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chemgardner

Ficus lyrata: 2 of 3?

ChemGardner
11 years ago

Hello All,

I have spent my gardening time almost exclusively in the succulent forum until now. Partly because they are the plants that sparked my plant interest, and partly because I killed nearly every houseplant I tried besides airplants.

But after a ton of reading about Al's gritty mix (for my succulents), I simultaneously happened to see a fiddle leaf fig in restaurant and became obsessed. I broke down and bought one, a 3 gallon for $29 (decent price?), and potted it in the gritty mix last weekend.

It lives in a 7 gallon pot right near a floor-to-ceiling window that gets maybe 90minutes of direct late evening sun, and tons of bright indirect. Previously, in the nursery, it was in the warm, humid, shade-clothed greenhouse.

When potting, I hosed off the entirety of the old soil and trimmed maybe 3-4 of the 12 inches of roots before adding it to the gritty mix.

Since then, I have watered it twice, the second time was very thorough and contained a weak solution of Foilage Pro. (too early?)

Two of the three trunks/stems seems to be doing quite well, with shiny leaves and they look healthy. The third has leaves that are on the dull side, and the leaves are not 'standing upright', if that makes sense. One of the bottom most leaves just fell off with a light bump, and the surrounding ones seem ready to do the same.

Here are some pictures, sorry for the cell-phone quality. I could take better quality ones if necessary, it's just a pain in the butt. :) :

Here are the two best looking trunk/stems, left and right in this photo:

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Slightly different view, with the worrisome trunk on the far right. Also, my mini Aussie, and a good shot of the gritty mix :)

{{gwi:88886}}

Moving in the same direction, with the worrisome branch now in the center of the photo. Also, the new leaf of the otherwise fairly healthy left branch is floppy(very top left of the photo), is that normal? I am completely new to these plants.:

{{gwi:88888}}

Top view of floppy leaf:

{{gwi:88890}}

Dull saggy leaves on worrisome branch:

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Any help or answers to my (embedded) questions would be greatly appreciated, as I am brand new to growing trees indoors, and do not know if this is normal, worrisome, or somewhere in between.

Thanks!

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