If the branches are as brittle as you say, that's not good. See what the nursery has to say. I'm sure others here will have some advice for you too.

Just got a FLF about a month ago and the leaves are browning mostly from the outside in. Today it started dropping leaves. I've been checking the soil with a bamboo skewer and only given about a cup of water when it comes out dry (twice since I received it). There also looks like there may be spider mites? I'd like to repot and separate the two trunks in 5:1:1 mix but I wasn't sure if it's too late in the season? I've been keeping it in its original pot (foolishly?) within the new planter I intend to repot in. Any help would be much appreciated! -Nick Last Wednesday And today:

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

Hi all - I posted about my FLF here earlier this year when it had a weird white spot. Al recommended I try a Bayer Advance Disease Control product, which I did. I sprayed the plant 3 times following the recommended intervals. But the problem persists. The white stuff is still there, and now there are weird spots on all the leaves, and some are splitting right in half. What is this? What do I do? I'd really appreciate any help. I very much want this plant to live. Thanks!