Droopy Ficus Alii: used to be braided, but now...
Somewhere over the course of the past few years, two of the three trunks on my braided Ficus alii died. This spring, I cut the dead trunks off and put the tree outside for its annual summer vacation.
The tree seems to have enjoyed the wet summer--it grew many new leaves and they all look great. But whether it was all the rain, some wind or other factors, the tree now droops considerably to one side:
I brought my tree in yesterday. I staked it with a garden stake so it would stand upright:
Will the tree regain some firmness and stand upright without the stake in the future? Is there anything I should do to promote it straightening up?
Thanks!
Comments (13)
- 7 years ago
Related Discussions
Tapla...my poor Ficus 'Alii' + my hubby = :-(
Comments (6)I just mentioned on another forum that most hobby growers give all glory to the top of the plant, while it's the roots that serve as the plant's heart and do all the heavy lifting. As long as you don't have an insect infestation, we can prolly get your plant straightened out quickly, though it will take some guts on your part. Can you hang? ;o) If you're willing to do a full repot, which includes sawing off the bottom 1/3 of the roots, bare rooting, and then cutting off even more roots, concentrating on the largest, then adding all fresh soil, you can put your plant back on track. If that frightens you, or if for some reason you don't want to do that, the prognosis is a continued steady decline. Once plants become rootbound, it permanently and negatively affects growth, unless you take the initiative and correct the condition. Copy/pasted from one of my other posts: We know for certain that growth is negatively affected at about the time the soil/root mass can be lifted from the container intact. We also know that once the tree has reached this state of root congestion, growth is affected permanently, unless the root congestion is corrected. We know these things because tree growers have a vested interest in seeing that their trees put on caliper as quickly as possible. Dr Carl Whitcomb goes into some considerable detail about what the impact of being root bound has on growth. Practically speaking, after spending thousands of hours digging around in as many root balls, I can assure you his observations are accurate. You cannot expect a tree growing under root-bound conditions to grow to its genetic potential within the limits of other cultural factors, and it will not/cannot. When you regularly tend to root pruning and and replacement of collapsed soils, you offer your tree the opportunity to grow at as close to it's genetic potential as other cultural factors allow, but when you simply put a tree in a container & do nothing in the way of root maintenance, you deny that plant that same potential. On a scale of 0-10, with 0 being a dead tree and 10 being perfect vitality/growth, trees in containers are capable of somewhere around an 8. A scenario re the range of vitality: Trees that are repotted (includes soil change and root work) will vary over a 3 year period (between repots) and at some point soon after repotting will be capable of growing at a level of 8. They will decline to maybe a 5 as they become root bound. When you repot, they go right back to 8 again, so the trees can be maintained indefinitely at good vitality levels. Let's consider the tree that is NOT repotted. Some may feel that because they see a growth "spurt" after they pot up or scratch some fresh soil into the top few inches that all is well, but lets talk about that growth "spurt" It's not a spurt at all. It's simply a very stressed tree temporarily growing a little closer to it's potential, which has been misinterpreted as a spurt. *A tree starts at a vitality level of 8 and declines to a 5 over 3 years. * It's potted up and some of the vitality returns, but not all, so it's only growing at a level of 7. *Over 3 years, it declines to a 4; when potted up again, it can only muster a vitality level of 6. * It declines to a 3 and is potted up to a 5 * It declines to a 2, and is potted up to a 4 * It declines to a 1, and is potted up to a 3 * dead tree "What about the leaves? How can I get the leaves looking healthier?" The leaves only THINK they are in charge. Get the roots right & the leaves will follow. ;o) Al...See MorePot size for Ficus Alii
Comments (5)BTW - the question of 'appropriate pot size' comes up so ofter, I saved this from something I wrote & posted tro a thread somewhere along the way: Choosing an Appropriate Size Containersize> How large a container ‘can’ or ‘should’ be, depends on the relationship between the mass of the plant material you are working with and your choice of soil. We often concern ourselves with "over-potting" (using a container that is too large), but "over-potting" is a term that arises from a lack of a basic understanding about the relationship we will look at, which logically determines appropriate container size. It's often parroted that you should only move up one container size when "potting-up". The reasoning is, that when potting up to a container more than one size larger, the soil will remain wet too long and cause root rot issues, but it is the size/mass of the plant material you are working with, and the physical properties of the soil you choose that determines both the upper & lower limits of appropriate container size - not a formulaic upward progression of container sizes. In many cases, after root pruning a plant, it may even be appropriate to step down a container size or two, but as you will see, that also depends on the physical properties of the soil you choose. It's not uncommon for me, after a repot/root-pruning to pot in containers as small as 1/5 the size as that which the plant had been growing in prior to the work. Plants grown in ‘slow’ (slow-draining/water-retentive) soils need to be grown in containers with smaller soil volumes so that the plant can use water quickly, allowing air to return to the soil before root issues beyond impaired root function/metabolism become a limiting factor. We know that the anaerobic (airless) conditions that accompany soggy soils quickly kill fine roots and impair root function/metabolism. We also know smaller soil volumes and the root constriction that accompany them cause plants to both extend branches and gain o/a mass much more slowly - a bane if rapid growth is the goal - a boon if growth restriction and a compact plant are what you have your sights set on. Conversely, rampant growth can be had by growing in very large containers and in very fast soils where frequent watering and fertilizing is required - so it's not that plants rebel at being potted into very large containers per se, but rather, they rebel at being potted into very large containers with a soil that is too slow and water-retentive. This is a key point. We know that there is an inverse relationship between soil particle size and the height of the perched water table (PWT) in containers. As particle size increases, the height of the PWT decreases, until at about a particle size of just under 1/8 inch, soils will no longer hold perched water. If there is no perched water, the soil is ALWAYS well aerated, even when the soil is at container capacity (fully saturated). So, if you aim for a soil (like