Hi, Sarah. The cultural issues most likely to cause wilting are over-watering, under-watering, high temps, and a high level of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil solution. The later is usually accompanied by necrosis of leaf margins on lyrata, unless the high level of salts was due to a very recent fertilizing. If it wilted while the soil was still damp, your issue would probably be related to the effects of over-watering and/or the heat. Water and nutrient uptake is an energy driven process. It takes oxygen to burn (convert) the food (carbohydrates - from photosynthesis) into the energy that drives root metabolism. Too much water in the rhizosphere (root zone) means too little air means not enough O2 means the work of water uptake is compromised. The heat increases the rate of respiration increases water demand and exacerbates the issue. I would: Shade the pot to help keep roots cool if the plant has direct sun hitting it Use a wood dowel or bamboo skewer to test the soil, waiting to water until the soil is nearly but not quite dry. When soil is at first dry to the touch, there is still 10-15% additional water left that the plant can access - so a built-in margin for error. Flush the soil thoroughly the next time the plant needs watering by pouring a volume of water equal to the pot capacity up to 10 times, using room temp water; this, to rid the soil of accumulating salts. Then, fertilize the plant with a soluble fertilizer with a 3:1:2 NPK ratio. RATIO is different than NPK %s - ask if you'd like me to explain the difference. After flushing the soil, water on an as needed basis. Don't let the soil remain saturated for extended periods. I can also help you learn how to deal with soils that hold too much water, if you think that's an issue. I'll wait on your comments before I offer anything else. Al

From my post on that thread: Hi, Crissy - every plant has a light compensation point (LCP), which is that point at which carbohydrates required by plants in respiration are equal to carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis. You might think of it as the 'break even point' at which the photosynthetic rate equals the rate of respiration, or the point at which the plant is making as much energy as it is using. If the plant cannot achieve the LCP, it is dying, and this is usually made manifest in the shedding of organs after the plant has extracted all it can use in terms of carbohydrates and other bio-compounds from those parts. If the plant surpasses the LCP, it has enough energy to keep its systems orderly AND grow. Keep in mind that growth is measured as the increase in a plant's dry mass, so even though a plant might be extending, it might not be growing if it is shedding parts at the same time. That your plant has shed some leaves w/o observable extension of the stems seems to indicate it might actually be going backward, though it might be thickening slightly, which would increase mass. Regardless of which side of the LCP the plant is on, we know it's closer than you probably feel comfortable with. Low light means low water needs, so if you're not watering carefully, it's a good bet that there are some soggy areas in the soil that are killing roots. BEFORE the plant's internal chemical messengers can tell it it's ok to start producing top growth, there must be enough root mass to support that growth. If the roots are going through a cyclic death and regeneration of a fraction of the root mass each time you water, your plant is making a serious outlay in terms of energy that goes to regenerating lost roots. This is energy that would otherwise been devoted to increasing the plant's mass - growth. So, you need to bring the plant back around, you need to increase the light so the plant is functioning at beyond its LCP, and you need to make sure your watering is under control. Use the wooden dowel described in the offering above as a 'tell', and don't water until it comes out clean/dry. At that point, the plant will still be able to extract water from the soil, but not much beyond that point. Also, plants go through an annual growth cycle. During that cycle, there are good times to repot, bad times to repot, and the rest of the time is sort of, ehh. Now is not a good time to repot your plant, and I would avoid repotting or potting up (for now, unless it's the only way to save your plant from root rot ..... and it doesn't appear things are that dire. Save your repotting efforts for when the plant is about to enter its most robust period of growth - Father's Day or the Summer Solstice are easy days to remember and should be the best time of the year for you to repot. It doesn't appear, by the foliage, that your watering habits are seriously affecting how fertility plays into the plant's well-being, but for best results, you should have a strategy in place for ensuring the plant has access to the nutrients it needs to grow normally and keep its systems orderly, and to keep the level of nutrients in check while ensuring the ratio of nutrients (one to the others) doesn't get seriously skewed, a serious issue for a high % of hobby growers. If you're interested, we can put together a plan that works WITH the plant's natural rhythms instead of against them. It's always better if you have a plan you can stick to and enough confidence in the fact you're taking into account all the factors that point you toward acting in the plant's best interest, even if that requires the little bit of patience that allows you to sync with your plant's rhythms. What do you think. ;-) Al

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

Sunlight seems to be the best cure for thin weak stems. More and better sunlight is what tripled my dracaena marginata's previously-willowy stem since last September, and it's the first advice I see given to other people with thin-stemmed FLFs. Figs just adore light. Honestly, your tree needs as many photons as you can provide, and would be very happy sitting in broad daylight all day (after allowing a little time to adapt to strong direct sunlight). But if you can't get it outdoors, put that plant right in front of and very close to a south or southwest facing window with nothing but glass between it and the sun. Leave the support on the plant until it's strong enough to stand on its own. Or, if all your windows face east like mine do, position the tree where it will get the most morning sunlight and supplement the light the rest of the day with 100W bright white LEDs or CFLs when it's indoors. I use a cheap 24 hour timer so I don't have to remember to turn the lights on and off. I hope that helps!