AusBonsai

Hello braintrust,
I was really hoping someone good give me some advice on this fig. I bought it at the aisbomsai sale and it has sulked ever since. Thought it might be acclimatising to a need watering/position but it's still dropping leaves. No other figs on the bench are affected.

Thank you and kind regards

Roots too wet.

The spotted leaves look like a fungal infection to me. Almost certainly too late to save the badly infected ones so they will continue to drop I think. Not sure if it will work but I'd try a copper spray in the hope of stopping it getting to the new leaves.
It appears to be in a plastic pot so drainage should be OK if the mix is still good. I also agree with Treeman. I'd try to keep it a bit dry over winter.
Good luck

Slip it out of the pot and examine what's happening down below . More than likely Treeman is correct that it's to wet . If it's not growing strong it won't need as much water as your other trees . Could be curl grubs that's why I would check .

Freckl wrote:Hello braintrust,
I was really hoping someone good give me some advice on this fig. I bought it at the aisbomsai sale and it has sulked ever since. Thought it might be acclimatising to a need watering/position but it's still dropping leaves. No other figs on the bench are affected.
Thank you and kind regards

Hi Freckl,
You might like to try the following.

• Buy a bag of Yates Orchid Potting Mix
  Remove all infected leaves from the tree and soil. Throw these in the bin, don't put them in your compost, (if you have one)
  Remove about an inch of soil from the top
  Remove the tree from the pot
  Drill several holes in the bottom of the pot
  Put a bed of Yates Orchid Potting Mix in the bottom of the pot
  Put the tree back into the pot and force the Yates Orchid Potting Mix down around the outside of the soil ball

Regards Ray

Ray M wrote:

Freckl wrote:Hello braintrust,
I was really hoping someone good give me some advice on this fig. I bought it at the aisbomsai sale and it has sulked ever since. Thought it might be acclimatising to a need watering/position but it's still dropping leaves. No other figs on the bench are affected.
Thank you and kind regards

Hi Freckl,
You might like to try the following.

• Buy a bag of Yates Orchid Potting Mix
  Remove all infected leaves from the tree and soil. Throw these in the bin, don't put them in your compost, (if you have one)
  Remove about an inch of soil from the top
  Remove the tree from the pot
  Drill several holes in the bottom of the pot
  Put a bed of Yates Orchid Potting Mix in the bottom of the pot
  Put the tree back into the pot and force the Yates Orchid Potting Mix down around the outside of the soil ball

Regards Ray

Wow Ray. Step by step. Good advise!

Just to be clear, there's no infection in the leaves and no need to remove them. (Actually I have never even seen fungal infection on fig leaves) This is purely a response to too much water. After a severe pruning like this, the tree can no longer draw much water and the mix remains too wet thereby reducing the oxygen supply etc.
Unless the roots are severely damaged, all that is required to hold it over until repotting time next summer, is to dry it out and water only when dry until then. That could be once every three or four days this time of year but judge that by looking. If you need to keep it out of prolonged rain, do so.
Obviously if the roots are badly rotted you will need to do an emergency repot but I think it's unlikely.

To make it even more clear, A potting mix is made up of three main components, solids, water, and air. A pot needs to dry out after watering so as to increase (or restore) the amount of air held in the mix. It dries out from evaporation but mainly from the transpiration of the tree. Now....if the tree has few roots, it should be obvious that we need to reduce the frequency (NOT the volume) of water so as to give the medium a chance to dry out. The transpiration is reduced drastically. If we water it like everything else, we are over watering and the roots are not able to take up the required amount of O2 that they need before the next flooding occurs. The results are as above.
This is the basis to container growing that everyone should make a point to thoroughly understand. Once mastered, you will basically be able to grow anything. Of course there are exceptions like swamp plants that can never be over-watered and others like some pines that we need to be more careful with, but generally, stick to this golden rule and you won't go far wrong.

just out of interest Treeman do you think removing the yellow leaves would be detrimental to the health of the tree ? I still agree with you ithe problems in the pot not in the top. I also think that Rays suggestion to clean up the top won't hurt ,good hygiene ( I'm not talking about sterile ) in container growing can help .

Sno wrote:just out of interest Treeman do you think removing the yellow leaves would be detrimental to the health of the tree ? I still agree with you ithe problems in the pot not in the top. I also think that Rays suggestion to clean up the top won't hurt ,good hygiene ( I'm not talking about sterile ) in container growing can help .

If they are completely yellow they are no longer functioning so it won't hurt to remove them (although it won't make any difference either way). If they have some green they are still potentially making food and drawing water so to remove them will only make things worse. There is no question of hygiene to be concerned with here. You will notice a full recovery starting in about November when you repot into a more open mix (same pot) and watch the watering until the plant is in full vigorous growth. I would also plant it 1 or 2cm deeper so all the cut roots are completely covered.

Thanks Treeman .