A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Why is this Ficus dropping leaves?

This Ficus is in the showroom of our repair shop. Gets lots of indirect sun all day and a few hours of direct light in the afternoon. It's been up there for at least three years.

In the last few weeks, the leaves furthest down and closest to the inside of the tree started turning yellow and dropping.

We water it once or twice a week. Whenever the soil no longer feels damp. I've been giving it a few drops of the Spectrum Schultz Liquid Plant Food Plus every other watering. But the degrade still happens.

Any help is welcome.

-Aaron

Ficus is the fussiest plant ever...try watering it once a week, withhold the fertilizer. If it continues to drop leaves...I'd repot it in a bigger pot two inches larger than the one it's in.

They do NOT like changes in temperature, light, humidity, etc.

Have any of those things changed recently?

Mine was doing the same thing, until I re-potted it just last week. Used a really big pot and Miracle Grow potting soil. It hasn't had any yellowing and dropping leaves since. Re-pot the tree. Use a pot much bigger than the one in the photo (that looks smallish to me). Try to get as much of the old dirt out as you can without totally destroying the root system. Give it a good watering when you're done.

I used to have issues growing ficus until the plant guy who vistied the office clued me in. Since yours has been in the same location for 3 years, light doesn't appear to be an issue. Although they don't usually like much direct light, especially hot afternoon sunligt.

A previous post suggested; and, I agree, to water only once a week. Just enough to moisten the soil, but not soaked. The best way I figured to explain it would be to soak a sponge in a bucket then wring it out, and that's about the proper dampness for the soil. Be sure the pot isn't sitting in water as they don't do well with "trench foot". Putting the pot in a saucer with some pea gravel or aquarium gravel to keep its feet dry will help. I'd also use a balanced fertilizer once a month during the growing season.

I also agree it looks like it's time to repot. I would go one size lager than it's in now. As for a potting mixture, I had very good results using a plain potting soil from Home Depot's nursery center. To 3-4 parts potting soil I added 1 part houseplant peat moss and 1 part sand. This will give good drainage and retain some moisture as well.

The above were used on a ficus I had for over 4 years, which I had to give away when I moved cross country in the dead of winter. In that time it did very well and I hated to part with it. One other thing I did was rotate it 180 degrees once a month.

Good luck.