Hi guys! I'm a newbie to the board. I've always loved having houseplants, but they don't tend to do well in my apt. I believe it's due to not much sunlight that it gets. Six days ago, I got 3 plants & my favorite of them is my Fiddle Leaf Fig (Ficus Lyrata) that I've wanted for a long time! It's 4' 4" in height. I read to water it about once every 2 wks & that it needs indirect sunlight, so I put it in my sunniest spot in the room that still doesn't get direct light, but some indirect light. I just rotated it so the side that normally isn't facing the light is now facing the light. It seems OK still, but it seems a couple leaves are already horizontal where they used to be more upright when I bought it. I check it to see if I notice weaker stems or browning, but none of that is happening yet. I don't want it to die! Are there any tips anyone has or am I just doomed to not have plants while I'm living here? Thanks a lot guys! (I do have a small, 1' 9" in height, I think Cat palm that has lived the longest...about a year now.)
Don't move it very often, they are very finicky. It could be reacting to being moved from the store to your house, did it sit in the back of a pickup when you took it home or in a windy backseat.? And make sure there is no cool/hot air hitting it either from a draft when a nearby door is open or an air condition/heater vent.
OK, thanks toni. When transporting it the 10 min from Lowe's to my place, I just had it in the back seat of my SUV, which I didn't have the windows down at all. The location it is in my place is against a wall, but not crammed against it at all...there's enough air circulation against the wall. My desktop computer is closeby, but when I put my hand behind my monitor, I don't feel any warmth.
Maybe this link will help you a little too MScds15. http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/fiddle-leaf-fig.html Fiddle leaf figs are beautiful plants and I hope yours will settle nicely into your apartment and give you pleasure for years to come.
Thanks Eileen. Yes, I really love this plant & want it to live for a long time! Plus, I love how mine is in 2 long "trunks" as opposed to the "tree look" in which all the leaves are in a group at the top.
Since the conditions of your apartment are bound to be different from the conditions in the store, and even from where it was grown, some leaf loss is bound to occur. As long as you keep doing what makes the plant happy, it'll grow new leaves.
The leaves dropping off now are the ones that were affected by the move and couldn't recover. But like TheBip said, new ones should start growing once it has gotten the conditions it needs.
Great, thanks guys. Yes, I read that leaf loss is nothing to worry about when taking it to a new surrounding...unless, I guess if ALL the leaves fall off. I'm watching it all the time.
Oh no, a total of 10 leaves have fallen off. Also, in reading various websites, it says to water every 2-3 wks & the way to tell is if the top 1 inch of the soil in the pot is completely dry. Well, I need to water more often than that, like every 4-5 days by the dryness of the soil. The leaves were always a nice dark green and still are.
So I've had my plant just about almost 3 wks now. Several MORE leaves fell off. Today, I had the chance to put it in the bathtub & under the running shower for about 10 minutes. I really hope that helps! I don't know about this plant.
One of my clients had a ficus...not the same plant as yours but similar. It was about as tall as me. I know how finicky they can be. When they moved, it took that ficus close to a year to recover fully....over half its leaves fell off, it looked really puny there for a while, and I figured it wasn't going to make it. I mean, at its worst, it looked almost dead. But my client said she'd had ficus trees of varying types most of her life, and that you have to be patient because they don't react well to change (much like some humans ) but that she felt certain it would come back. And it did! Now, several years later, you would never know there was anything wrong. She also said that every time you change something trying to make the plant do better....more or less water, different location etc., the tree has to get used to THAT change too, and may well react to it rather than the original one, and you'll never know. So do less, rather than more. I guess the moral of that story is......just be patient.
Three weeks and still dropping leaves just means it hasn't quite settled into it's new location and those leaves are ones that were affected by the original move and couldn't recover. Remember that the roots (the part of the plant that needs the water) have grown down and are spread out through the soil and sometimes most of them are near the bottom of the pot. The soil being dry near the surface does not necessarily mean the plant needs to be watered, the roots are most likely still sitting in moist soil. Also by moving the plant to the bathtub, you have disturbed it's peace again. Leave it in it's place and take the water to it. Basically stop moving it at all until you start seeing new growth. Those plants do take patience and some times benign neglect to recover and start growing again.
Romni & toni, thank you both very much. I definitely never had a green thumb. When a plant starts to lose leaves, get brown, etc., I immediately start thinking about what I need to do to fix it, which I know is a logical thing to do for most issues. I'll leave the plant alone in the coming days. It's been in a sunnier spot in another room of my apt, so that's it, I'm done trying to do different things. Thanks again!
OK, another 7 days has passed & I've done nothing but kept it in my most indirect sunlit place. I think 1 more leaf fell, but that's it. It will probably look the way it looks now for a while. I don't know how fast new leaves grow with this type of plant. It doesn't seem like new ones form quickly at all, but we'll see.
