Congrats on your find! Coriander and parsley are biennial, After the first year it goes to seed and isn't very good for eating. All except for the orchid, I'd grow outside, they make good additions temporarily, but for the long haul they do better outside. The fact that you failed on them do not equate a black thumb. I would give this guy as much light as possible and wait until spring/summer to play in the soil. Just be careful not to let it sit in water and let the soil dry out before watering again.

When growing ficus, I've come to realize most kill them by over watering. People try to give too much love in the way of water, and end up with a dead plant. The soil they come shipped in certainly doesn't help this.

Right now, give it as much light as you possibly can. Stick it right in front of a window that gets direct sunlight, not near it, but right up in front of it.

Stick your fingers into the soil and water when it feels dry. Al always recommends sticking a wooden dowel in to test moisture levels. You can also feel the soil at the drain holes, and water when it feels dry there. Just do not over water.

Flush the soil with every watering so a percentage drains out of the bottom hole. But make sure you discard that water as you never want the plant to sit in that. Propping the pot on a couple bricks would be a good method so you can water and have it freely drain without coming back into the pot.

That's your best bet for the moment.

I agree with everything Dave said other than to flush the soil at every watering. While that is a key practice for top health, it's best coupled with a medium that will allow the practice w/o negative feedback from the plant. That said though, I think it's a very good idea to include a thorough flushing in the plant's very near future.

A rough sketch of how I would treat the plants is:

* Keep it warm and in very bright light.

* Carefully monitor water needs by using a 'tell' - a wood dowel rod sharpened in a pencil sharpener and stuck all the way to the bottom of the pot. Withhold water until the tell comes out clean and dry. This is very important.

* The next time the plant needs water, flush the soil thoroughly by slowly pouring a volume of room temperature water = to at least 10x the volume of the pot through the soil. This will flush any accumulation of mineral salts from the soil and sort of 'reset' the fertility meter. After that it would be appropriate to fertilize with ..... something appropriate. I looked at the Baby Bio fertilizer. The NPK ratio (the ratio is much more important than the NPK %s) is appropriate, but I couldn't find where it contains anything other than those 3 macro nutrients. For that reason, I would either confirm that it has all the essential nutrients, or look for a fertilizer that does have all the essentials. Plants do need all the nutrients they normally take from the soil, IN the soil if they are to grow normally. In the US, we're fortunate to have a few fertilizers available that DO have everything essential and in a favorable ratio. Hopefully, you'll be able to find them where you live. A hydroponics shop would be a good place to look. If you need help, let me know and I'll tell you what to ask for.

* If you decide to go as far as flushing the soil, I can also suggest what to do immediately after to eliminate excess water from the soil.

I'm not sure how much effort you'd like to put into learning about how to minimize the things that limit our plants, but how well we recognize and eliminate limiting factors is what defines our proficiency as growers. There is no question that learning all you can is the fastest, most direct path to a green thumb.

You should find this useful. It can help you avoid all the most common pitfalls we all encounter at one point or another.

Al

Thanks for your kind messages, and Al, what an honour; you are quite the green-fingered celeb in my eyes :)

I have stuck the tree right in front of my west-facing patio door, although I have been toying with keeping the vertical blinds open/shut/halfway after reading and hearing all kinds of conflicting advice (including a YouTube video where they actually advised keeping a recuperating ficus in the dark!) but upon both Dave and Al's advice, opened it to allow max light exposure. Warmth is a challenge though - the UK is currently undergoing a sudden and dramatic cold snap!

I think I have quite a few unfinished chopsticks, one of which I will stick in the soil as my "tell", so that's an easy one.

Al, I'd love if you could tell me what to do immediately after flushing the soil. I think I need a bit of hand-holding before being brave enough to pedal off into the sunset (with my plants!)...

The one thing that has me stumped though is this talk of NPK ratio - a quick Google indicates that I'm going to have to travel a fair way to find a hydroponics shop! Al, sorry, please could you point me in the right direction with what I should be asking for? Do you know of any big US brand fertilisers with the right ratio, that are stocked internationally?

Thank you for being so kind!

You can think of a plant's energy management like an automobile battery. Every molecule of sugar a plant makes during photosynthesis is like a miniature battery that stores the sun's energy. Where an alternator is the source of replenishment for the auto's battery, the sun replenishes the plant's batteries. Putting a plant in the dark to "recover" would be much like disabling a car's alternator and driving away. The car will work only until the store of energy in its battery is depleted, and the plant will survive only until its energy reserves (molecules of sugar) are depleted; so putting a plant in the dark to "recover" doesn't make much sense because the plant can only decline w/o adequate light exposure.

