So beautiful, yet so challenging... After months of nail-biting trial-and-error, I think I've cracked the code with finding out what makes my Fiddle Leaf Fig tree tick.
To
refresh your memory, here are some photos of our tree, from bringing our baby home from the nursery, to last August, when things were at their worst:
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| Baby Fiddle Leaf Fig |
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| My Unhappy Fiddle Leaf Fig |
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| More Sadness from My Fiddle Leaf Fig |
I'm happy to report this tree is on the mend. Here's my beauty today:
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| Growing, Growing, Growing |
Maybe not as thick as it used to be, but it's growing, and seemingly happy and healthy. Here's how I did it:
- Watering every two weeks, with 3/4 or so of a gallon of water. (If the Santa Ana's are blowing and making everything dry, I water a few days sooner.) I water it outside on the patio, and keep it there a few hours to let everything thoroughly drain.
- Fertilizing every month with MiracleGro Singles, one packet per gallon of water. It's a 24-8-16 ratio, which apparently is great for this plant.
- Rotating it, to encourage balanced growth.
- Dusting it, once a week, for optimal light absorption in my could-be-brighter spot.
Baby leaves started popping up a few weeks ago, and grew like gang-busters (see the outer-edges of the plant in the photo above). There's a snag, though. Of course! Do you see it?
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| Baby Fiddle Leaf Fig Leaves with Red Spots |
Little red spots dotting the new leaves. The consensus on
GardenWeb is that these spots were caused when the leaves were forming; damage had occurred to the cells due do severe moisture stress (oops). Thankfully, as the leaves grow, the spots are seeming to fade, almost disappearing.
So that's that. Apparently these trendy, prehistoric-like statement plants can be managed. Fingers-crossed things continue! How are your Fiddle Leaf Figs fairing?
3 comments:
Hi! Your FLF is gorgeous! I am wondering, when you say that the red spots are from moisture stress, does that mean too much or too little moisture? I am seeing spots on my new leaves.
Thank you!
I have a couple new leaves as well with the little red spots and prior to the popping out I had overwatered and had brown spots on some of my larger leaves, so it was from overwatering.
It's called Edema if you want to research it more. Harmless as I understand it. Happens to mine too. My current problem is mine hasn't had any new growth for over 3 months! I think I fertilized it too much and it got stunted. Finally gave it a thorough watering so hopefully excess fertilizer washed through. Got a new sign of growth this week, of course with edema, but I'll take it. Leaves just aren't as big as I would expect, but it is hard to figure out these plants.
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