Rather than write paragraph after paragraph to describe what might be occurring, I'll suggest you read this. You'll be left with the sense you might benefit from adjusting some of your care practices, so your plant is growing in a 'sweet spot, instead of at/near the limits it's been genetically programmed to tolerate. Too, by comparing your care regimen to some of the suggestions in the piece, it should help you understand what specific questions you would most benefit from asking.

Al

Oops, I cross posted with Al, but I'll leave what I wrote in case it helps someone else. Al is right, the Good Growing Practices thread is an excellent place to stay. I just jumped on the first thing that popped into my head.

The first thing that comes to mind is spider mites. They infest the whole plant but prefer tender new growth, so if there are very many of them they will kill any new leaves or buds before they get a chance to grow.

They look like tiny red dots, so most of us use some kind of magnifier to search for them. You can also hold a piece of paper underneath a leaf and then two the leaf to make them fall off. They tend to hang out on the undersides of leaves, but my plants were so badly infested last year that there were mites all over the leaves. They usually leave tiny scraps of webs on the stems, too. You should assume all of your other plants are infested too.

Fortunately the treatment is easy and cheap: spray the plant thoroughly with a mixture of half water and half rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol. Be sure and wet the tops and bottoms of the leaves and the stems. Don't spray the soil, though. Their life cycle is something like 3-5 days, and the spray only kill adults, so you'll need to treat the plant again four or so days later.

This completely eradicated my infestation, and it didn't damage the leaves at all. In fact, when I was done I wiped all the leaves down with the alcohol and water solution to get the dusty residue from the mites off. For what it's worth, I went a little crazy and sprayed them pretty much every other day for two weeks to get rid of the little buggers. That probably wasn't necessary, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to do a third treatment.

If you can't find any sign of mites let us know. In the meantime someone else will probably pop in with more ideas.

Seems like few healthy root surrounded by death root. Failure on producing new leaves, mostly recognized on big leaves plants. Even anthurium, not only ficus, will be the same. Ficus ok to be rootbound, some that able to develop aerial root for example, but not the big leaves one. Ficus benjamina will produce more, many interesting root on rootbound condition, or under hard dense soil, but for FLF, rootbound should be avoided.

I am having the same issue! ugh I am losing sleep caring for my plants! It seems like the ones I ignore thrive more than the ones I try to care for. My fiddle leaf figs are not thriving!

Need more information, an image of affected leaves, and one of the entire plant, including pot.

Al

Thank you!! I have two plants. One was turning dark brown on the edges. The water meter read dry all around and moist in the middle. I soaked it and the nursery said to take take it out if the pot and ket the rootball dry out. After I did that, I repotted and soak it. I also cut the brown off of the edges.

I have two plants. One was turning dark brown on the edges. That would undoubtedly be from over-watering. The water meter read dry all around and moist in the middle. Water meters don't measure moisture, they measure electrical conductivity. Fill a clean cup part full of distilled water, insert a clean water meter probe and note it reads 'DRY'. Sprinkle some salt in the water (makes the water conduct electricity) and watch the meter move to 'WET'. It's much better to use a 'tell'. See below. I soaked it and the nursery said to take take it out if the pot and ket the rootball dry out. After I did that, I repotted and soak it. The advice to remove the root/soil mass was to pull the excess water out of it. Putting it back in the pot and soaking it undid what would have otherwise been beneficial. I also cut the brown off of the edges. No problem in doing that.

You should find this piece about Good Growing Habits helpful. The shortest route to green thumb status starts with learning all you can, instead of trying dozens of different things and ending up totally confused by the mixed results. When you learn what to do beforehand, you don't spend your valuable time getting bit on the butt by mistakes; rather you use your practical experience to validate what you already learned. Practice that, and you'll leave the 'trial-and-error crowd' standing in your slipstream.

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant.

Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.

In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.

The advice to water when the top inch or two of the soil is dry is almost always counter-productive. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.

Al

Thank you!

Can you telm me if plants go into shock from being moved to a new area of the house or from being transported home from the nursery?

That plants go into shock is another horticultural myth. Plants do indeed respond to any changes in the cultural conditions we as growers are responsible for providing, but when something like light, temperature, fertility, soil air/water relations are improved, there is only potential for the plant to increase in its level of vitality, growth, appearance, resistance to disease, ..... . I put the word 'potential' in bold, because a plant can only grow as well as the least favorably cultural condition allows. If the most limiting factor is a N deficiency, the ONLY thing that can improve the plant's vitality is more N. If low light is the most limiting factor, if every other cultural factor was spot-on perfect, it would not/ could not make up for the limitations imposed by low light. So, growth/health is not determined by the sum of available resources, it is determined by the scarcest resource. This principle is called Liebig's Law of the Minimum, and is often illustrated using 'Liebig's Barrel'.

You can see by the barrel that lack of nitrogen is the limiting factor for the imaginary plant. If the nitrogen deficiency is fixed, the plant will grow slightly better, but will still be limited by the next scarcest resource, which appears like it might be temperature (warmth) or perhaps a boron deficiency.

Plants are reactive organisms; so, when you bring one home to a cultural condition that is less favorable than it was where the plant was previously sited, it will not grow as well. If you bring one home and the condition that was least favorable where it was formerly sited is improved, it will grow better. The idea your plant will always go through an adjustment period where growth is slowed until it 'adjusts to its new surroundings' but will then automatically improve when the plant has suitably adjusted to its new home has no basis in science.

Al

So how does he know when it's nitrogen deficiency. It seems Liebig's Barrel is an unnecessary illustration. More helpful would be to just refer to some method of ascertaining the deficiency. Also, water meters are awesome! Stop pretentiously claiming they don't work. No one needs to heft their giant fiddles to see if they need watering...Please admit that you have a beard and a man bun!

oh my goodness mignon! why the hostility?