Need help saving my Fiddle Leaf Fig!
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8 years ago
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Dave
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Need help getting my Fiddle Leaf Fig to Thrive
Comments (0)I live in Melbourne, Australia and have fiddle leaf fig that continues to struggle. It has consistently lost leaves over the 12 months that I have had it. I have attached a photo when I first got it and what it looks like now. About 6 months ago I decided it was too over-watered so I took it out of the pot and dried it right out (took 6 weeks) I repotted in premium soil and the rate of leaf drop has slowed right down but it is still not thriving. It has great drainage and is now sitting in a spot closer to a window. I water it with around one litre of water every three weeks and fertiIise every month with Charlie's Carp (similar to seasol). The little branch at the bottom is a few months old but there isn't any signs of further new growth. Every time I feel like it is doing OK a big leaf turns brown and falls off. You can see in the second photo that there are two leaves slowly browning from the end. I see other pictures on this forum of recovering figs with little bright green new growth which mine and I keep searching mine hoping to see a spout but there is nothing. Would love your expert advice on whether I should continue to watch and hope or get a bit more pro-active and chop off some branches to encourage growth or something/ anything else? I feel like this once beautiful plant is dying a slow death....See MorePLEASE HELP my fiddle leaf fig is dying quickly!!!!
Comments (11)There is only one degree of dead, and it's a permanent thing. That the decline began after the repot (did you actually repot, or did you pot up?) might be a hint. If the plant was getting too much water before the work, the added soil that is not colonized by roots would exacerbate the problem. When you can't identify the problem, you should consider making sure you have the basics covered. That your plant IS in decline is indicative the plant is being asked to tolerate conditions it's not programmed to tolerate - that's a given. You need to make sure you're watering effectively and in a timely manner. IOW, you should be sure the entire soil mass is being moistened when you water, that you're flushing the soil when you water, and you're not watering until the plant needs it. Are you monitoring soil moisture levels or guessing when it's time to water? You should also flush the soil thoroughly the next time it needs water. Do this by slowly pouring a volume of room temp water through the soil = to at least 10x the volume of the pot. This is like hitting the fertilizer 'reset' button. After flushing the soil, you can fertilize with an appropriate fertilizer. My goal would be to help the plant increase it's vitality to the point it will tolerate a full repot; then, I would repot it into a soil that allows you to water appropriately. In more than 90% of the cases we see here, poor root health is the underlying cause, so that's where I'd look for the solution. Too, there's nothing stopping you from lifting the plant from the pot so you can evaluate the condition/health of the root system. Al...See MoreHelp save my fiddle leaf fig-my first plant!
Comments (7)Thanks, Lee. It's always nice to find out that someone finds value in the things we write. One would assume a nursery wouldn't over water their plants. In most cases, plants in nuresries WON'T be over-watered for a couple of reasons. One of those is that they are good at noticing signs that illustrate a group of plants need fopr water, or for just establishing an appropriate schedule on which to water. The second reason has to do with the fact that the plants often rest on the ground. When the pot is in direct contact with the ground, or if roots grow from the pot into the ground or through a ground cover cloth under the pots, the earth acts as a giant wick to pull excess water from the soil. If you use a soil that is capable of supporting 3-4" of perched water and you set it directly on dry ground, the perched water will disappear within minutes due to the wicking action of the earth. .... to clarify. Water when the skewer/dowel comes out free of dirt/dry looking? Yes, that's right. If you were checking daily or twice daily to get a 'feel' for how often to water, the ideal time to water would be the first time the tell comes out dry. IOW, you want to wait until just before the plant might experience drought stress before you water. With some species of ficus (like benjamina), you can clearly see or feel when the youngest leaves are just starting to lose turgidity. If you wait until then and pay attention to the interval since last watering, you can often establish an appropriate rhythm that should keep you out of trouble re over-watering. Do you have to use a new dowel every time? If you're actually using a dowel, you can cut a 4' piece in half & sharpen all 4 ends. If you're using a skewer, they're cheap, so why not use a fresh one after each moist pot you discover. Or, if you wipe the end off with a rag and wave it in the air between tests, it usually dries down enough that you can test a lot of plants with just the 4 ends from the single rod you cut in half. How much water do I flush it with? I usually suggest at least 10x the volume of the pot the plant is in; and if you err, it's better to err