It's been warm here all winter, up until New Year's weekend when temps dropped dramatically. Since NYs, temps have been up & down. Yesterday it was warm & rained, and a good share of our snow cover melted. Today we won't quite reach the freezing mark, then the lows tonight will be around -15 C. Chilly. The weatherman says we could see temps as low as -29 C Sunday or Monday, with temps below -18 C for 2-3 days. THAT's COLD. Brrrr!

After you thoroughly flush the soil, depot the plant and set the root mass on a pile of newspaper or some old folded towels. The capillary attraction in the towels or newspaper will be stronger than that of the soil, so excess water will be pulled downward and out of the soil. After an hour or so, slip it back into the pot. That will help reduce some of the limitations imposed by a soggy soil.

Fertilizers are all over the map in their NPK %s. To choose something appropriate for your plants, you need to look beyond the NPK %s to the NPK ratio. I prefer fertilizers with a 3:1:2 ratio for almost every plant I grow. 24-8-16, 12-4-8, and 9-3-6, are ALL 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers. If you divide the numbers in 24-8-16 by 8, you come up with a 3:1:2 ratio. Divide 12-4-8 by 4 = 3:1:2. Divide 9-3-6 by 3 = 3:1:2. Figuring out the ratio is like reducing fractions, 12/16 = 3/4, 15-5-10 = 3:1:2.

Most plants use about 6X as much N as P, and about 3/5 the amount of K as N. so when all the calculations are done for how the elements are reported, 3:1:2 ratios come the closest to supplying nutrients in the ratio at which plants actually USE them. This is a big plus for 2 reasons. It allows you to keep o/a fertility levels as low as possible w/o incurring deficiencies, and it's a significant benefit in that supplying nutrients in the ratio actually used by the plant, the level of each nutrient doesn't quickly become badly skewed. For example, 5-15-5 is a common houseplant fertilizer, but it actually supplies almost 8 times as much P as the plant wants or can use. For the grower who waters in sips, the amount of excess P in the soil increases SIGNIFICANTLY each time the plant is fertilized. The imbalance of P in the soil causes antagonistic deficiencies of several nutrients, primarily Fe (iron). So - too much of 1 nutrient unnecessarily raises o/a fertility levels (not good), AND it makes it difficult for plants to take up other nutrients. Another example is, too much Mg can cause a deficiency of Ca; also true is the reciprocal.

Ideally, you would want a fertilizer with NPK %s that work out to a 3:1:2 ratio, that also contains ALL of the other nutrients plants need to grow normally. Most soluble fertilizers leave out either Ca or Mg, or both, so make sure these elements are listed on the label. I use Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. It has everything at the right ratio, and it doesn't get its N from urea. Urea promotes coarse and lanky growth, where N from nitrate sources tends to keep plants more compact and full.

Al

Al, I need your help! Have you seen my post or messages? I've been trying to contact you but nothing seems to work.

I have at least 50 unopened Houzz messages, and since I try to answer all the off-forum stuff in the order received, I'm way behind. What post are you referring to? This forum?

Al

Ah! That makes sense. I'll wait till you get to me. I've posted various things in this, and container gardening. Just wanted to pick your brain and see if you had any more ideas on my ever ending ficus problem as nothing seems to help. Deformed young growth, buds that turn brown and die. No pests, not over watered. Soil is a rock solid mass of peat. Don't know if it's another deficiency or something fungal.

However, I don't want to hijack this thread, so hopefully we can talk when you get to my message. Unless you feel starting atopic would be better?

Update time! It's been over a month since I got my little housemate... and in that month, not much has changed. I've resolutely not given her any water at all, except for the fortnightly mini-mist over her leaves, which is really less of a mist and more of a vague three-spritzes of pre-boiled water out of a tiny travel toner spray.

Only now has the toppermost soil started to look, and feel, dry. The top of my "tell" has become mouldy in the time but its lower part is still damp when I pull it from the deeper soil!

The leaves have begun to curl only slightly; the dark brown spots have begun to crisp a little on one of the leaves:

...and what started as a small split in one of the leaves is starting to grow into a crack right up its midrib.

Coincidentally I'm writing in the midst of another cold snap on both sides of the pond. Warm wishes to all, hope everyone ( and their plants) are weathering the arctic conditions well...

You could always save the picture to a mobile device and try to explain that you're looking for a fertilizer that has N, P, K, Ca, Mg, in the same RATIO as this fertilizer and also has all the additional nutrients listed. Ca and Mg are likely to be the stumbling block. In order to explain what you need, you would need to be able to convey the idea that you don't care if the NPK % are high or low - just that their ratio is as close to 3:1:2 or even 2:1:2 would work fine for houseplants. That means that 24-8-16 would be as acceptable as 9-3-6 (because both have 3:1:2 ratios) as long as your fertilizer also has Ca, Mg, and less used nutrients (S + the micro-nutrients).

