Fiddle leaf fig issues: brown spot, root-rot?, re-pot, hopes shot :(
6 years ago
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- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoUser thanked tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
- 6 years ago
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Fiddle 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 MoreFiddle Leaf Fig worries after root rot
Comments (19)To help you figure things out ...... if you're watering when you can still detect moisture in the soil with a finger, you can't be under-watering. If you can eliminate under-watering based on the above, it pretty much leaves you with over-watering or a high level of dissolved solids in the soil from the fertilizer you applied. What did you use for fertilizer, how much did you use, and how did you apply it? Was the plant dry at application time? I don't know if I mentioned this, but it's easy to monitor soil moisture levels with a 'tell'. A wood dowel (from any hardware or home improvement store) about 5/16" in diameter works best. They come 48" long. Cut it in half & sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener. Push it deep into the soil and don't water until the first day it comes out clean/dry. Did you read the thread I linked to upthread - the one that focuses on how to deal with unwanted water retention? The best advice I offered was to concentrate on making sure your plants are in a soil you can water to beyond the point of saturation w/o having to worry the soil remain soggy so long it limits root health/function. That means you either start with an appropriate soil of find ways to limit water retention, which brings us back around to the link that takes you to the thread about dealing with water retentive soils. It's hard to tell you precisely what to do w/o you having a basic understanding of what plants require to remain healthy. Particularly important and a prerequisite to a healthy plant is a healthy root system. All of the information you need to be an accomplished container grower fits together like a jigsaw puzzle under assembly. Each piece is connected to the other pieces - either directly or extraneously, but they ARE all connected. You probably remember that it’s easier to assemble a puzzle when you work toward getting the outer 'frame' together first. The outer frame is analogous to an understanding of the basic bits knowledge required for your success. Of the basic knowledge, most important is an understanding of how the soil/water relationship works & how the individual soil components interact relative to the whole. Basically we need to understand that a healthy root system is a requirement if the plant is to be healthy. Then, and easier to understand are a very few additional issues like the importance of light to your growing experience, how fertilizers work and what fertilizer is most appropriate ……. We also need at least a very basic understanding of how some of the other cultural conditions might affect plant growth/performance. Once this basic but essential understanding is part of your skill set, that is to say the framework of the growing puzzle completed, assembling the rest of the pieces will occur at a rate exponentially faster than the rate at which you progressed at the outset of your growing experience. Unless this basic framework is complete, you’re essentially relying on trial & error, which is probably never going to gain favor as a short cut to success. Al...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 MoreHELP! Fiddle Leaf Fig Brown Spots
Comments (13)Hi Dave, where can I buy the 5-1-1 mix? My fiddle leaf is in this same state, and like Al always says- I could continue to try to water with improper soil and fight that battle, or I could use soil I know will let me water/drain properly and rest easier knowing my roots are healthy and in good soil. I potted up a month ago but am thinking I'll just repot in fresh, good soil I know will be good for my roots, and then make sure to be on a good watering cycle from there. I just hate to think my poor fiddle is sitting in wet soil it can't handle while the top half is bone dry. I'd like to do it ASAP seeing as it's getting past the recommended time/season for reporting and potting up. Idk, what do you think?...See MoreRelated Professionals
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)