the gritty mix) composed primarily of particles larger than 1/16", there is no upper limit to container size, other than what you can practically manage. The lower size limit will be determined by the soil volume's ability to allow room for roots to ’run’ and to furnish water enough to sustain the plant between irrigations. Bearing heavily on this ability is the ratio of fine roots to coarse roots. It takes a minimum amount of fine rootage to support the canopy under high water demand. If the container is full of large roots, there may not be room for a sufficient volume of the fine roots that do all the water/nutrient delivery work and the coarse roots, too. You can grow a very large plant in a very small container if the roots have been well managed and the lion's share of the rootage is fine. You can also grow very small plants, even seedlings, in very large containers if the soil is fast (free-draining and well-aerated) enough that the soil holds no, or very little perched water. I have just offered clear illustration why the oft repeated advice to ‘resist pottting up more than one pot size at a time’, only applies when using heavy, water-retentive soils. Those using well-aerated soils are not bound by the same restrictions. As the ht and volume of the perched water table are reduced, the potential for negative effects associated with over-potting are diminished in a direct relationship with the reduction - up to the point at which the soil holds no (or an insignificant amount) of perched water and over-potting pretty much becomes a non-issue. Al...See MoreHelp 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 MoreCosta Farms Ficus alii rescue doomed for failure
Comments (21)Even though those pots hold on to some water at the bottom, they still have those holes above that small amount of water. So the air supply to the roots isn't cut off, as it would be with a pot that had zero drainage holes whatsoever. And it still allows water to drain freely, preventing any salt or mineral buildup in the soil. As long as those roots have access to fresh air, they won't suffer from "overwatering." As you can see, these plants were grown in those pots in the nursery. They are used to the tips being in that small amount of water and grew just fine. It's not like they were just transferred to those pots before being shipped out to the stores. I would say that roughly 90% of its root mass is above that reservoir, taking in more than enough fresh air to maintain proper root functions. There is no need for concern from using these types of pots. The first year that I had mine, it lost almost all of its leaves over the winter. But it grew many more news ones throughout spring, and fully recovered itself over the summer of the following year. Ficus alii is no stranger to shedding its leaves. Especially when being moved into a new environment. I still say that your plant is healthy, despite losing some of its leaves. I would, however, refrain from pruning any more bare branches. Having bare branches doesn't necessarily mean that those branches are dead. They will send out plenty of new leaves, given enough time. If any bare branches remain in the summertime, then feel free to prune those away as needed....See More- 7 years ago
7 years ago- 7 years ago
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years agoI cut off some of the branches the other day that only had leaves at the end and were droopy. I would like the trunk to be stronger and more firmly able to support growth up top.
Thank you Al, for the kind words. I recently had a guest asking me about my plants and I did the math and realized I have many of my plants much longer than I'd thought--ten years, twelve years. So that made me feel a little better about my plant care abilities than how I feel when I look at this little guy.
The alii I had in my last house was too large to bring with us when we moved and always looked great, so when I bought this one I never anticipated the struggle!
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
About potting this tree: if I'm going to take it out of this pot to
change the soil, should I put it back directly into this pot as I now
have it, or should I put it back in the slightly smaller black plastic
pot it came in and just set that pot inside this decorative one? What size pot is appropriate depends on the size of the root mass when you've finished any root work you're doing and the soil you choose/make. The soil I use for trees
renders pot size moot. IOW, you can put very small plants in extremely large pots if the soil is appropriate to that arrangement. OTOH, when your soil is significantly water retentive, choice of pot size becomes more critical. Your medium should never retain a soggy layer of soil at the bottom of the pot long enough to limit root function or impact root health. Best would be to make sure you have several pot size choices and enough soil to adapt to whatever pot size is appropriate. This is pretty much a judgment primarily based on experience. Keep in mind that you can still have a reasonably healthy plant if you're using a medium that is more water retentive than what would be considered ideal, but still be sacrificing an appreciable amount of potential in terms of growth, vitality, and appearance. Very healthy plants have a 'vibrance' that requires a number of factors to favor the plant, and soil choice is very near the top of the list, if not AT the top. Should I
trim the roots while I have it out? That's for you to decide based on how comfortable you are with the process. I can say, however, that regular root maintenance is a requirement if you want to maintain a high level of vitality over the long term. Once roots become congested, it's a permanent limitation until such time that you physically get your hands into the root mass to relieve that congestion. Potting up only partially relieves the limitations imposed by root congestion while a full repot w/root pruning removes it entirely. The loss of potential in trees potted up vs trees repotted is actually immense.About pruning: Once I identify the leader, do I cut the other
branches back to their lowest set of leaves, or even further (leaving
them without leaves at all?) Patience is an important part of working a plant for the long term. Your plant has a natural rhythm, and conforming to that rhythm for the good of the plant often requires a lot of waiting. I don't think it's a good time to do any pruning. I'd focus on getting your repotting done and then allow the plant to grow unencumbered by pruning. You might be able to choose what branch will be the new leader and do some pinching to prepare the plant for that end, but more likely the branch that will be the leader hasn't even grown yet. Healthy plants tolerate a LOT of work and bounce back willingly. Plants at low ebb or those circling the drain don't tolerate stress well at all. So, do your serious work in the summer around Father's Day and focus on what's required to keep your plants healthy. If you're determined to improve your proficiency, I can put lots of helpful info in front of you. After that, beyond the questions you ask, it's sort of up to you, and, of course, all the good folks you find along the way who are willing to help.
Al
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)