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Dwindling ficus benjamina
I have had my twisted ficus benjamina for over 20 years since I bought it from Focus with my pocket money at the tender age of 13, and now I actually have a house big enough for it, it left the family house a year or two back.
I think it has been a little neglected, and is now dropping leafs quite badly - I repotted it about a year ago into a much bigger pot, but it hasn't really taken, in so much that the old root ball is visible.
It is very much thinned out, and standing at almost five feet tall, and it's almost at the stage where he needs to stop getting taller.
I live in a south facing flat that can be a little draft but is always plus of 20 degrees with loads of light.
Can anyone help put a hint of green fingeredness in my direction?
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It is natural for evergreen plants to shed leaves but in small doses as they renew themselves. If it does it in large quantities something is wrong.
Mine is bigger and did this about a year ago and I concluded it was starving. It is now healthy again and gorgeous. I keep its pot on a wheeled base now to make it movable for occasional turning and cleaning under and around it.
This is what worked for me. Lift it out of its pot and soak the rootball thoroughly in a big bucket until no further bubbles appear.
Then tease out some of the roots so they stop going round and round and will be more likely to grow outwards then re pot in a bigger pot with fresh compost. Top dress with compost to cover those roots by about 1 or 2cms. Water thoroughly but let it drain before returning to its position.
Water regularly and give a weekly liquid feed from spring through to mid summer or push in some of those slow release feed sticks for leafy houseplants. Turn it occasionally to balance growth towards the light.
If you don't want it to grow much bigger, you'll need to trim some of the roots off before re-potting in the same pot. It will still need feeding and watering to keep it healthy.
Ian Ficus don't like drafts for a start and too much light can be as bad as too little, dappled light is best. Humidity is essential for them as well. They don't like being repotted and you've repotted into too large a pot. You need to repot into a pot one size up not several. In short it's stressed. I'd repot it into a smaller pot and feed it firstly, keep it humid, a tray filled with gravel at the base which you keep topped up with water standing the pot on the gravel, you don't want it standing in water however. It needs a monthly feed during spring and summer and a bi monthly feed the rest of the year. Pruning is simple cutting back to a leaf node is sufficient. They are tough houseplants if treated correctly so it should settle down in time.
The leaves of our Ficus collects dust on their surface and the plant will benefit from an occasional sponging down with lukewarm water and look much better.
I take mine outside in summer and wash it with the hose.
I put mine in the shower when we go away. It gets a good hose down to remove dust, a thorough soak of its root ball and then good drainage and has its own wee micro climate for a week or 2 depending on how long we're away. Ficus elastica gets the same in the other shower. Smaller house plants go in the bath and also get a good rinse down a soak of their roots and pots. I then leave the plug in with just a centimetre or so of water as they dry out faster than the big pots.
We come home to very happy plants.