I have no idea what those white splotches are.

They look like nubbies to me, they are likely the beginnings of roots.

I think it takes about 3-4 weeks to root in water.

Looks like fungal fuzz to me........ I don't root in water.

They do look very much like a fungus Ken or even a scale but that is how root on many plants look when they start. I do not root much in water either but after teaching propagation classes to MG's for 20 years, I have tried everything and used all the experiments as examples. Just take a snip of coleus or a begonia and put it in a jar on your windowsill and watch it for a few days.

Alice

Ken - I agree that creating a tent-like structure to propagate FLF cuttings is a lot of work, but some folks like to give most anything a try. If the potting mix starts out properly moistened and good light is provided and the tent is well sealed, it does work although there are no guarantees and many things can go wrong.

I don't know the explanation for the white nodules but they can safely be ignored. For sure, air-layering is the preferred method.

Well, I HAD a beautiful FLF tree for a few years but I think I've made a big mistake.

I'm in the midwest. The FLF lives in front of three south facing windows and it is flanked by eastern facing windows as well. I water it regularly (using a dowel to test the soil when I'm unsure if it needs it), fertilize lightly in the winter and lug it to the tub from time to time to flush the soil. It spends much of the spring and summer out on a south facing porch. When it's warm and rainy I will put it outside for a nice shower and soak. I never let it stand in water either.

No issues until recently. It had several very large buds from tip pinching in late summer that looked like they were going to eventually bloom then nothing. Then 3-4 weeks ago a branch in the middle shed its leaves and died and other leaves began looking sickly. I could pull the whole plant out of the pot with the soil intact so my guess was it was very root bound.

I know spring is a better time for repotting but I feared that leaving it as it was would lead to the total decline of the plant as I was already seeing symptoms. I cleaned the soil from the roots and saw quite a few very thick roots and not as many fine ones as I would have expected. I did some light root pruning (removed some hooked ones and a couple of large ones that didn't have many fine roots) and repotted it in new standard potting mix from Lowes with some added perlite, bark and small aquarium sized gravel. Gave it a good watering and put it back in front of the window.

I think I've ruined the plant. Today it lost 26 leaves, older leaves from the bottoms of the branches. It looks just awful now - it and I are suffering from transplant shock! I have three FLF's so I'm not a total newbie to caring for them but clearly I did something very wrong.

My plan is to keep it where it is, check the soil before watering and keep my fingers crossed. If the branches are still green under the bark and some leaves remain, is there hope for the tree? Any advice would be appreciated. I can't believe how much time I've put into this plant over the last few years to see it come to this.

One more question. The tree was big enough that moving it was difficult. How does one flush the soil of an indoor plant that is very difficult to move to a tub, for instance? It was hard to get the tree through the doorways without harming the leaves and it's too big to put in the sink. Are there any tips I might not have thought of?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

@adsin, please go to your profile and enter your location and USDA zone. Though you apparently grow your fiddles inside during the cold months, I see that you do get it/them outside in the spring. Correct? Simply knowing one's location can really help in diagnoses and treatment of problems. Yes, your plant is definitely root-bound. That being said I had my 25 yr. old fiddle leaf ficus in the same large pot for at least 10 yr., and you better believe that she was terribly root-bound. It didn't slow her down at all. What a root-bound fiddle needs the most of is far more watering than one that isn't root-bound. In my experience at least, and I've grown 100's of fiddles, that frequent thorough watering is critical. I can't tell you how you get that watering done, other than taking the plant(s) outside so that you can use a hose to water. I have always found that my fiddles were most happy and healthy when their potting soil stayed slightly moist. That's very difficult to do if you allow that root-ball to dry out. Those root-bound, root-balls have to be soaked and soaked and soaked to get them moist throughout. A brief watering simply runs straight through the root-ball without really moistening anything.

By the way, my 25 yr. old fiddle leaf never budded and certainly never bloomed. Now that I live in Vero Beach, FL, my fiddle is planted in the yard. I slowly acclimated her to full sun and that took about 4 mo. She'll now live outside as she should and ultimately grow into a really fine tree. She had 11 "trunks" when I planted her.

Here's the fiddle just planted in the yard in September. She's grown approximately 1 foot since then.

Hello! Thank you for your reply. Your tree is just beautiful.

I'm in zone 6a, Carmel, Indiana, which I made sure to put into my profile.

Yes, we're definitely warm enough to put the plants outside in the summer. If you look at the first pic below you will see two windows. The one facing you on the left is the window from porch to living room. The one on the right is one of three south facing windows. This is where the tree spends its time and I do put it on the porch on and off throughout the warm weather. If it's too windy it comes in because it gets knocked over quite easily. It gets lots of light.

