Hello everyone! I think from everything I've read in this thread that my plant has been suffering from overwatering and/or soggy soil. I got it in late January and after my second watering it developed a few very small brown marks on the edges of the leaves. Suspecting over watering as the cause, I let it dry out (until it no longer felt damp and spongey through the drainage hole) before watering again. This process meant it was about 2.5-3 weeks between watering and sadly the brown and blackish spots on the leaves have continued to get worse after every watering. With what I've read I now believe the soil is just staying soggy too long. (FYI when I water I give it about 3 cups, allowing one cup at a time to soak in. At least half a cup flows out the drainage holes on the third cup of water.) My plan now is to repot with a soil amendment and a wick. I'd like to do some root pruning as well since I can barely get the moisture meter in the soil through the roots, but I think I read in a previous post from Al that I should wait until it starts growing again and the weather is warmer. In the mean time, will mixing my regular potting soil with perlite as well as adding a wick offer a noticeable improvement for drainage for now? Then in the summer I can source better soil mix components and address any potential root issues? Alternatively, I can just water with more frequency and use less water until summer? Here are some photos of the FLF in the late afternoon on a cloudy day. This plant lives about 3 feet away from a S/SW window and doesn't receive any direct sunlight. Here is evidence that the plant has dropped a few leaves. The six leaves that fell off were the worst looking, and the leaves with the spots (shown above) are headed in that direction. And here is the beautiful new growth since I got it in late January (though now it has stopped and the tiny bud here doesn't seem to have changed in about a month): I look forward to learning even more, so thanks in advance for your advice and expertise :)

Post this in the house plants section. The members in this section are most familiar with edible figs that do not include ficus lyrata, benjamina or alii.

Hi, Kim. I think you're being a little too hard on yourself. Your plant looks healthy, so you get gold stars for that. Where most of the plants seen here would be designated as 'of the species', your is actually a cultivar - 'Bambino', probably, and was selected for it's growth habit. It varies from the species plant in that it exhibits a very compact growth habit - very short internodes relative to the species plant, with smaller/thicker uniformly green leaves with lighter veins, the leaves oriented more nearly upright on very short petioles (leaf stems). I'm sure the cultural wants of your plant are the same as those of the species plant. Should I cut it way down to encourage branches lower? Sometimes a grower gets a message a plant is sending with only a casual glance. Your plant looks reluctant to back-bud, which is the first step in forming new branches. You can wait to see what the plant does on its own; put the plant outdoors in brighter light (when temps are above 55*), where the light and air movement bight stimulate back-budding; or you can cut the plant back to about 2/3 of the ht you want to maintain it at, which will force back-budding, but to what degree is still a question. I'd do it around the 4th of July if I lived in SF. I've read posts about better soil so I will try that also. I just want a fuller plant. Also I live in San Francisco if that matters in terms of light. Not the sunniest spot in CA, it it? ;-) Is the pot big enough? Is that a trick question? It's more than big enough, but that comment needs to be qualified if it's to have any meaningful value. If the roots have reached a degree of congestion where the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact, it needs repotting. Repotting doesn't mean 'moved to a larger pot', that's potting up. In fact, it may well turn out that a much smaller pot would be a more realistic choice after a repot, which includes root pruning, but that decision would be made based on your choice of soils. The better your soil drains and the less excess water your soil holds, the less important pot size becomes in terms of the plant being over-potted. The reverse is true as well. The more water retentive your soil is, the more critical pot size is and the more important it becomes to avoid an over-potted plant. Al

WOW ! your tree looks great... I too have a too tall fiddle fig leaf.. and i'm curious about how you trimmed it all the way down two years ago. I think I want to do that with mine. All have the leaves have fallen off except for the top foot of the tree.. so the rest of the 6 feet look barren. I've trimmed the top before with success, and have created little baby figs from my clippings -- I followed these instructions-- http://joeandcheryl.com/my-new-baby-fiddle-leaf-fig-tree/ But now I want to start over because my tree is grazing the ceiling. I plan on cutting off the tops of the braches and making more fig plants from them. My question is.. did you just trim yours all the way down to the dirt basically? How much of the stem did you leave?Thank you!