I started out top watering but I was never sure how much to give and would sometimes see gnats which made me think I was overwatering. Gnats are a fair indication the upper portion of the grow medium is remaining too wet for too long. This can be due to the medium being overly water-retentive, the grower watering at intervals too short, or a combination of both. I will try watering and letting it drain as you suggested. How often would you recommend and should it just take a few seconds or so to completely soak the soil or should I be letting the water run through for longer? The ideal way to water is slowly, so you're evenly covering the entire top surface of the soil column. When water appears at the drain hole, stop watering and wait a few minutes (10 or so) and then add additional water. Ideally, at least 20% of the entire volume of water applied in both applications should exit the drain hole and not have a pathway back into the pot, which would be the undoing of the reason for watering to beyond the point of soil saturation. If you are still getting the sense the soil is holding too much water, the simple act of just tipping the pot to a 45* angle after watering will force additional water from the medium. A and B are the same pot, except that B has been tipped to a 45* angle. Notice the difference in how much less excess water B holds in comparison to A. This is a simple way of making a big difference in limiting the amount of excess water a planting can hold. For pots the size of which are easily managed, try taking advantage of Newton's First Law of Motion. Immediately after a thorough watering, hold the pot in one hand over the sink, lawn ..... and move it downward, then sharply reverse the direction to upward. You'll immediately note that a good measure of 'excess' water will “continue downward in a straight line” and exit the drain hole. The sharper the reversal of direction, the more water exits the drain hole. When you have repeated the exercise until water no longer exits the drain hole on the reversal of direction, you will have eliminated all excess water and your plants will regard you with a newfound sense of awe. To easily determine what watering intervals are, follow instructions (below) re making/ using a wooden tell. Proper watering is a critical aspect of any plant care regimen. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is a complete nutritional supplementation program from a single source. It is arguably the best 'go to' all purpose fertilizer product on the market for a variety of reasons. If you water as I mentioned and fertilize about every 3rd or 4th watering in the summer and about every 5th or 6th watering in winter, you should be fine. That will be on the low side, giving you room to increase the solution concentration if you think it's required. To keep track of when it's time to fertilize each plant, drop a marble or button in the pot whenever you water, that way you'll know what watering is 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. When you fertilize pick up the objects and start over until it's time to fertilize again. 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

A new leaf popped out with edema which is fine. I don't see any symptoms of oedema, but I might have missed them or they aren't showing up in the images. Very recently, a few days ago, I´ve transferred it from soil to semi hydroponic in leca and during my inspection for development I´ve realized the reddish dots were more predominant under the leaves. I'm curious re why you chose to change from a solid medium to water. Nearly any environmental condition that puts the brakes on growth and the accompanying use of sugars, but does not limit sugar production (photosynthesis) can cause anthocyanin buildup and purple leaves. This usually clears up as the leaf matures or as cultural conditions improve.. Also there was these yellow tiny dots which I started to notice after transfering but were there before as I can see it in the older picture. As noted above, the yellowish dots are called lithocysts. Within each of the lithocysts is a crystalline structure of calcium carbonate or calcium oxylate called a cystolith. Normal to Ficus. Now, I do not have a special fertilizer for the fiddle fig, I´m using the same I use for all plants the General Hydroponics 3 part plus Diamond Nectar 0-1-1, Rapid Start 1-0.5-1 and CaliMag 1-0-0. For all I use 1 tablespoon per gallon less the Rapid Starter which I use half of a tablespoon. I´ve watered it when in soil a few times with this solution before transferring to leca and was ok. If you're happy with how your fertilizer supplementation program is going and want to stay with it, no need to change anything. I personally think it's a lot of excess outlay and effort that is going to be difficult to justify in the face of something simpler and less expensive ..... not that you should feel you need to justify anything at all. I'm just thinking about how a conversation between a hydro fertilizer salesman and me might go. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is a soluble synthetic which contains all nutrients essential to normal growth (taken up via the root pathway) in a single package, and supplied in a ratio at which the average plant actually used the nutrients. I suggest you give that a try for a few months and see how you fare. You'd have to fight me for mine. .... also grow lights that goes on during the day and proving an extra 2h (about 14h of light), humidity relatively high (varies between 70% something to 90%). I don´t see any major red flags. The plant should show its appreciation for the added light and high humidity. Good work. Can you help figuring this out and if a nutrient deficiency how can I use the fertilizers that I do have in a more balanced way. If you're reluctant to try the Foliage-Pro, let me know and I'll dig into it and figure out what should work. I also use tap water ..... and I always filter it first and I usually have the water filtered a day before so there´s no chlorine on it. Not that it matters a whole lot, but few municipalities use chlorine gas any more to chlorinate. Other sources of chlorine have half lives measured in weeks, so leaving water out actually concentrates the amount of chlorine as the water evaporates and leaves the chemicals behind. Too, water from the cold water tap holds as much oxygen as it will likely ever have, straight from the tap. Free oxygen gasses off with time (overnight) and as the temperature rises. The dissolved oxygen would be considered a resource beneficial to root function. Sorry, I forgot you have the tree in water. Strike what I said about dissolved oxygen as it applies to your tree. I'll leave the info though, because it might be valuable to you or others who might read this post. Al

its not uncommon for plants to shed the oldest leaves in fall.. as light levels wane ... can you tell if they were the oldest leaves? ken

I also live in Southern California. I bought these two fruitless olives at the same time 4-5mo ago, but the one on the right is turning yellow. Both are still in their original pots and drain into the decorative pots that also drain and are not waterlogged. I don't water them differently but the green one on the left gets slightly more shade. Should I repot? Feed? Please tell me what I need to do. Thanks in advance.