Ficus tree advice
9 years ago
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Help with inside watering for ficus Alii tree
Comments (45)You don't get out much? Lead a sheltered life? ;-) See why GW is the best place to be? You can learn stuff here, that you can't learn at the other places you frequent. Ignoring its existence or sacrificing reason on the the skeptic's altar does nothing to relieve its limiting effects, btw. Once upon a time there was a man who wanted to become proficient at bonsai in the worst way, but he failed. He realized that root problems related to his soil choice were limiting his ability to keep his plants viable for the long term, so he put the plants aside and hit the books & the net until he had fixed his problems. Realizing that MOST other hobby growers were suffering under the same limitations HE had suffered under before he figured out how to fix them, he started to share what he had learned ..... I didn't 'discover' the concept. All growers with even a basic working knowledge of soils recognize it as an inherent part of growing. How water behaves in any medium is bound by a very rigid and predictable set of physical principles. All I did was define those principles in a way that allows anyone who wants to, to take advantage of a concept that can be used to build soils that work FOR the grower, instead of against him. Cindy - If the soil is colonized by roots and you can still detect moisture in the soil, in most cases there is no NEED to water. What determines whether or not a watering that occurs before it's needed is harmful and to what degree it might be harmful, is whether or not it creates a PWT, and if it does, how much and for how long. When you use MG soils, you must either water in sips or endure the effects of the PWT created when you water correctly. When plants are growing well and the planting is mature (roots fully colonizing soil and in the fast growth part of the growth cycle) a temporary PWT might be very tolerable because the water ion the PWT is used quickly, but in all cases where the PWT hangs around for a significant amount of time, the grower leaves a lot of potential lying on the table, EVEN if there is no direct evidence of root rot or spoiled foliage. Simply put, airless conditions in the root zone impede water and nutrient uptake, which affects growth and vitality. Plus, the fine roots subjected to the effects of the PWT die off very quickly, so the regeneration of these roots before growth recommences is all paid for in the form of lost potential. Since I did not detect any standing water can I assume that I did not have a PWT present after I flush watered?? Forgive me, but I'm not sure what you're asking. PWT in pots is the same as static water level within the ground? correct?? Not necessarily. Technically, water doesn't 'perch' due to slow percolation or a lack thereof. There are many cases where water exists close to the surface for extended periods because of a bedrock substrata, or even as clay substrata. When this occurs, it's simply slow or no percolation that is causal. Water can stratify even in coarse gravel under these conditions. PERCHED water is water that is held so tightly in intra-particulate (between particles) spaces that gravity cannot force it to drain from the soil. Will a constant light moisture cause any of the harmful "too wet" symptoms that most times will occur with houseplants? leaf discoloration, leaf drop, etc. NO. Constant light moisture (about like a recently wrung out sponge) is about as close to ideal as you can get for houseplants. Unfortunately, it's pretty close to unachievable. The closest you'll get in conventional container culture is with soils like the gritty mix. You can wet them frequently and they don't hold perched water in any significant volume, so they have an extremely favorable ratio of moisture:air as long as you water regularly. At the other extreme, when using heavy soils, every time you water like you should, you have extremely unfavorable conditions in whatever fraction of the soil holds perched water for as long as it holds perched water. That the soil CAN hold perched water is related to particle size and the tiny size of the air spaces between particles, so even the soil above the level of the PWT is going to have less aeration than soils formulated from larger particles, which means that even at their best (when the PWT has disappeared and the soil is largely just damp) these soils are still significantly inferior to soils with much better aeration. What signs should I watch for so that I can accurately water my tree? I have light moisture top - bottom with a rootball that should be within 2" of the bottom of the pot. I know I am experiencing water vapor within the pot: but, at what stage does the moisture get low enough to prevent this from occurring? -or- does it? How do you best determine when the moisture is too low to be absorbed? First, the less PW a soil holds, the less important it is to be concerned about over-watering. You could probably run a hose on a plant in a well made gritty mix for an hour twice each day & not over-water. It has all those evenly spaced air spaces between the soil particles that are large to fill up with water, so the soil is always extremely well-aerated from top to bottom. If you first put a definition to what a perfect container soil would be, it's actually very easy to see what type of materials you would need to use to achieve that end, and what types of materials are counterproductive when it comes to striving for the superlative. ;-) That would make an interesting conversation - reverse engineering a soil ..... Keep testing like you are. Use the wood dowel or a finger at the drain hole. Use your judgment - if you think you're under-watering, don't hold out and cause unnecessary stress, but in most cases, if you can still detect moisture, you can hold off watering (soil fully colonized w/roots). Al...See MoreFicus Retusa Pruning Advice
