I have a small Fiddle Leaf Fig tree that I treasure. I live in Australia and it's the beginning of winter however I have two new leaves sprouting on my plant. I noticed some very small brown dots running along the veins of the new leaves. Should I worry?? I've done a bit of research but found nothing concrete on what the problem could be or how to treat it. I've also noticed that the soil has started to turn white on the surface, around the edges. It does not appear to be crystalized or furry. Are these two issues related? The plant sits by a large window in my kitchen. I water it once a week and the soil is always Damp. Could I be over watering? Could the plant be too cold? I love my tree so any advise is much appreciated! I've uploaded some pictures for reference.

Also just to make sure - the pot it's planted in has drainage holes? It's imperative to have drainage holes, or else you're going to have a lot of trouble keeping the plant happy. I can't comment on whether dropping 8-9 leaves is considered normal, maybe someone else here has can say, but you should be able to tell soon whether or not it's stabilizing. I think it's easy to panic when a plant with big leaves drops a few, because the leaves are just so big that it's jarring to see them fall off. I think as long as you continue to make sure you are watering only when it needs it, that it's getting good light and relatively stable temps, you should be good. For what it's worth, I'm also relatively new to FLF care, and I've slowly picked up bits and pieces through these forums and my own trial/error. You might also be interested in the info on this thread - Ficus in containers. It's a lot of info to digest but super useful.

Thanks Al! To give you an update, I watered yesterday (approximately 2 liters) and stopped once water began coming out of the drainage hole. After watering, the leaves rose and are no longer drooping (see before on left and after pic on right). I checked the soil today with a sharpened wood dowel and left it in for about 20 minutes and after inspecting it I saw no signs of moisture. Is the soil potentially not retaining enough water or drying out too quickly? Although the drooping seems to have corrected, the yellowing seems to have spread to more leaves and worsened. In terms of light, the tree is right next to a South facing window and the room is bright all day with the sun crossing from the left of our windows and when it is setting, the sun is directly shining on the plant from the right corner of our windows. I was out of town and my roommate left the windows open one night and the temperature dropped below 50 degrees. I am wondering if this was potentially the cause as this began to happen shortly a few days after that night. Any other ideas given this info? Thank you! Craig

Same thread at http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4711799/fiddle-leaf-fig-leaves-browning