(no subject)
I picked up a "mallsai" ficus from the home depot two days ago, because it was hidden away on a table with all the cacti near the ant/roach spray. when you touched it, leaves would fall off. i felt bad for it and it was only $10, so i took him home to try to nurse him back to health.
i spent the evening breaking off the (3/4 inch deep!) layer of glued on rocks. and shaking all the dead leaves off. the leaves falling off were brown and crispy, yellow and not so crispy, and green and not crispy at all. about 40% of its leaf mass ended up on my kitchen counter. i also found out the the tree is severely rootbound and planted in very much sub par soil, but i'm scared to repot at this time because of the extensive leaf drop.
i stuck him outside yesterday and today i come out to more dead leaves, so i plucked all the yellow / splotchy leaves off and trimmed off the obviously dead branches. while trimming the branches, i noticed the leaves had oily spots on them. they weren't sticky, just shiny and oily, so i sponged off all the leaves and watered him nice and thoroughly and stuck him back outside.
i know ficus is well known for its tempermental leaf drops, but should i be concerned? is my plant diseased? do i have a chance of bringing him back into health? should i risk a midsummer repotting?
ficus (front?)
what i'm assuming is supposed to be the front. you can see the roots growing from the bend in the trunk to the soil (which i don't know if i should prune away or not) and how pretty much the entire first branch is barren. i scratched off a tiny bit of bark and the cambium is still green, so i know it's alive. that branch had two cream colored "warts" on it, which i was scared was scale, so i picked them off.
ficus (back?)
it's hard to tell in this picture, but there's only one leaf on the back.
ficus (side?)
you can tell the amount of defoliation a lot better in this picture.
dead ficus :(
it seems as though the leaves are dying in a multitude of different ways. i don't know what any of this means.
i spent the evening breaking off the (3/4 inch deep!) layer of glued on rocks. and shaking all the dead leaves off. the leaves falling off were brown and crispy, yellow and not so crispy, and green and not crispy at all. about 40% of its leaf mass ended up on my kitchen counter. i also found out the the tree is severely rootbound and planted in very much sub par soil, but i'm scared to repot at this time because of the extensive leaf drop.
i stuck him outside yesterday and today i come out to more dead leaves, so i plucked all the yellow / splotchy leaves off and trimmed off the obviously dead branches. while trimming the branches, i noticed the leaves had oily spots on them. they weren't sticky, just shiny and oily, so i sponged off all the leaves and watered him nice and thoroughly and stuck him back outside.
i know ficus is well known for its tempermental leaf drops, but should i be concerned? is my plant diseased? do i have a chance of bringing him back into health? should i risk a midsummer repotting?
ficus (front?)
what i'm assuming is supposed to be the front. you can see the roots growing from the bend in the trunk to the soil (which i don't know if i should prune away or not) and how pretty much the entire first branch is barren. i scratched off a tiny bit of bark and the cambium is still green, so i know it's alive. that branch had two cream colored "warts" on it, which i was scared was scale, so i picked them off.
ficus (back?)
it's hard to tell in this picture, but there's only one leaf on the back.
ficus (side?)
you can tell the amount of defoliation a lot better in this picture.
dead ficus :(
it seems as though the leaves are dying in a multitude of different ways. i don't know what any of this means.