FLF help! What to do next?
Jessica Neal
3 years ago
Hello all! We just picked this FLF 3 days ago, it was the last one left and honestly didn’t inspect it while at the nursery. I’ve done hours of reading on here (thanks Al) and thought I had diagnosed it as under-watered due to the crispy leaves, coloration of brown spots and the upturn in the leaves. I’d say 60% of the leaves have some sort of spot on them. Then I looked at the roots, initially I thought great it’s not root bound and I can wait until summer (Oregon) to repot but the roots dont look very vibrant. I’m looking for advice on what I should do right now. I bought a dowel, and it seems damp past 4 inches. I did water right when we got it home so that may be why. I’ve appreciated combing through the wealth of information on this page, but at this point I’m second guessing myself and any help would be greatly appreciated.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years agoRelated Discussions
HELP What do I plant? How do I conceal neighbor's junk next 2 Driveway
Comments (18)Wow, no local rules about the junk or the loose animals? When you asked for a fast screen I immediately thought of my lonicera sempervirens which grows 15' every summer and stays green until frost. There are so many tendrils and vines that it easily obscures in the winter as well. Also may consider red twig dogwood? Both are native and attractive. Maybe ilex opaca as well? The flowers attract many pollinators and the leaves are thorny. This may not be an appropriate suggestion but it would be cheaper than a fence! Osage orange--used by farmers as living fences to contain and protect their livestock because of the massive thorns. Apparently useful for other things as well. Would rsearch this thoroughly! Keep us posted as to your decision....See MorePlease Help! Fiddle Leaf Fig -FLF dying!
Comments (6)Greetings to you in beautiful Prince Edward Island. I'll put my two cents worth in and say I'm virtually 100% sure the cold the fig was exposed to during the transfer home is what's 'doing it in'. (I believe 'Jean' nailed it in her first post.) You didn't mention, but I'm guessing the plant was not wrapped up at all after buying it, and it was just 'naked' as you took it to your car. Sure death. In such cold, plants need to have two kinds of wrapping: 1. lots of paper around the whole thing, including the pot, (stapled shut all over the paper wrapping) and 2. a tight seal of plastic (huge bag or well sealed sheets of plastic) around the paper layer. Even with this, the transporting vehicle needs to be pre-warmed up and waiting close to the door of the store/greenhouse when you bring it out. Two things: 1) Even the briefest exposure to real cold (particularly -21c) will effectively kill off, at minimum, all the growth above ground. The roots might have survived, as alluded to by 'Jean'. 2) The plant's ride home in a cold car continued the assault. Even if the car warmed up quite quickly, at such cold temps, the interior goes down to way below zero (celcius) in a matter of minutes when parked, so that the leaves were still freezing for a while even after getting into the vehicle. When I was in university, a fellow student lugged a HUGE, beautiful houseplant from one building to another in the dead of winter without any wrapping/protection. It wasn't outside more than about 45 seconds. Dead in a few days :( I'll add that your concerns about its welfare in your drafty old house are inconsequential in comparison. The south window sounds ideal. These ficusses (ficii?) like lots of light. Do, however, make sure there's no hot air from a furnace vent blowing directly on it. I fried one side of my 'lemon cypress' earlier this winter when I didn't pay attention that its summer position put it in the direct path of the furnace vent by that garden door....See MoreFLF backbudding like crazy- help!?