Al

Ok, this is happening now! I lost a leaf a few days ago which prompted mild alarm; my "tell" is now sliding out dry (and losing some of its mould, ew) so tomorrow is definitely Flushing-and-Fertilising day.

I managed to track down the sole UK supplier of Dyna-Gro (woohoo!) so have managed to buy 1 gallon of Foliage-Pro, the exact one Al recommended. A little spendy, but I figure, why take a risk? Only the best for my little plant!

I have filled a few basins with tap water and set them aside so they'll be nicely room-temperatured by tomorrow morning for the flushing. In London, the tap water is incredibly hard (it leaves a lot of scum/mineral deposits on my taps and sinks) but I don't have enough containers to hold 10x the capacity of the plant pot of pre-boiled water... I trust that just letting it sit overnight might be okay? I will boil some water and let that cool ready to be mixed with the fertiliser though.

So just to check:

step 1) take plant out to balcony, prop pot on a brick and flush the soil thoroughly by slowly pouring room temperature tap water and letting it all drain out.

step 2) depot the plant and set the root mass on a pile of newspaper.

step 3) wait an hour and put it back into the pot, and bring it back indoors.

step 4) fertilise with Foliage-Pro mixed with pre-boiled water (how much? Instructions say "Production" or "Siphon Mixer" but neither of these terms mean anything to me...)

...does that sound about right? Any last-minute tips, advice or changes?

No need to boil the water as it only increases the hardness ...... and hard water can be very problematic for plants. How many do you have?

No need to let water sit about to bring it up to room temperature. Adjust your faucet so the water is very cool to your touch (after all, your skin temp is about 37* - a little too warm). You can use it immediately.

Other than considering if you want to incorporate my comments into your plans, it sounds like you're good to go.

Al

Oh, that's confusing; I always understood that boiling water removes hardness (albeit temporarily - and the solidified calcium deposits is what "furs" up the kettle elements). Not boiling it would certainly make my life easier though so I certainly wouldn't complain! :)

Which of the fertiliser-to-water proportion instructions should I follow to fertiliser after flushing, please?

Boiling water releases steam, which turns to pure (distilled - nothing in it but H20) water when it condenses, meaning all the dissolved solids in the original vessel of tap water are left behind in the vessel. When the water in the vessel becomes supersaturated, it will no longer support the dissolution of whatever solids are dissolved in the water and those dissolved solids precipitate (come out of solution and form solids). This only occurs when the water is supersaturated. The heating elements 'fur up' because when steam forms around the hot elements, the dissolved solids in the water just turned to steam are left behind in the water and some attach themselves to the heating elements.

For your first fertilizer application, use 2.5 cc in a L of water. How you fertilize subsequent to that will depend on your soil/watering habits. Fortunately for you, when using the FP 9-3-6, the ratio of nutrients in the soil won't quickly become badly skewed as it might using fertilizers the NPK ratio of which do not closely match the plant's actual usage ratio.

I suggest you shake your gallon of 9-3-6 well & pour off a small measure into a squirt bottle. I use a contact lens solution bottle for this. You might need to heat a pin and melt the hole a little larger. Before using the fertilizer, shake well, then squirt a measure into the appropriate measuring spoon.

Al

Thank you very much, I really appreciate the time you take to break it down for me. Nice tip! I've managed to dredge up an old water bottle with sports cap that should do perfectly.

So here's the plan in action! I'm now between steps 2 and 3.

Immediately after taking this picture and going back inside to type this, two pigeons tried to move into my empty pot. No chance, busters).

From what I can see, the root system appears to be rather unhealthy - not a judgment ..... just an observation. I can't remember if a repot is on the horizon, but it should be. I think you'll see significant improvement in vitality if you get the plant into a medium that allows you to water correctly w/o the plant paying penalty due to extended periods of soil saturation after you water. Did we talk about tipping the pot after you water and using a wick? I'd definitely incorporate those strategies in your routine for now .... at least until you get the plant in a better medium. Let me know if you need more info re what I just said. Let us know how things go.

Al

Check-in time! It's now been over a month since the soil-flushing.

Not terribly much has changed except, very pleasingly, a single baby leaf near the bottom of the trunk. So far, this is the only sign of new growth, but... baby steps!