on the generous side and use more than 10x. How often do you do it? I use a soil that I can flush at will, and I DO flush every time I water. If you're limited to supplying small amounts of water to prevent soils from staying soggy for long periods, a thorough flush every 4-6 weeks is good. What do I use as the wick? Anything cotton? Cotton rots quickly. I prefer strands of rayon. You can buy a rayon mop head and pull it apart, or buy a man made rayon chamois and cut it in strips. Too, the nylon string ties used to tie onion or citrus bags closed very often work very well for drainage wicks (but not watering wicks). I have some of those that are 12-15 years old & still working great. Not all are created equal though, so discard those that don't work well. And do you tape it on the side of the planter out of the effluent. I meant to talk to you about the effluent. Your pot should be raised so it's above the effluent that collects in the saucer, or via other means, the effluent should have no pathway back into the soil. Reason: It doesn't make sense to flush salts from the soil only to leave a pathway right back to where they came from because the pot is sitting in the effluent. Here's how I do wicks: That covers how I do it before the planting is established. If the pot supports an established planting, I simply fold the wick over the end of a straight slot screwdriver and push it into the soil far enough that the short end is all the way into the soil. That holds it pretty securely initially and as roots grow around and into the wick, even more so. Is foliage pro 9-3-6 still your go to fertilizer? Yes. I might add a little extra K for some plants (tomato and hibiscus), but I basically use it for everything. I completely avoid any high-P fertilizers in containers. I consider a fertilizer to be high in P if the middle number (P) is equal to or larger than the first number (N). ..... it seems I will loose a bunch of leaves off the bottom. Is it ever possible to get that growth back? Yes. Once a leaf is shed, no new leaf will form in its place, but above the scar where a shed leaf was attached, there are dormant buds that can be stimulated to grow. The methods of activating these latent buds could easily fill a chapter in a book, so I won't elaborate. Back-budding will naturally occur if you can get the plant outdoors in full sun and plenty of air movement, fertilize it in what's called the luxury range, and make sure the root system is healthy and has plenty of room to run. You can artificially stimulate back-budding low on the trunk by notching or pruning the plant back hard. The hard pruning is especially effective when working with healthy plants at the peak of their food-making/photosynthesizing ability, which, where you live would be in June. Father's Day or the summer solstice are the easiest markers to remember. You mentioned the kids and learning. When I was a youngster, I went to a 1-room little red brick schoolhouse that had K-8 in the one room. Obviously, it was hard for the teacher to spend as much time with each student as they needed, so most of the time I read World Book Encyclopedia and anything I could get my hands on about animals or science. I only wish that the world of plant science would have got its hooks into me at a very young age. I hope your kids find something they love to do, no matter what it is, and have the opportunity to follow that calling. Al...See Moreneed HELP with my fiddle leaf fig
Comments (3)Given what you said about the soil, if the plant doesn't already have root rot, it's a prime candidate. I'm a firm believer in not repotting in fall, winter, early spring because it takes the plant so long to recover and it's extra vulnerable during the recovery; but, this might be a case where it's essential to bite the bullet and repot anyway. A repot is much more extensive than potting up, and includes bare-rooting, inspection of the roots and pruning back all dead or rotted roots (in this case, correcting root issues, and transplanting the planting into an appropriate medium. IMO, it's difficult to argue against setting the bar for what is/isn't a good soil high enough that you can water your plant correctly (to beyond the point of complete saturation so you're flushing accumulating salts and carbonates from the soil as you water); this, w/o your plant having to sacrifice a measure of its vitality because the soil remains saturated for a prolonged interval after watering, which is what brought you here in the first place. In order for a plant to grow, the food/energy (sugar/carbohydrate) it manufactures during photosynthesis must be greater than the amount of food/energy used during respiration. If it isn't, the plant will die unless the trend is reversed - just as a human must take in at least enough calories to replace those burned if life is to be sustained over the long haul. There are other ways of approaching the issue, such as increasing pot depth and using ballast to rid the medium of excess water, but that won't resolve the compaction/lack of aeration issue that usually accompanies use of any significant fraction of mineral soils in container media. How much effort are you willing to invest to reverse the plant's course? Al...See MoreDave
8 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
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8 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
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