Ficus health concern

[its_kano]

Hi all, my ficus isn't looking so great. In the last few weeks the leaves are slightly curling down and a few leaves on the under side have black blotch marks. I have kept the watering to a minimum as I have spotted those pesky little fruit flies around the surface of the soil. I'm trying to keep it dry but not too dry as to starve the ficus of its water. I'm not sure whether it's the fungal gnats eating the surface roots or some other disease, insect. I'll try add some photos when I get home. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[its_kano]

Hopefully these pictures come through OK. Thanks a heap!

[shibui]

Rest assured that ficus are really tough. Mine have survived many problems and neglect - accidental and intentional.

The black spots look like fungal but the tree will usually overcome most problems. Losing a few leaves will not cause long term problems so you could choose to do as I do and ignore problems until they go away (one way or another )
Alternative would be to remove any affected leaves and bin them to reduce spread within the tree.

Drooping leaves may be from change of watering. They can take dry for a long time but eventually will show stress.
The 'fruit flies' are likely to be fungus gnats which love wet, organic soils. I have successfully treated with hydrogen peroxide drench of the soil. 3% hydrogen peroxide is sold in most supermarkets or chemists. Dilute 1 part with 4 parts water. Water the solution on the soil as you would normally water or dunk the whole pot in the solution until the solution has soaked right through the root ball.
The hydrogen peroxide will fizz. Soil may bubble up a bit and even threaten to bubble right out of the pot but resist the temptation to panic. It will soon subside and go back to normal but all the fungus gnats (and probably any other soil life - peroxide is also recommended to treat root fungal problems) will now be dead.

This treatment will not harm plants or roots, in fact it is sometimes recommended as a tonic to give roots an oxygen boost

Hope the tree (and owner) feel better soon

[its_kano]

Thanks shibui,
I have used the hydrogen peroxide method on the past like you suggested and then covered the top inch with sand because they don't like dry substrate to lay larvae. Thanks mate, I sorta thought I was getting worried unnessesarily. Ficus are tough and I'm sure come spring it will go hard again. Ta mate.