However I do agree that I need to do something about repotting. Since I did the soil flushing, I have noticed a distinct change in the soil texture. If you compare with the picture above - not that either is particularly clear - it's now speckled with mossy growth, and has become very clumpy, suggesting a high moisture retention. We even have the odd tiny weed poking out.

So. I'm hoping it's not too late in the year/growth cycle to do this, but I've been taking the new leaf to signal relative health, which should mean it's more likely to withstand the potential shock of repotting.

I've ordered a self-watering planter from the as-is section of Amazon, the same diameter as its existing pot, but will have to look for some new soil. Any pointers with this? Having done a little research, it looks like potting mixes such as Miracle Gro Moisture Moisture Control is no good in self-watering pots. And I understand that ficus lyrata may favour acidic soils? But is there anything else I need to know?

Also... my green flatmate now has a new green flatmate! Our family is growing.

Meet my new Schefflera. It's called Ri-Ri... can you guess why...? ;-)

My only cause for alarm is that while a happy tiny new shoot had been emerging when I brought her home a few weeks ago, it's now shrivelled and died :( It's also rather droopy, although I have taken care not to either over- or under-water. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

Any tips with either of my two young 'uns would be much appreciated!

If the root system ain't happy ..... ain't no other part of the plant gonna be happy.

That's in bold to attract attention. Most people hope for healthy w/o understanding that an efficiently healthy root system is the foundation on which the o/a good health of the organism is built. If you focus on good root health, most of the limitations that serve as impediments to your proficiency will disappear.

FWIW - I'd skip the SWC in favor of a more traditional pot you can irrigate and fertigate from the top ..... but it's your plant, so your call.

Al

I returned the SWC. Amazon mucked up the order anyway.

But in other news: baby leaves! So many baby leaves! *dances happily*

Strong work! Good news indeed.

Al

Lyra a fine tree and I think you did enough research to be successful. I would recommend you do a potting up. ( keep Lyra from a.c. vents )

I love a sheff... They tend to be a little prone to insects. I prefer to take them outside in a shady area and spay them down good with malathyon. Hahaha works great. Another plant to keep away from a.c. vents.

Luckily (or unluckily) no A.C. vents here for me in London! And I have Al to thank for the high majority of all my actions so far :)

I can't believe it's been a year since my last update!

I was frightened last winter by what felt like dramatic leaf drop (lost at least 10 leaves) and I worried that it might be a symptom of the unhealthy roots that Al picked up on in an earlier comment. Time for repotting!

The old soil was packed tight so I teased out as much as possible. To my untrained eye, the roots did look very unhealthy, with only one long strand looking "live".

Lots of research later and for some reason absolutely zero options for finding suitable turface or grit (after months!) but a great value flash-in-the-pan deal on Amazon for Repti-bark, I went for the 5:1:1 mix.

I wound the one long root around the remaining ball and filled up the rest of the pot. Then it was all done!

All this effort was rewarded by immediately dropping another leaf, ugh.

But here she is all potted up:

I really hope I haven't messed anything up, or disturbed the root ball too much...

It's early for a repot. It's also likely your plant will drop an additional volume of foliage; but, if you keep the soil moist instead of wet and make SURE you fertilize frequently (due to N drawdown/immobilization by the fresh bark), you should soon be rewarded by a very notable increase in vitality and growth.

Best luck!

Al

Also, why did you plant it directly in the terra cotta pot?

unless it's just a plastic pot.

Al - Ah, is it too early? Argh. I had thought because new growth seemed so slow, I should deal sooner rather than later. Rookie error. OK - frequent fertilisation and moist soil, got it. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

Dave - I just put it back in its original black plastic pot due to the small size of the root ball (not big enough to pot up), then slotted said plastic pot into the terracotta.

Repotting early just means its recovery will be slower. Al has posted that a plant that was repotted in spring will be in worse shape in the fall than a plant that was repotted at the solstice. Not bad shape, though, and definitely in much better shape than if you hadn't repotted at all.

So open those blinds and don't be shy about giving them as much light as you can, because that plant needs energy to colonize the pot with roots. Once the roots are happy you'll be amazed by what your plant does next!

I'm not surprised that your fiddle leaf didn't show any new growth for months after you started taking better care of it because I saw the same thing with my ficus benjaminas. I'm still waiting to repot in June, but after better watering and fertilizing and adding some artificial light they started to get some new growth, still, they didn't take off until the sun got high enough to give them some direct light. Now they're growing like mad, and I'm actually a little afraid of what'll happen when I can move them outside so their sunshine won't be filtered by glass.

Oh dear, I wish I'd spent more time researching when to repot, rather than just the substrates! Thank you for explaining, litterbuggy. And reading this thread back, it looks like new growth only really took off at the end of May, so my memory was off.

