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Fiddle Leaf Fig FLF Droopy after 5-1-1 soil repot - will it make it?

Nicole
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago

Hi, Gardening community. I need your help on this one.

I received a nice Fiddle Leaf Fig as a gift and repotted it after I got it. Nothing too special just planted it in its same pot with new soil. 1/2 garden soil and 1/2 cactus soil. THEN, I started noticing brown spots on its leaves. I scoured the internet and came across this forum. I realized I made a big mistake!

  1. I should have waited to re-pot until it was at least June. (I live in the Seattle Area)
  2. I should have paid closer attention to the roots and planted my FLF in a nice gritty soil, recommended by Al and lots of members of the garden forum community.

So, this past weekend - I decided to make the 5-1-1 potting soil mix in order to give my plant some breathing room in its root system. I screened Pine Bark Mulch to be about 1/8 - 1/4 inches. I rinsed it to get the dust off then strained it and waited for it to dry overnight. The next day I mixed 3 gallons of the pine bark with 1/2 gallon of Sphagnum Peat Moss and 1/2 gallon of Perlite; both from Miracle-Gro. I added 4 TBS of Garden Lime (Espoma). I decided to wait to add fertilizer until my FLF's health got back on track.

I took my FLF out of its container (two stalks), got my garden hose (maybe too cold of water?) and started rinsing the dirt off around the roots. I had to break apart the dirt with my hands since it was so root bound. By the looks of it, I really needed to make a soil change! After rinsing off all of the dirt, quite a bit of root broke off and I trimmed a little but not too much. I then re-planted my FLF back into its original black plastic pot and added some supports. I watered it slowly with room temp water and placed by my west-facing window.

My plant seemed happy...for a day. Then the next day I woke up to a droopy plant. I checked the soil and the top part is dry, but I stuck a wooden chopstick down and it seemed wet towards the bottom of the pot.

I did the same thing for some of my other plants. They look pretty good today, except my rubber tree has a few droopy leaves. I hope it survives as well!

Is there anything I can do for it? Or do I just need patience and wait it out?

Photo right after I repotted my plants: Note- my Fiddle Leaf and Rubber plant are both in smaller plastic containers which are sitting in the larger container.


Photo the next day :(

Soil:

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