Josh - The plants I have under lights for the winter get fertilized each time I water with 1/4 tsp of FP 9-3-6/gallon of water. When I water, about 10-20% of the total amount of water I apply exits the pot. If your plants are getting natural light and you think they could do with more, you might try fertilizing at the strength I mentioned, then water twice so you're flushing the soil, then repeat.At these low doses, there isn't much concern about over-fertilizing unless the soil is VERY dry. I'm watering well before there are any indications of drought stress, and have seen 0 indication of plasmolysis in any of the plants. Keep in mind that plants make their own food - glucose. Fertilizers are the building blocks they use to grow and keep their systems orderly. Charles - There is a difference between air movement and a cold draft or a hot wind. Air movement upsets the boundary layer (of air) surrounding the leaf and increases transpiration. This means that more nutrient solution is moved through the nutrient stream - generally a good thing. Air movement can also have a significant impact on keeping pests and diseases in check, and it helps promote back-budding. On the other hand, if your plant's ability to move water to distal parts is limited by poor root function/health, air movement can be a negative insofar as the plant's appearance goes, because increasing water demands combined + an inability to efficiently move water to the plant's distal parts will produce more necrotic leaf margins or tips. I have 2 - 20" box fans (set to low speed) in my grow area + a 12" round fan blowing over a plastic cake pan cover ($1.50) that holds 2 gallons of water with humidifier wicks in it to increase humidity, which really decreases the humidifier's run time. Too, MG soil has water retention issues you need always consider because of how water retention impacts root health/function. How much/often you water is always a consideration when you're using a water-retentive medium. Al

It looks like it needs watering, make sure you are soaking the soil thoroughly when you water I wouldn't be too concerned about the leaf, your plant look healthy overall!

I’ve had this Rubber Tree for almost 2 years. I recently repotted it for the first time about a month ago into a clay pot from the 6-in plastic nursery pot I got it in. He’s been doing well from what I could tell (there are white roots that have started growing out of the drainage hole). However, I just noticed these brown/light spots on some of it’s newer leaves today that feel thinner and nothing on the underside of the leaves. I’m not sure what‘s going on - any insight would be very appreciated! Thank you!

OK - the loss of leaves is almost certainly happening because a decrease in light or an under/over-watering problem, so we're going to get you set up so that won't happen as long as you're holding up your end of the partnership. I'm going to assume you won't mind a little homework if it helps you get over the hump. So, the first thing you should do is start using a 'tell', to 'tell' you when it's time to water. I'll leave a piece I wrote about using a tell at the end of my post. A tell is more accurate than a finger or moisture meter, and you'll only need to use it until you get used to knowing when it's time to water by hefting the pot. When using lightweight plastic pots, it's easy to tell if the planting needs water by its weight. Order a small bottle of Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 fertilizer online, unless you can find it locally at maybe a hydroponics store. I have a lot of ficus from a month old to about 50 years old - they're all vibrantly healthy and fertilized with the Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. The next time your plant needs water, flush the soil thoroughly. Take it to the sink and use the spray device to water. You want to be sure you put at least 10X the pot's volume through the soil, slowly. This is a 1 time thing, purpose of which is to reset the level of stuff (dissolved solids) in the soil to zero - like hitting a fertilizer reset button. I'll help you get started on a good fertilizer program when you start seeing new growth. That will be a signal the mass of the root system is large enough and it's healthy enough to actually support new foliage. I expect you to see new growth almost immediately. Immediately in tree time is maybe a month or so, but well before that - I'm thinking within a week. Back to watering now. You can't water with tapwater that's been through an ionic exchange water softening system - it will quickly (tree time) kill your plant. When you water, make sure the entire soil mass is saturated and at least 25% of the water it took to saturate the soil exits the pot. This helps to regularly flush the dissolved solids (salts) that accumulate from tapwater and fertilizer solutions out of the soil. You'll be fertilizing every 3rd or 4th time you water, so you'll be replacing the lost nutrients. Watering & fertilizing this way also keeps the ratio of nutrients correct. Most plants take up about about 6X as much Nitrogen as Phosphorous, so it's best if the actual fertilizer ratio reflects that. Also, it doesn't get its N from urea, so your plants growth won't be as coarse and gangly as it would be using a fertilizer that gets its N from urea. After you've watered, hold the pot over the sink and move it up and down. You'll immediately see that on the reversal from downward to upward, water comes out of the drain hole. Thank Mr Newton for that. Newtons First Law of Motion says that things in motion tend to stay in motion and in the the direction they are moving, unless acted upon by another force; so, any excess water in the soil moves out of the pot on reversal from down to up. The sharper the reversal, the more water you can remove. Take advantage of this trick. Most container media are much too water-retentive for best results, this is a fix for that when pots are easy to manage. If you have a spot, your plant will absolutely love being outdoors - dappled or open shade at first, then gradually habituate the plant to full sun. If you have ANY questions - even if you think they sound silly - ask them. No one is here to look down on you, and if they do, there are plenty helpful people who will help to make that stop. This is going to work really well. and you're going to be pleased, but the best thing you can do to improve your proficiency is to work to understand WHY you're doing these things, and I can help with that as well. As you get more advanced, you'll soon see that your choice of media is probably the most important choice involved in getting a planting started or repotting a plant. Here's the info about: 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. This is an Overview of Good Growing Practices This is specifically about Long Term Care of Ficus in Containers This is aboutHow Water Behaves in Container Substrates Right now, they are in order of value to you. Ultimately, understanding the information provided in piece about how water behaves in soil will advance your ability to garden in containers farther and faster than just about anything else you can do. I'm not saying that because I wrote it, I'm saying that because of the public and private feedback I get from those who understand it. I often provide this sequence of images when I'm asking someone to put a little faith in me, because it lets them know I actually grow and manipulate healthy trees - lots of them. Ficus Benjamina at about 8 years old - long ago ^^^ Same tree, not so long ago ^^^ Same tree ^^^ - purposely defoliated to make it easier to work on Same tree a few weeks later after a pruning and wiring for shape. BTW - I won't be asking you to do any of this type of manipulation. Al