Fiddle leaf fig issues: brown spot, root-rot?, re-pot, hopes shot :(
Lydia Hecomovich
5 years ago
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoLydia Hecomovich thanked tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)Lydia Hecomovich
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Fiddle leaf fig tree dropping leaf and developing more brown spots
Comments (2)Plants have their own sense of time that isn't measured by the hour hand on a clock, rather, day length (technically it's the length of the dark period) is what the plant pays attention too. When the day length signals the plant to grow, and other cultural conditions allow it to grow normally, your plant should from that point forward start producing healthy growth. It can't 'repair' the damaged growth, though that will eventually be shed and forgotten as the plant grows. What you're seeing is probably the result of an ongoing shedding process that may well have been instigated by conditions that affected the plant even before you acquired it. Your very best coursed of action is to make a good plan that A) ensures good root health B) takes advantages the plants more robust periods and makes allowances for when the plant would be better off without extra human generated stress C) has you ensuring cultural conditions in the area of light, temperature, and nutrition that subject the plant to the lowest level of stress you can comfortably manage. Fortunately, these things are much easier than they sound, but it's not realistic to expect to see the results of your efforts in a month or two. Choose a course, stick by it, be patient. If the course is a good one, your plant will cooperate. If it's not, it will let you know. Al...See MoreFiddle Leaf Fig Brown Spots
Comments (6)Ugh!! MG moisture control is an evil root-suffocating substance! Don't feel bad; you were just trying to do right by your plants. Dave is exactly correct in every respect. You'll want to wait until June to repot because that's when the plant will have the greatest energy reserves to help it recover quickly--unless you're in the S. Hemisphere, in which case you'll probably repot in December (correct me if I'm wrong, Dave). Most of my plants are in the same moisture-retaining soil you use, so in order to get my babies in good shape for repotting I'm following these suggestions, which came from excellent sources: 1. First I flushed my plants ar (to wash out salts that had accumulated over several years) until the water coming out the bottom was clear. I let the pots drain until water stopped coming out, then reduced the PWT (perched water table, which is explained in Dave's second link) by propping the pots up at 45 degrees with blocks of wood until no more water came out. 2. I wait until the soil feels almost completely dry before watering again. To do that I push a sharpened dowel all the way to the bottom of each pot, and I don't water again until the dowel comes out so dry that it's not even cool against my wrist. 3. From now until June I'll water 'in sips' instead of soaking the pot until water runs out the bottom. Every month or so I'll flush the pot with a diluted fertilizer solution to remove the salts that build up from evaporation. I'm also giving them extra light because there's not enough here to keep them happy. Your ficus still looks good, so I think it will come back like gangbusters!...See MoreBrown spots on Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree
Comments (0)Hello, I need help to save my FLF tree. Al (Tapla) helped me last year with saving my plant (my nickname was Planning Department), and I thought since then I had it under control - the issue was related to watering methods. But after a year, recently I noticed my plant has a lot of brown dots and black specks on its top leaves. I read most of Houzz discussions, especially Al's comments, about FLF brown spots to diagnose the issue myself. I think it's related to fungus but not sure. Some of them also seem to have oedena. Could you please review the photos I attached here and help me with this? I moved to a new apt 4 months ago so now my plant gets more light (mostly indirect). I water it every 3-4 weeks - I poke my fingers about 1-2 inches to ensure the soil is dry. I mist it with water spray maybe once a week or less. (I am now thinking the water left on the leaves from misting might have caused this brown spot problem.) As shown in the photos, the bottom leaves look okay. The top leaves have brown spots near the stems. A few of them after a week dried out and fell off. The plant didn't lose many leaves until this week. Initially I thought brown spots were due to the shock from the recent move. But only top leaves are infected so it may not be related to the move. I just hope the brown spots do not spread anymore. I am wondering if I need to cut out these infected leaves or spray with insecticidal soap. I am also wondering if I need to prune the plants or re-pot them, including pruning roots. Do you think I am underwatering it? Any advice? Thanks a ton!...See MoreFiddle leaf fig brown spots - Am I over or underwatering?
Comments (9)Your plant would do better if you watered according to the plant's needs instead of according to the calendar. Use a wooden tell, stuck deep into the pot to "tell" you when it's time to water. I'll leave something I wrote about using a 'tell' at the end of the post. In addition to over-watering, the reduction in light between the nursery/greenhouse where your plant was cultivated and where it's currently sited can cause leaf loss, though it's unlikely the leaves being shed would look like those in your images. Also, a high level of dissolved solids in the soil solution (salts from tap water and fertilizers, can produce symptoms as illustrated either actively or passively. Plants grown under heavy photo load (bright light) and good soil moisture levels can be fertilized at luxury rates without issues. The same plants that thrive with high light and high fertility can present as being over-fertilized just by moving them to a spot with lower light levels, so you should plan to flush your soil in the very near future if you haven't been doing that when you water. If you need help with that - just ask. 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 air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support good root health, which is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to a build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil, 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. Al...See MoreLydia Hecomovich
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoLydia Hecomovich
5 years agoLydia Hecomovich
5 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
5 years ago
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)