thank you all so much for the advice- i'm glad to hear that this sometimes happens normally. i'll keep up with the same watering schedule (i haven't fertilized yet because it's pretty new but bought some the other day) and hopefully it's just an isolated incident. really appreciate the help!

@tapla thanks, that helps I rubbed off 3 of those 6top buds before leaving town and will check back in when I get back as I do want your design advice before rubbing any more off! @rebecca ... obvi @tapla is my the ultimate source & where I’ve learned 95% + from... and I def follow his train of thought that there has to be perched or trapped water “sitting inappropriately” somewhere by the look of those brown marks and you saying the leaves are limp. Just to clarify though do they feel limp which is usually overwatered( trapped water here guessing) vs limp as in just dropping down though which is definitely what also happens from a lack of water (all leaves will feel very crunchy though if that’s the case/ not soft which they do look kinda soggy soft in the pic ). Also note that leaves from bottom to top can definitely start to droop and soon after will usually fall off the tree if there was stress during the repot ( in your case maybe a ton of fine roots “ripped” if u removed soil with hands vs a hard water spray or maybe the roots dried out which I learned my first repot dosent take much.) Just all thoughts to help you problem solve. ( The brown spots alone can be from over or underwatering btw... but they do look soggy here) But no this is not a standard gritty occurrence... aka there is no way your plant could be overwatered right now unless something is majorly not right with your set up: so First thing is ensuring you fully removed the old soil completely as @tapla mentioned & sifted out fine particles in your gritty ingredients ( if not he will have to advise on if your better off repoting again right now or not as I dont have experience there). Also check to make sure you don’t have water sitting bt the decorative planter and what I’m guessing is the black pot the plant is actually rooted in? Also make sure the holes in the pot are in a location that allows the water to drain out completely/ aka on bottom or corners but not just holes one inch up the side. Conversely... Ways this may be due to underwatering: if you didn’t really soak the mix/ turface & bark especially prior to the repot then the one time watering was probably not even enough to truly deeply wet the soil much less give non established roots anything to drink. ( if that’s the case I’d just sit it under a water faucet and let it run over/ flood the pot contents for a solid 5-10 minutes... that still counts as just one good deep watering btw which is how FLF trees like being watered). If it helps for some gritty mix standards... For my FLF’s in gritty mix inside my house which stays at about 60% humidity unless we’re blasting the heater a few weeks a year ( & all my FLF trees are rooted in Various plastic pots btw so not porous thru sides) I ‘can’ water my plants every other day no problem though I wouldn’t unless preparing to leave town for weekend/ I’d say every 3-4 days is usually best for mine... and Ive never ran into trouble with my trees getting so severely dry there is visible evidence ( leaf droop or drop or brown spot ) until the 7th+ day of no watering though the leaves are ultra crispy dry and not happy before then. So THIS is the beauty of gritty... it really is pretty hard to overwater with it and makes it so easy to care for what is know as a finicky plant. In your tree... I’m suspecting it’s about to drop at least a few of those bottom leaves which if so is already unpreventable at this point. And know the brown spots are also irreversible now though it should stop once the problem is fixed ( & then you can kinda trim just the brown part off in a few weeks if you want/ if the leaf dosent fall off on its own)Also once leaves droop like that those specific leaves can’t ever perk back up again which is unfortunate I know. All I can say is something very similar happened with my first two repots( i think you can search my name and find my post from 2 yrs ago) which i know for me was due to too stressful of a repotting/ Root pruning/ letting roots dry out but i learned A LOT about these trees from it all in the meantime from that first ever real repot and now i have gone thru 6 other repots with root pruning involved with these 4 original FLF trees and afterwards the trees have hardly missed a step immediately after and always visibly flourish by 2 months later. So know that even if every leaf was to drop off ( your top few still look strong though at least ) the tree still has great potential if you can rectify the problem and help it get its strength back. Repoting into Gritty mix can definitely have a learning curve but i have definitely seen with my eyes that in the end it really does set you up to be exponentially more successful:)

I have a [post [(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/need-advice-with-flf-dsvw-vd~5384107)prior to this which I wrote to ask some questions before I repotted my Fiddle Leaf Fig. Asking for help because after repotting, my plant now looks sad and the leaves became droopy, and I don't know if I should be doing something right now. Here's a photo of the plant immediately after repotting and how it is now: I have no photo of the roots when I repotted it but it took me more than 2 hours to detangle them using both chopstick and water (jet). I tried to use the 511 mix for the new pot: Please help :(

The first advice I would offer is to refrain from putting faith in products sold by Fiddle Leaf Fig Plant Resources. This discussion will give you an idea of why I make that suggestion. There are a LOT of charlatans out there capitalizing on the current popularity of FLFs. Ficus benghalensis (Audrey) seems to currently be trending, so I expect the snake oil salesman to start a "new line" of products exclusively formulated for Ficus benghalensis/Audrey, using exactly what they were pushing as exclusively designed for FLF's, using repackaged products that have been on the market forever, but at many times the price. Sorry to be cynical. but I see it as a service to the growing community. A couple weeks ago noticed new growth but the leafs have a lot of red dots (2nd photo). I read that this is normal for new growth so didnt worry too much about it. The red dots are not oedema, as suggested by the company who packaged the soil you're using. It's an expression of the pigment anthocyanin, it results from uneven watering as the leaves form, and is exacerbated by low humidity. I've been trying to find someone who can explain how this occurs, physiologically, but haven't yet been successful. I know the cause, but not the mechanism by which it is made manifest. There are a lot of new growth buds but now theyre dropping off or look dried up and crispy :( Could be any of several potential causes. If the fertilizer derives it's N from organic sources, the over-watering (more on that in a sec) can act as a synergist to ammonium toxicity. Ammonium toxicity occurs when there is too much ammonium available for uptake. When soils are warm and well-aerated, normal populations of nitrifying bacteria convert ammonium to nitrate. Soggy soil significantly diminishes populations of the bacteria = reduction in ammonium converted to nitrate = ammonium toxicity. Nitrite (NO2) is an intermediate form of N which also accumulates in the growing medium due to the slow conversion process and further contributes to the potential of ammonium toxicity. Very common, seldom diagnosed. I’ve been watering about every 7-10 days when the top feels dry. This is how I know you're over-watering. One of the main reasons I stopped contributing to the NGA forums is because prevailing advice there was to water when the top inch or two of the soil is dry, which ensures over-watering unless your pot is less than 5" deep. Disagreeing with poor advice, no matter how well intended the disagreement was, was met with push-back from regular posters and admin alike, so the writing was on the wall. I was actually aghast at what passes for advice there. Most of us know here that when the top 2 inches of a 10" soil column are dry, the bottom 6" can be 100% saturated ....... and that's when we're supposed to water? My moisture meter reads shows it’s very wet at the bottom even after weeks though. I started misting more bc of the new growth but maybe that’s doing more harm? Skip the misting. It works for about 10 minutes. Skip the moisture meter and start using a "tell". (see below) Also now some older growth has dark edges which is probably from over-watering... Yes, most likely. This should be helpful. 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. 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 the 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. Questions? Al