Comments (16)@tapla thanks, that helps I rubbed off 3 of those 6top buds before leaving town and will check back in when I get back as I do want your design advice before rubbing any more off! @rebecca ... obvi @tapla is my the ultimate source & where I’ve learned 95% + from... and I def follow his train of thought that there has to be perched or trapped water “sitting inappropriately” somewhere by the look of those brown marks and you saying the leaves are limp. Just to clarify though do they feel limp which is usually overwatered( trapped water here guessing) vs limp as in just dropping down though which is definitely what also happens from a lack of water (all leaves will feel very crunchy though if that’s the case/ not soft which they do look kinda soggy soft in the pic ). Also note that leaves from bottom to top can definitely start to droop and soon after will usually fall off the tree if there was stress during the repot ( in your case maybe a ton of fine roots “ripped” if u removed soil with hands vs a hard water spray or maybe the roots dried out which I learned my first repot dosent take much.) Just all thoughts to help you problem solve. ( The brown spots alone can be from over or underwatering btw... but they do look soggy here) But no this is not a standard gritty occurrence... aka there is no way your plant could be overwatered right now unless something is majorly not right with your set up: so First thing is ensuring you fully removed the old soil completely as @tapla mentioned & sifted out fine particles in your gritty ingredients ( if not he will have to advise on if your better off repoting again right now or not as I dont have experience there). Also check to make sure you don’t have water sitting bt the decorative planter and what I’m guessing is the black pot the plant is actually rooted in? Also make sure the holes in the pot are in a location that allows the water to drain out completely/ aka on bottom or corners but not just holes one inch up the side. Conversely... Ways this may be due to underwatering: if you didn’t really soak the mix/ turface & bark especially prior to the repot then the one time watering was probably not even enough to truly deeply wet the soil much less give non established roots anything to drink. ( if that’s the case I’d just sit it under a water faucet and let it run over/ flood the pot contents for a solid 5-10 minutes... that still counts as just one good deep watering btw which is how FLF trees like being watered). If it helps for some gritty mix standards... For my FLF’s in gritty mix inside my house which stays at about 60% humidity unless we’re blasting the heater a few weeks a year ( & all my FLF trees are rooted in Various plastic pots btw so not porous thru sides) I ‘can’ water my plants every other day no problem though I wouldn’t unless preparing to leave town for weekend/ I’d say every 3-4 days is usually best for mine... and Ive never ran into trouble with my trees getting so severely dry there is visible evidence ( leaf droop or drop or brown spot ) until the 7th+ day of no watering though the leaves are ultra crispy dry and not happy before then. So THIS is the beauty of gritty... it really is pretty hard to overwater with it and makes it so easy to care for what is know as a finicky plant. In your tree... I’m suspecting it’s about to drop at least a few of those bottom leaves which if so is already unpreventable at this point. And know the brown spots are also irreversible now though it should stop once the problem is fixed ( & then you can kinda trim just the brown part off in a few weeks if you want/ if the leaf dosent fall off on its own)Also once leaves droop like that those specific leaves can’t ever perk back up again which is unfortunate I know. All I can say is something very similar happened with my first two repots( i think you can search my name and find my post from 2 yrs ago) which i know for me was due to too stressful of a repotting/ Root pruning/ letting roots dry out but i learned A LOT about these trees from it all in the meantime from that first ever real repot and now i have gone thru 6 other repots with root pruning involved with these 4 original FLF trees and afterwards the trees have hardly missed a step immediately after and always visibly flourish by 2 months later. So know that even if every leaf was to drop off ( your top few still look strong though at least ) the tree still has great potential if you can rectify the problem and help it get its strength back. Repoting into Gritty mix can definitely have a learning curve but i have definitely seen with my eyes that in the end it really does set you up to be exponentially more successful:)...See MoreNeed help with FLF
Comments (0)Hi! I've recently purchased a 6 ft tall FLF from an online seller -- see photo with our dog for size reference :D It has a sturdy trunk (no support needed) and I've seen 3 new leaf growth in the past 2 weeks. However, some of the leaves, especially the two bottom and older leaves, are sort of cracking and browning at the edges. The discoloration seems to spread as time goes by. The plant is currently located near east-, north-, and west-facing windows and we live in SoCal (zone 10a). I water approximately once a week, making sure the water flows out of the drainage holes. Though I do not have a prognosis on what causes the cracking and discoloration, I plan to repot (and root-prune, depending on need) this plant soon. I've been browsing and reading a lot about potting mixes and I have decided to use Tapla's 511 potting mix. I have already mixed my own using 5 parts reptibark, 1 part sphagnum peat moss, and 1 part perlite and it is currently "incubating" for the pH adjustment due to addition of lime. The plant is still in its 14" growing pot but I will transfer it to a slightly bigger 15" plastic pot with drainage holes at the bottom. I want to keep it indoors and I have a saucer caddy to aid with the water overflow. Moving forward, I will also use a wooden dowel to check the soil moisture before I water the plant. The current soil has CRF but I bought Dyna-gro foliage pro 9-3-6 for fertilizing after the repotting. Few key questions I have in mind: What could have caused / be causing the cracking and leaf discoloration? Is there a way to solve this? Is it too late to repot the plant given the season? What should be the pH level of the soil? Correct me if I'm wrong but I've read that FLF prefers basic but could also do well in an acidic environment. Should I add like clay pebbles / rocks at the bottom of my pot to make sure that the medium doesn't sit on the water overflow? Am I missing something or am I misinformed in any way? Thank you so much in advance to everyone who replies to my thread! :)...See MoreJessica Neal
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoJessica Neal
3 years ago
OldDutch (Zone 4 MN)
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoJessica Neal
3 years agofloral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
3 years agoOldDutch (Zone 4 MN)
3 years ago
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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK