Weeping ficus crisis

Schalaislost · July 2021

I'm desperate for help saving this. The leaves are just mercilessly dropping, even new leaves.
We keep it indoors - photos taken outside so I wouldn't get soil all over the floor - water it, a bit of regular fertilizer last week, it gets indirect sunlight for about five hours per day.
How can I save it?

Dovefromabove · July 2021

Im afraid it’s what they do … they drop leaves throughout the year rather than in the autumn. They are also very prone to dropping leaves if the humidity isn’t high enough. There used to be several very large ones in the Sainsbury Centre for the Visual Arts here at the UEA; the staff were sweeping fallen leaves several times a day … thus was in a building with a controlled atmosphere which was supposed to be ideal for them. They are tricky plants. 5 hours of light isn’t a lot … is that really all yours gets? That may be a problem too. They don’t need bright sunlight but they do need plenty of indirect light.

All I can suggest is that you raise the humidity by placing the pot on a tray of clay pebbles or similar which is kept full of water … possibly having other plants grouped in nearby which also need high humidity and which are misted a few times a day will also raise the humidity in the room. However this may make it uncomfortable for you … we don’t all like living in a rainforest … but many houseplants do 😉

Your plant also needs potting on into a larger pot with fresh compost.

I would use John Innes No 3 loam based compost with the addition of some multipurpose compost at a ratio of about 4:1.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/ficus-benjamina/

Schalaislost · July 2021

Hello!
Thank you for the suggestions. I live in Japan, and it's the rainy season right now so I'm worried it might not be getting enough sun. The humidity in our place is about 60 percent. I put a tray of pebbles with water about two weeks ago, and the tree is still going bald. I checked the branches left behind after the leaves fall, and they're dry. The soil is moist, though. I'm at a loss.

Dovefromabove · July 2021

🤔 have you tried misting it regularly? It would take several weeks of doing this to produce a noticeable difference.

This explains how
https://www.gardenguides.com/137813-mist-ficus-benjamina-tree.html

Schalaislost · July 2021

I'll give it a try and see if it helps! Thank you!

Buttercupdays · July 2021

There's a distinct colour change about halfway down the soil. Is it actually moist all the way to the bottom?

If not, it would be best to dunk the whole rootball in a bucket of water and leave it there till the bubbles stop rising, as very dry compost won't always absorb water.

Or it may be that the roots are so congested that there is barely any soil left. Either way it is best to tease them out a bit when you repot.

At least if it is too dry it is easily remedied. Rotting roots from too much water is harder to deal with successfully.

I've got a variegated Ficus that I have struggled with over the years, but we seem to have come to a happy compromise at last. Mine used to lose lots of leaves too, but I've improved my watering, potting on and feeding and it doesn't do it so much now. I check the appearance of the leaves to tell when it needs water, they lose colour and lustre when too dry.

I made mine look better by removing all the dead bits, but the leaves on the ends are always healthy. I wonder if it may be partly a growth habit. We have old larches in the garden and they grow new branches every year and jettison some of the old ones. The ones that are too high to cut (most of them!) take a while to fall, so the trees always look a bit untidy in the winter after needledrop, though they are much less obvious in summer.

Yours looks very well and is a good dark green so probably getting enough light. Mine gets a fair bit, it is in a south facing porch, though back from the window, so it doesn't get too much direct sun, and it still leans forward to the light!

Good luck with yours

Schalaislost · July 2021

Buttercupdays said:

There's a distinct colour change about halfway down the soil. Is it actually moist all the way to the bottom?
If not, it would be best to dunk the whole rootball in a bucket of water and leave it there till the bubbles stop rising, as very dry compost won't always absorb water.
Or it may be that the roots are so congested that there is barely any soil left. Either way it is best to tease them out a bit when you repot.
At least if it is too dry it is easily remedied. Rotting roots from too much water is harder to deal with successfully.
I've got a variegated Ficus that I have struggled with over the years, but we seem to have come to a happy compromise at last. Mine used to lose lots of leaves too, but I've improved my watering, potting on and feeding and it doesn't do it so much now. I check the appearance of the leaves to tell when it needs water, they lose colour and lustre when too dry.
I made mine look better by removing all the dead bits, but the leaves on the ends are always healthy. I wonder if it may be partly a growth habit. We have old larches in the garden and they grow new branches every year and jettison some of the old ones. The ones that are too high to cut (most of them!) take a while to fall, so the trees always look a bit untidy in the winter after needledrop, though they are much less obvious in summer.
Yours looks very well and is a good dark green so probably getting enough light. Mine gets a fair bit, it is in a south facing porch, though back from the window, so it doesn't get too much direct sun, and it still leans forward to the light!
Good luck with yours

Thank you! I'm going to dunk it in a room-temperature bath for a bit and see if it perks up.

Should I cut off the branches that are dried out?

Buttercupdays · July 2021

You could cut the tiny ones, but I would leave thicker ones for now as they might still have some life in there.

Don't expect instant results, these things always take a while to show on woody plants. Check soil moisture levels, monitor the existing leaves carefully and and watch for new ones appearing, which will indicate a turn for the better.

Obelixx · July 2021

I put my variegated ficus benjamina outside on a north facing terrace once night time temps are reliably 10C or above at night. That way it has all the light available every day but no direct sun except at sunset for a week or so either side of the summer solstice. I give the entire pot a good soaking after it goes out and then keep it in a saucer so I can see when it's dry. There's always lots of new foliage over the summer and last year we had flowers and teeny fruits too for the first time.

It's been a cool, damp summer so far this year but in other years we easily get to 45C outside and dry so when I'm watering all the hosta pots and fuchsias that live there too I just turn the spray hose over the leaves and it stays healthy.

Once nights are cooler it comes indoors and sits in an east facing window so gets plenty of light and a weekly misting. I feed with nitrogen feed for foliage plants. Yours definitely needs re-potting in some good quality loam based compost as suggested by @Dovefromabove Now that mine has reached the maximum size I can accommodate indoors here it will no longer be potted on into bigger pots but I do refresh the top couple of inches of compost each spring.

I remove and dead, twiggy growth as I see it but thicker stems usually have dormant buds that will grow if conditions are right so don't cut yours off yet.

Weeping ficus crisis

Posts