Comments (4)Awesome - thanks! Al gave some brief advice about this tree on a different thread of mine (regarding my large jade). You can see that I removed about 90% of the trees top mass in the picture above. I can show you pictures of a half dozen more that had similar or even more severe treatment if you like. Point being, now is a good time to prune or repot, but not both and not for much longer - it's getting late for the Steeler's fans. Allowing the plant to continue to grow more leaves at the ends of branches is just going to make it harder to chase the foliage back (closer to the trunk). ..... no need to train the low branch further downward unless its current position is an optical illusion. If you prune that branch back to tiny branches so there are only a few leaves on the whole thing, you'll get back-budding back at least as far as the distal aerial root, which I assume you want to keep, and more likely all the way back to the trunk; then you train THOSE new branches that occur. If every leaf that is on the tree right now were to remain viable indefinitely, none would become a part of the composition. The branches that will make up the composition are yet to pop. Also, the top is already very heavy and hogging all the energy. If you don't prune/reduce it to remove the heaviness and to slow it down, you're going to get a LOT of dieback on lower branches because the tree is genetically committed to its top third unless you trump that by pruning. You need to reduce the top third significantly to strengthen the middle & bottom third of the plant before your only recourse is a chop and a do-over. So he seems to be indicated at least a moderate prune of the top, but not sure if chopping major branches would be going too far. At this point, I removed a few small branches and cut off the growth tips. Also, not sure if he is indicating that I should cut the growth tips on the lower branches to get back budding, or just let them grow....See MoreAdvice on newly acquired fiddle leaf fig tree (ficus lyrata)
Comments (7)G - what Dave said. I always tell people considering marginal (timing) repots to consider whether or not they think the tree is likely to expire before June next when deciding whether or not to repot. Usually, the answer is pretty clear, but not always. Given the number of ficus that accompany their owners to this and other forum pages in search of relief of the suffering caused by soils that retain too much water, I think we can say that ficus are picky about water and how they are watered. It really can't be seen any other way. I'll explain after I redundantly note at the risk of being redundant, the number of people that have watering issues with ficus (hundreds and hundreds on this forum alone on an annual basis) is a pretty clear indication that the little snots are just looking for an opportunity to pitch a fit and toss their leaves about the room if you get the watering wrong. If when we water a portion of the soil remains saturated, it limits root function - no air for the roots occupying saturated soil = limited root function. That can't be argued ...... sort of like, 'run a marathon while breathing through a drinking straw, expect to come in last'. Any doubters? ..... and peat does have lots of nutrients locked in the hydrocarbon chains that make up the particles. It's just that those hydrocarbon chains aren't easy for soil biota to cleave. IOW, peat doesn't break down fast enough in containers to provide all the nutrition a plant needs. That's why they invented fertilizers - so we could apply them not to heavily and not too lightly, ratherly, just rightly. Al...See MoreAdvice? Ficus Lyrata about to drop all its healthy-looking leaves :(
Comments (9)There are inherent limitations in a soil that takes 2 weeks to dry down to the point the grower feels it's safe to water again. We have to allow too, that since you haven't been monitoring moisture levels, the plant might be capable of going much longer between waterings, which would tend to increase the level of limitations associated with too much water in the soil. Given the size of the plant and the size of the container, the only way that can occur is by virtue of the fact the soil holds a lot of excess water. The soils I use require watering every 1-4 days, depending on the pot size and weather or indoor conditions. Keep in mind that most of my plantings are bonsai, so the ratio of plant mass to soil volume is very different than growing in a container as large as yours. I do have many dozens of plants growing on for bonsai in containers the size of the one you pictured and much larger, however. I think plantings that actually DO require watering every 2-3 days probably represent the best opportunity for plants to realize as much of their genetic potential as possible, but you'll need to decide weather or not you're willing to work toward getting to that point and subsequently making the effort it takes to water that frequently. Since we might never know what caused the leaf drop, it's probably best to confront the issue on several cultural fronts. My plan for the plant in the short term would be to take steps to significantly reduce the volume of excess water your planting can hold. That can be done in a variety/combination of ways. I'd see what I could do about getting it more light and maintaining a constant temp of about 70* or warmer. I'd flush the soil at regular intervals and fertilize regularly. Unless there are other potential limiting factors we don't know about, these suggestions should allow your plant to recover. Because the above doesn't go into a lot of detail doesn't mean I can't. If you're up for making the effort, you'll get all the help you need, a good part of it in the form of homework I'll link you to. After you read it, ask about anything it leaves you wondering about. Al...See MoreRelated Professionals
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