Hi all, I desperately need help saving my fiddle leaf fig! I purchased her (Precious) about a month ago and things seemed to be going OK. Within this time she even grew three new leaves. I noticed several brown spots and thought I might be overwatering so held off. We also have had a heatwave so the blinds have been closed in the house and she wasn’t receiving as much sun. Within a few days I noticed she was covered in big brown/black spots and starting to lose leaves. I gave her a big dose of water and left her outside to get some light. With warm weather predicted I left her out overnight. Of course an unpredicted thunderstorm came though. I brought her back in as soon as I could and moved her to another room where the blinds could stay open. She lost 4 more leaves. Now the worst thing happened - my dog got to her. I came home yesterday to find the whole bottom branch destroyed. My dog is ok but Precious is not - she lost 5 more leaves today. My question now is is there anything I can do to save her? I have attached pictures of Precious when I brought her home and today. This is my first FLF so I could use all the help I can get. Thanks in advance, Ashleigh

Of course it's a true fig; and actually, there are no such things as house plants. What we think of as houseplants are nothing more than species that naturally occur outdoors, but are able to tolerate indoor conditions better than most other plants. "I am wondering though if leaves will grow back in the bottom, or they only grow out of the top?" Whenever light levels are low, the tendency is for the plant to lose the proximal leaves on branches/stems. "proximal" refers to leaves closest to the root to shoot transition at ground level. There are several ways that CAN stimulate a quasi-replacement of lost leaves. "Quasi, because it involves stimulating the growth of new branches (with new leaves on them) from the crotch (axil) formed by existing leaves and/or from dormant buds above leaf (bundle) scars where old leaves were formerly attached. This image shows new branches erupting from leaf axils of on a Ficus retusa:The most effective way to force new branching is by A) giving the plant all the light it wants B) making sure the roots are healthy and not congested (root-bound). This, in fact, is a very important consideration as it is a primary factor in what level of vitality/health your plant can achieve. Growing a healthy plant is not possible unless you can maintain a healthy root system; and, to the degree root health is limited, vitality of the entire organism will also be limited. C) siting the plant where it will be warm and have plenty of air movement. Ideally, your plant would be moved outdoors whenever temps allow. It can go outdoors whenever nights are reliably above 55*, or it can be moved in/out so it's protected from temps below 55* D) fertilizing regularly with an appropriate fertilizer. I use Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for almost everything I grow. I have at least 15 species of Ficus, and many cultivars within some species. As an example, I have 5 cultivars of Ficus benjamina. I had to remove some leaves due to damage from shipping and it looks lopsided now. That can be fixed by pruning, but I'd exercise some patience and do any heavy pruning during June if you live in the US. You might consider adding where you live to your user info so it automatically appears whenever you post - like mine. Also, the leaves seem to be droopy even after it is watered- what does this mean? It can mean the plant is over-watered. Too much water, which insures too little air in the root done inhibits the plant's ability to move water. Your plant can suffer a moisture deficit even as roots languish in a sea of plenty. Too, your FLF is known for the fact it's leaves, once wilt has occurred, are often unable to return to their former spatial positions - they droop. If your plant is not currently drooping as a result of real time cultural issues, it will most likely be permanent. Your tree CAN be defoliated, which will stimulate a new flush of foliage that will be pristine in appearance and more 'perky' than the leaves currently on the plant, but that needs to be undertaken in summer and the plant must be healthy, so don't move forward with defoliating w/o running it by someone who is familiar with the process and knows what they're talking about. Does this tree look like how it's supposed to? Well, it could certainly do with more light, but it doesn't look like it's in severe decline. I'll leave a link for you to look over. If you pay particularly close attention to the parts about soil choice and how important watering habits are, you won't be sorry. Proficiency at growing things in containers comes easy if you get the soil choice and watering habits right. Unfortunately, those facets are usually the obstacle that serves as the hump in the road a large fraction of hobby growers are never able to get around. Click me to see what he was talking about. Al

Now is really not the best time to prune with the short day lengths. Waiting until June and getting the tree outside would be best. I do see brown on the leaf tips. Which is either from over watering or ,watering in sips which doesn’t flush fertilizer from the soil or over fertilizing. Moisture probes are notoriously faulty.

Ok im new here Kelly and far from an expert but I had a recent issue with my fiddle and I couldn't help but notice the blur on ur leaves which looked alot like mine. I had an issue with powdery mildew that I created unknowingly from misting my living wall and moving my fiddle away from its window creating a bad situation. Anyway, long story short I had a hell of a clean up and I had to clean a whole lot of plants to include my pot, my soil, and pluck some leaves and eventually give the tree a bath or risk losing it and the leaves looked exactly like yours on the affected plants. I didnt get to take pics of the leaves from my fiddle because after reading how this mildew attacks and sticks the life out of plants, I was about 2 weeks behind from when I first saw what I assumed was dust. I neem sprayed the plants that could be saved and salvaged what I could until I ran out. It was late at night and I ran to the internet and ended up making a natural solution using baking soda and a couple other household ingredients. I carefully followed the instructions word for word and after thinking the issue was only on the surface of my soil I notice the fuzz on a stem and a few leaves as well. It was extremely light that I couldn't see it in the day time. I bathed the entire tree in the solution carefully wiping each leave per instructions top and bottom and not dripping anything. According to the things I read it's hard to recover from and from the description and the timeline of ur tree it really seems like that's also ur issue. Again I'm not expert by far but I came across this pic while trying to fix my own issue. My tree is in Quarantine but doesn't appear to be declining anymore and I check it several times a dat with my flashlight very carefully for any signs of mold. I hope this helps because I would be hurt if I lost my tree and it seems like u would too. Maybe Tapla could chime in. Good luck.