I just checked it over and the underside of some top leaves are already turning speckled light brown, which does not bode well. Ugh.

Oh well - damage control! I'll keep my blinds fully open until dark, and I've stuck a wooden chopstick into the pot as a moisture tell; the porosity of the new potting mix means water runs straight through anyway.

Just be patient while nature works its magic, even if includes some leaf loss. I'm sure it'll be worth it!

Hello again! A status update and a request for more advice, please.

Here’s how Lyra is looking today. I’ve been following all prior advice (never over-watering, fertiliser very time, butted right up to the full-length patio door for max light) and she effectively went a bit dormant after my too-early repotting last year: no new leaves appeared, although I didn’t really lose any, either. However, the stems of most of her leaves have calcified somewhat, which I don’t take as a good sign as it usually precedes leaf loss, and the leaves aren’t looking quite as happy as they used to...

My main question, though, is about the roots, which is doing this:

Doesn’t look healthy! What should I do? It seemed more straightforward when planted in soil, as I would probably have instinctively coiled the leggy root back up into the pot, but the bark mix makes this trickier, and I don’t want to risk another too-early disturbance?

Just a quick point, fuzzy. Since most of the posters here are in the US and you are in the U.K. you may find you cannot get the exact items they mention, but there are plenty of equally good products available to you. Just look at the contents or ingredients for the named products and I'm sure you'll find equivalents. Horticultural grit, for example, is available at most garden centres and many diy places. I've even bought it at Homebase. Regarding Turface you might be interested in This article. Alternative house plant fertilisers are also easy to find. Baby Bio is fine.

Now Al will probably not like this, but you can get good results by just buying a bag of house plant compost and planting in that. I see you have a bag of John Innes no.3 there. If you are going to use a JI compost you actually need no.2 for house plants. As to repotting in April being too early I don't think you should worry. It'll work fine in London. Al's plants are fabulous and his is a council of perfection for growing absolutely optimum specimens but if you want a less complicated approach you can still grow healthy, attractive house plants. Btw what you can do right now is cut off those unsightly snags growing at the bottom of the trunk. Cut them off flush.

What a relief! THANK YOU!

Much better ;-)

p.s. put secateurs on your next birthday list.

Al doesn't like or dislike what people decide to do with/to their plants; he realizes, and always has, that it's the plant owner's place to make all decisions about how the plants (s)he owns are treated. He does, however, have a decided interest in providing reliable information that others can use to make informed decisions. A small to middling fraction of hobby growers might be able to bring along attractive-looking plants in media based entirely or nearly entirely on very small particles like peat, coir, sand, topsoil, compost, composted forest products, ......., but the fact is, these soils will nearly always rob plants of a notable measure of potential growth and vitality. If you think back to threads in which there was lengthy discussions about soils, I never once decided for the grower what (s)he should/shouldn't do about soil choice. The discussions and/or disagreements center on what is or isn't a 'good' soil, or what happens in soils to rob plants of potential. It should be easy to agree that a good soil shouldn't have inherent factors that rob plants of large measures of potential.

To me, a 'good' soil is one you can water to beyond the point of complete saturation at will (so you're flushing the soil of accumulating salts when you water) without the plant having to pay a tax levied by extended periods of saturated soil after watering. When it comes to hydrology, adopting a soil that allows correct watering practices w/o that penalty are always going to be superior to those that sap potential due to a continual or even extended intermittent period of saturation in more than a very small fraction of the o/a volume of medium in the pot. Not only are they superior, they make other aspects of husbandry that often cause problems, notably fertilizing, much, much easier and more effective.

The good news is, there are ways of dealing with less than stellar soils by using one or more of several methods to limit how much excess water they hold by means other than changing the soils make-up. The fixes won't necessarily be the same as using a highly aerated soil based on larger particles that naturally holds a very limited amount of excess (perched) water, but they (the fixes) can be used to significantly limit the loss of potential caused by what would otherwise be just another soggy soil.

Not looking for a battle - just taking the opportunity to muse a bit.

Al

Where do you live?

Al

Fizzy has said s/he lives in London, hence my post on not worring too much about replicating the exact ingredients of your mix and recommendations for growing media and fertilisers which are available here in the U.K. and which will work. I know how hard it is to get gardening supplies in London and even when you can track them down getting them home on the tube is no joke. And storing separate bags of materials in a flat is also an issue.

Fuzzy, you can cut that long root off when you repot. There's nothing unhealthy about the root per se but it shows that the pot is full.

P.s. I know what you mean about the cheeky pigeons, fizzy. My daughter had a pair nesting in a pot on her balcony. Made watering a challenge.