Should I notch my new Fiddle Leaf fig?
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5 years ago
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5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoRelated Discussions
Should I repot my fiddle leaf fig?
Comments (13)Shawn, the plant's condition is a huge factor in deciding whether to repot now, when its energy reserves are low. How does it look? A picture of the whole thing would be very helpful in figuring out what's going wrong. The rule, as I understand it from Al's writings, is to wait to repot until June unless the plant is declining enough that it will fail before then. Repotting is stressful, and repotting when the plant has low reserves means slower recovery and growth. It would be better if you did what what you could to improve its condition so it can build reserves over the winter....See MoreFicus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig) Notching Question
Comments (1)What it looks like is that your knife wasn't sharp enough. Also I'd never use a knife to prune. It is hard to get a clean cut (if it's not a clean cut it can take longer for the plant to heal) and can easily introduce disease and infection if the tools are not sterilized beforehand. For such thick stems use a pruner, you can buy them at home depot or lowes. To sterilize your tools, get a blow torch and heat up the blade until it gets red and then let it cool off. It goes without saying that you should choose a pruner with a blade that is pure metal, not the kind of hybrid plastic ones they have nowadays. I wouldn't necessarily prune any more off. The problem is that your ficus began branching too late and now whatever you do the tree is still going to look top heavy indoors since it can't get any taller than that....See MoreQuestions about new growth on fiddle leaf fig & When should I repot?
Comments (4)Al Tapla would you be able to tell me what is wrong with mine? I've had this tree four four years and never had any trouble with it but now I am killing it! I wanted it to grow more branches so I pruned it and moved it to a sunny-er spot and added grow lights and started fertilizing more regularly. Next thing I know, it's getting yellow blotches all over the leaves and sometimes red speckles and tiny pin holes. I found spider mites on a different plant, but I couldn't see any on this one, but I hosed it off and sprayed with dish soap in case it was mites. Then the soil was soaked and wouldn't dry and a week and a half later this leaf turned black and dry in the center. I thought maybe it was because the soil was wet too long. I freaked out, so just yesterday I did a full repot (never done this before) and added perlite and orchid bark mix to potting mix to get a grittier faster drying mix. I also cut off half of the leaves. It really doesn't look too happy today (droopy leaves and soft stems and even more red speckling on new leaves) I don't know if it's been given too much light, too much fertilizer, too much water, or is infected with mites, or all of the above. Anything you can suggest? The tiny pin-holes make me think mites are one the table but I hate to stress it out more if it's not that....See MoreNotching a fiddle leaf fig
Comments (4)Let's see how you're notching ............ an image? On small trees up to 3/4" diameter, the notch should be centered above the node where you want the branch, and the width of the notch should take up 1/3-1/2 of the circumference. You should remove all the bark to make a slit 1/8-3/16 in ht, and you should remove all tissue at the deepest part of the notch - all the way down to bare sapwood. So, after you carve this 1/8-3/16 high groove, use the sharp edge of the knife to remove all cambial tissues from the surface of the sapwood. Auxin acts to keep lateral/axillary buds inactive. If you leave part the cambium, the wound closes very quickly, restoring the pathway for auxin's polar flow past axillary buds to roots, when what you want is the flow of auxin to be stopped or diverted around the latent bud you're trying to awaken from quiescence (rest). Al...See MoreDave
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