave 1/3 of them like I read on the gritty mix post.

I don't know if I left the right amount of roots. I wish I had a mentor with me that day to show me the right way to remove the dirt and bare root the plant, which roots to cut and how much to cut...

I am unexperienced, I tried my best, but I don't know if I did it correctly.

One of the most important part of root work is making sure the roots never dry out while you're working on them. That means you need to either be working with a hose on them at least once each minute or working over a tub of water so you can dunk as you work the soil out of the roots. If a large fraction of the fine roots are killed during the operation, it doesn't mean the plant will die, but a loss of the fine roots can trigger a drought response, which can include wilting and even a loss of part/all of the foliage. Don't worry though, even if the plant sheds a bunch of leaves, it's almost certain to be in better shape going into the winter than it would have been w/o the root pruning. Did you see the pictures of the recent work I did on one of my Ficus trees. The volume of foliage and branches I removed is startling. I'm pretty sure I did the work last weekend or maybe the wknd before, but the plant is back-budding all over the place. Just be patient & water enough to ensure the top of the soil stays moist for the first week or two. After that, you can start stretching out the intervals between waterings.

Al

Thank you Al!

I may have killed some fine roots. I worked on my bathroom floor. The soil was moist but I didn't used water while removing it. I dunk the plant in a tub of water only toward the end when almost all the soil was removed. It was a mess of a job to do in a tiny apartment bathroom :)

Next time I'll have to repot I'll know better and I'll do it in the tub with water.

I didn't see your pictures, going to look for the post immediately, because I love looking at them.

Thank you for the reassurance, I was pretty worried. As long as I didn't kill the plant, I am happy to know it will be good in the long run :)

Off I go looking for your Ficus post

Hello,

The ficus shed quite a few leaves. The remaining ones don't look promising. They all have dried wrinkled stem and feel dry and are changing color, so I think at the end they are all going to die.

I know you told me this was possible and I just have to be patient :) I have a question though: at this point should I leave the plant alone doing its thing or should I remove the leaves and/or cut the trunk?

I'd just wait, and be careful not to over-water, even though it's hard to over-water anything in the gritty mix. With a compromised root system, the plant is a lot like a big cutting, and a damp soil is best. When you water, water just enough to keep the top of the soil from drying out. After roots have colonized the soil mass, you can start waiting longer between waterings and watering deeper, so you're flushing the soil. Give it lots of light & withhold fertilizer until you're sure it's pushing new growth. The roots will colonize the soil mass faster if nutrients are in short supply.

There are a lot of success stories emerging on the forums now after what the grower first perceived as a tragedy regarding their Ficus. This thread (toward the end) has a story a lot like yours that you might be interested in:

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/trees-in-containers-iii-dsvw-vd~1389927[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/trees-in-containers-iii-dsvw-vd~1389927)

Al

Thank you so much Al for answering my beginner questions, your help it's really appreciated!

I'll follow all the suggestions. I have got to be careful with watering, as you said, because I know I am not so good at it yet. I'll try my best.

Thank you for the link!

I'm sorry you are having such a hard time with your plant. I don't understand why you root pruned it. I rarely root pruned anything.

I feel bad that you hit a bump in the road too, Elena. Hopefully the issue will resolve itself in short order. Plants are a lot more resilient than most people give them credit for.

ZZ - That's a lot like saying, "I don't know why you took a plane to the X coast - I walk everywhere I go".

Al

zzackey, I root pruned because I wanted my plant to get the best environment possible. I liked Al's posts I read here on Gardenweb, every suggestion comes with a well reasoned explanation.

That said, I have very little experience with plants, it was my first time pruning, it's evident now I made some mistakes. Next time I'll try to do better. I am sad too for the plant, I still hope it will recover.

And I REALLY appreciate other people taking time to answer my questions.

I understand there might be some people that disagree with this approach. But the information I found here looked like the most sensible and complete to me. I like to know reasons behind a statement.

I am interested in hearing your point of view if you'd like to explain why you believe it's better not to root prune.

Trust me, you'll be fine! We've walked the same path, and being a beginner like you, I took advice from the experts with unexpected results, but in the end things really worked out. Here's my thread:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1482841/fiddle-leaf-fig-recovery-post-repot

Don't worry, things will work out in the end, they always do. All the best!

Thank you Thomas! I saw your thread yesterday and I loved the happy ending :)

As someone who root prunes EVERYTHING (except mayyyybe edibles, but that depends) if it's been in a pot for more than a year or two, I think your plant will be fine. If you take off that much of the bottom and leave the whole top, some suffering is to be expected. :)

When I first joined GW, it took me a couple of WEEKS to understand what Al was talking about lol. But then I did, and then I seriously repotted every single one of my plants into GM OR 5-1-1 over the course of a couple of days with no regard for weather or season, haha. A few plants did what yours is doing...."OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO ME," and others shined from minute one, but I didn't lose a single plant to the business. I had one croton that quite literally flopped over immediately that Al had me bag (since it was small), to increase the humidity to and even that came back.

And don't be hard on yourself. I had been gardening for years when I first came on board with GM so it wasn't like I didn't have "experience," and had no idea I was doing anything wrong; just thought a 50% survival rate was normal, lol. I expected and hoped for slightly better but it's basically 100% success at this point with anything I put into a gritty mix of some sort. I can't quite say the same for things I still use regular mix for, like veggies, but it is really up there in that case, too(say, 85% lol), just because I understand more about a plant and the root system, though water movement is still not checked off solely because there is too much to read, haha.

Here was my first foray into gritty mix. Hope it helps!

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1378652/taking-on-gritty-mix