Regarding watering, I actually had an old glass funnel with a long tip inserted into the middle of the soil so in addition to watering from the top I could be sure to get some water into the middle of the plant. I was cognizant of the fact that water can just run down the sides of the plant so I always poured slowly and watched it soak into the top. It's clear to me now, though, that this wasn't enough.

When you say your tree never budded, it made me wonder if I used the improper term. I was referring to the leaf bundles (is that right?) at the tips of the branches, not the teeny buds that push out above leaf scars. I put two pics below of leaf bundles at the tips and one tiny bud above a leaf scar, though this is not what I was trying to reference initially.

My leaf drop count is now at about 30 leaves. The leaves on a few of the tips still look decent and the branches that have lost leaves still have green under the bark. Assuming this problem was caused by a drought weakened tree further weakened by inopportune potting/root pruning, what is my best course of action now? Is there any time in the near future where I would want to do a weak fertilizer or is what is in the new potting mix sufficient for now? Do I want to cut any of the branches or just leave it as is because it needs whatever leaves are still clinging to life?

I hope I've answered in a way that helps. I'm so grateful for people like you and others who are willing to share advice and experience. Thanks!

Yes, those are the normal leaves forming, not buds. Fiddle's do produce "fruit" and then seed-pods, but you'll never see it unless you visit Australia or S. Africa. They need a specific wasp to pollinate and guess where that wasp is only found?

I think we have a diagnosis of the problem and that you now know what to do to improve the situation. I think that once watering thoroughly wets that root-ball, and given some time to get over the shock, your fiddle will be fine. I think you have it in about as good a place for indirect light as possible. During the fall and winter months, I prefer a southern exposure above all others and during the spring and summer, I prefer an eastern exposure.

No, don't fertilize until you can get your plant outside. Fertilizing will actually cause more stress and your fiddle certainly doesn't need that. Just let her rest. Patience is what's needed now. No trimming either. You can do some trimming in late spring/early summer and then again in late summer/early fall if you wish. My "mother" fiddle got a good trimming 3x each and every year. I cut branches back 1-2' so that I could keep her at a more manageable 6-7' tall. Before moving to Vero Beach last spring, I lived in Starkville, Mississippi, and all my 1000+ tropical plants had to come inside in the fall. They all went back outside early spring. In IN, you'll bring your plants inside a few weeks earlier and put them back outside a few weeks later.

You might be interested to know a little bit of my background. Check out www.tropicalplantsandmore.com when you have a few minutes. By the way, because I am not only old but also old-fashioned, who am I chatting with?

Hello again. My name is Alyssa.

I looked at your website briefly a few days ago and now that I've looked again, I see the Dave's Garden link. I realized that I signed up there years ago and have used that as a source of info too. You are everywhere! I found a bunch of info about FLFs on the Houzz website are you "Dave" over there by chance?

Do you miss dentistry? I believe you and my father are about the same age and he recently retired from the field. How is your back doing? Three surgeries sounds like a few too many. I hope you're doing well.

I can't believe you had enough space for 1000 plants - sounds like heaven! I would love to have a small greenhouse someday. We live in a subdivision and they wouldn't allow one, unfortunately, but maybe in the future. My bathroom has a huge window with filtered western light and I have I think 6 orchids in there in varying stages of growth and bloom. I have had some for several years and I love to see them rebloom. I also have a tall FLF branch I air layered off of another in there. I'm going to experiment with it when it warms up, hoping to shape it from a branch to a shrub, I guess.

Here's an orchid question for you. All of mine have been purchased locally, so nothing exotic. Why do some have one spike and some have two - is it a cultivation thing? Do orchids with one spike ever shoot out two?

I'll be sure to send you another picture of the FLF when and if it begins to show some life/bounces back. Have a great evening!

Hi, Alyssa. No, you'll see me addressed as "Ken". "doc", and "drdawg".

No, I don't miss dentistry at all, though most of my dreams are still of dentistry. My back is not worth much but the main thing is that I am relatively pain-free. I could not have lived with the pain that I was having, so, though I would rather have not had surgery, I really had no choice. I just have to be more careful with how I stress my back. I now wear a back brace during most of the work outside.

Generally speaking, at least in my experience, the younger the orchid the fewer the blooms. Some orchids are surely "reluctant" bloomers and some simply want to bloom frequently. That's mostly genetic. Of course, with optimum growing conditions, orchids are healthier and thus bloom better.

@adsin - As I read through the history of your FLF, my guess is that the initial problem, prior to your repotting, was due to underwatering. You don't need a dowel to determine when to water. A properly potted and rootbound FLF needs a thorough watering as soon as the SURFACE of the soil feels dry to the touch. No dowel required!

