I can't say whether or not it's mealybugs or fungus, but I did want to chime in. Not all fungi are bad. In fact our rainforests wouldn't be able to exist if it weren't for the fungi that break down dead organic matter and recycle the nutrients back into the ecosystem. That's why archaeologists have discovered entire petrified forests from our ancient past. Because all of these massive trees had no way of decaying back down into reusable nutrients. These ancient trees just lingered there for so long that they eventually petrified into stone. It wasn't until many millions of years later, when fungi were able to evolve and take up their role in recycling dead organic matter back into our environment. For the longest time, orchid growers could never get their orchids' microscopic seeds to germinate. They would just sprinkle the very fine orchid seed "dust" down close to the parent plants' roots and just hope for the best. It wasn't until a botanist figured out that they needed a specific fungus to "infect" the seeds and get them to germinate. After that discovery, orchid growing and hybridization essentially exploded onto the market. Now we have literally hundreds of thousands of hybrids, with ever more newer varieties being introduced all of the time. All thanks to the symbiotic relationship between orchids and their beneficial fungi. I've found fungi growing in many of my plants in the past. And not once do I ever remember any of them being adversely affected from it. In fact, it always seemed to be quite the opposite. My plants were/are doing great. And from what I can tell, your Fiddle Leaf fig seems to be doing great as well, and doesn't seem stressed out at all.

Freeme the fiddle Leaf just came home with me last Sunday. When I check the top part of the soil placing my finger about two inches it was dry. So I watered it with super thrive and cleaned his leaves with neem oil. There is one branch which parted in two. I believe only one part of the branch is dead or dying at the top. The other branch has a reddish spot in the veins of the top leaves. The lower part of the leaves appear ok. It's just the top part on one side of the branch. Freeme the Fiddle is in its original container it's plastic with drainage holes. The pictures are numbered branch one and branch two. However you will see what I mean. I truly appreciate you taking time to help me save Freeme. I live in the Nashville TN it's cold here. Warmer days are soon approaching what do you think about cutting it now or when it turns warmer. Or is there hope for Freeme please say yes!!! There's hope!!! Thank you so much....

Al I don't quite follow you. The bigger particles the better? Particles should be the same size? There is a Goldilocks range when it comes to particle size - not too large, not too small, JUST RIGHT. The second post above yours supplied misinformation that, at a minimum would be confusing to those who are still in the process of putting together a working knowledge of how behaves in soils. In soils that have a consistent particle size, the perched water table disappears when the particle size is about 3/32 of an inch or larger. From the plant's perspective, all PWTs are limiting because they rob roots of oxygen they need to function for varying lengths of time. A good rule of thumb is, the largest particles in your soil should be no more than 3X the size of the smallest, which would limit the largest particles to around 5/16" ....... in a perfect world. The gritty mix incorporates these guidelines, but the 5:1:1 mix doesn't hold to them as strictly because most growers are ok with sacrificing some of their plants potential for the convenience of not having to water as often. There's no sin in that - I do it too. I think that KNOWING there is often a sacrifice to be made for the sake of convenience is important because it provides us with a better sense of what is in our best interest when we consider factors most pertinent to us, which might be quite different from those factors important to our counterparts. Al

Spiders won’t cause any issue. Your choice of placement may though. These are high light loving plants and should be right up in front of your brightest window, not across the room from a window. It simply won’t do as well there. Does the pot you used have a drain hole?