The subsequent problems are a result of the repotting and the soil replacement, which is never a good idea. Your tree needed more frequent watering, not a larger pot or better soil. I don't know how it is potted now, so it is hard to advise you on proper watering. But as Ken indicated, the soil should stay moist, although that could be a problem if it is now in a much larger pot.

Thorough watering should not be a problem nor require a trip to the bathroom or moving the tree outside. Keep the pot in a sealed planter or have a saucer underneath it to catch any excess water. Water will run around the outside of the rootball only if the soil is allowed to get too dry and pull away from the insde of the pot. If that happens, let the pot sit in a couple on inches of water for an hour or so to rewet the soil. Avoid letting the soil get that dry in the future.

Fertilizer should not be used after repotting.

Be careful about moving it outside to a southern exposure when the weather warms. Outdoor sun is much more intense than the indoor sun and many of the leaves on yours will be acclimated to the reduced light indoors which is less intense than you realize.

Try to get the watering under control and hope that the roots gradually recover from the damage done during the repotting.

I agree with most of what Will says, but we are coming from two completely different perspectives. He's dealing with growing in urban situations in the north and I am dealing with growing in the south. That's about as different as it can get. His perspective is growing tropical plants in a completely non tropical climate and mine is trying to grow them in their "normal" conditions. That's not unusual. I grow hundreds of orchids, and I deal with "climate" all the time. Fiddle leaf ficus are tropical trees, not houseplants. The closer we come to their "normal" growing conditions the better.

Ken - I think the difference in our experiences is less north/south or urban/rural, but more about indoors (year-round) vs outdoor plant growing. I confess to not having experience with or knowing about growing FLF's outdoors and would always defer to your expertise in that area. However, I do have lots of experience with FLF's kept indoors year-round. For sure, that is outside their "normal" or native habitat so their indoor requirements are quite different than those grown outdoors or in greenhouses.

I try to limit my replies to plants that are grown indoors in more northern climates.

Nearly all "houseplants" are tropical or semi-tropical in origin otherwise they would not survive our year-round warm indoor temps up north. What makes them "houseplants" is that they are kept indoors year-round.

I agree with everything you say, Will. "Houseplant" is just a general term and really means little. Almost any plant can be grown indoors, either part of the year (as I did in Mississippi for 40+ years) or all year. Conditions simply have to somewhat mimic the conditions needed by the particular plant. I've only lived in SE Florida for 10 months, so though every single tropical plant I have is now outside full-time, I have got to sort of unlearn all that I know about growing tropicals and learn how to do it well in my sub-tropical climate. It does come in handy though, to have grown the 1000's and 1000's of tropicals in a temperate USDA zone for all those years. The vast majority of questions here are from folks in temperate zones, not tropical and sub-tropical zones.

Thank you for the replies, they're appreciated.

It's so interesting to see the opposing info I've received about this plant over the years from various sources. Despite all my reading and trying to learn, it seems that trial and error is teaching me the most, both good and bad.

Will, I've read that repotting and sometimes root pruning is needed and good for the plant when you're trying to keep it in the same pot. I've also read that flushing the soil to wash out any accumulated salts is a good idea, so that's also why I'd take it to the tub a few times a year. I used to pay attention only to the top layers of the soil then heard all about the dowel so I incorporated that. With all the attention I'd given to it I'm so surprised that I let it get dry enough to be a problem. Live and learn.

I have yet to find a saucer deep enough for the size of the pot the tree is in so what I do have catches only a little bit of runoff - makes it hard to water thoroughly. If I can figure that out, maybe by getting a gardening tub to put it in, I should have a solution.

This was a massive learning experience. I will put the plant on the eastern side of the porch so the new leaves, if I'm lucky enough to have any show up, will be more acclimated to the light when it's again moved inside. Thank you for that suggestion.

@adsin - Root pruning is difficult to accomplish, especially with larger plants. Damage can be done when not done properly. I have found via trial-and-error over the years that plants are quite resilient when kept in the same pot for decades. Keeping them potbound will retard the growth to some extent and thereby make root pruning unnecessary. Personally, I always look for the easiest solutions to various plant problem. This is especially true since much of my work is done the homes and offices of other people where repotting, root pruning, using pesticides, etc. are not viable options.

Flushing the soil is necessary only if you have been using hard water or have overfertilized. With normal water, a thorough watering is sufficient to flush out any excess mineral salts. Partial watering may cause mineral hot spots to develop.

Some plants, such as succulents, need to dry quite deep into the pot while others such as most Ficus species need water as soon as the surface of the soil feels dry. One size doesn' fit all.

As long as you are watering thoroughly enough that some water trickles through, that should be adequate. That said, surely you can find a larger saucer for it.