Hey Al,
Thanks very much for your reply. I really appreciate it. So I will repot in 1 month's time (I read your detailed trees in container posts and the soil post - thanks! it scares me a little to cut off roots but I will build the courage in december to do this!)- in the meantime I have moved the plant to my bedroom which has brighter light - do you think this is a good idea for a month while waiting to repot to see if this also helps the plant? When I got home from a weekend away the lower leaves looked saggier than ever!

Thanks for the info on the lithocysts - it's funny that they seem to be on one stem and not the other (see photo of affected stem at bottom of this message).

Thank you also for the photos of tree like shapes from multiple stems - I am happy with the 2 trunks with the fiddle leaf - how do I encourage branches on the fiddle leaf and thickening of the main 2 trunks? I can see the 2 single stems that it currently has will eventually grow away from each other in a "V". I would like the plant eventually to have more height but also branches. I guess something like this:

(knowing I will have 2 trucks so it will look different but you get the idea).

Thanks again Al. Also no rush getting back to me - I totally appreciate you are busy!

Best,
Andy

What you show in the leaf picture isn't what I imagined you were describing. It looks like feeding sites on the underside of your leaves, so you likely have some spider mite issues going on.

Mid-Dec should be about the optimum repot time for you. You needn't be too concerned about lopping off a large fraction of the roots if you keep them wet while you work (so they don't die of dehydration before you get them back to work in the soil). Here's a couple of before and after pictures of how I consistently treat roots during repots. I should probably add that I haven't lost a plant to poor judgement about how to treat roots at repotting time in at least a decade.

This is a before/after fig with more diminutive foliage.
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A maple
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Notice the wire ^ indicating this tree was layered off its original and much less attractive root system.

A box
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So you can see that healthy trees will tolerate significantly more root reduction than the average grower would ever imagine w/o actually having been exposed to root work that extensive. You may not want to be quite as radical as I at first, but at least the pics should offer your confidence a bit of a boost.

I don't know how close to the equator you are. In most cases, your plant can't get enough light through glass to cause photo-oxidation (sunburn), but if there isn't enough air movement, the leaves can suffer heat damage from passive solar gain (over-heating). Your plants will tolerate much more direct light if you have a fan moving air during the day, and the fan will help keep mite populations suppressed while it helps stimulate back-budding. The short answer is - more light is better, but not so much it causes foliage to over-heat

Several things encourage branching (back-budding). Tight roots suppress back-budding, so roots need room to run. Good health, adequate fertilization - especially N, bright light, air movement, and regular tip-pruning will all work together to make a very densely foliated and compact tree.

Trunk thickening is directly related to the photosynthesizing surface area, so the more leaves a plant has, the more wood it makes and the faster the trunk/branches thicken.

Patience is required. You're on people time and the tree is on tree time. The tree isn't going to change, so it's up to you to realize and accept that things are going to happen more slowly than you'd prefer. Make your goal keeping your plant healthy and you'll feel a more satisfying sense of harmony with the growing experience. That's not some new age line, just something my years of trying to gain some degree of proficiency at bonsai has taught me.

Good luck!

Al

Thanks very, very much Al!

Hi there,

Similar to what Andy is trying to achieve (a more tree-like shape), should I remove the lower foliage to reveal the trunk?

Hey Floraetfauna,
I nipped off the top bud of one of my branches a few months ago (it's summer in Sydney) but I have had no back budding yet. Guessing it takes a long time?
Also my plant is just naturally dropping one or two of it's lower leaves occasionally when they get old so unless you want a naked tree maybe wait till you have branches? I'm not sure mine is going to branch. I'm actually finding it a really difficult plant when I had read it's an easy house plant.
Good luck with yours!
Andy

FetF - as your tree matures, it will tend to lose the lower leaves as a matter of course. Until then, leave them on the tree; they produce food to fuel the tree's growth, and removing them won't promote back-budding. If you're going to do any repotting (which includes root pruning) or hard pruning of the top, you might want to get after it right away (for those who didn't catch it, FetF lives in Australia).

When your tree gets to be about 2/3 of the ht you'd like to maintain it at, top it. Branches will then start to grow behind the truncation cut, if not before that. Allow each new branch to grow 3-4 leaves, then prune it back to 2 leaves. This will force your tree into a bushier or fuller growth habit.

Al

Hey Al
Does back budding take months? I took the tip of the top most bud coming to 3 months ago and nothing has grown since? I trimmed the roots and repotted last December so maybe it's just recovering?
Cheers!
Andy

It can take a while for some trees to get their feet back under them. The better and faster you get at root work, the faster your trees recover. Also, each repotting/root pruning of individual trees improves the ratio of fine roots to heavy roots, and the more fine roots you have, the less stress the tree will incur from repotting.

How well a tree back-buds depends on several factors. You'll get the most vigorous back-budding on trees that are very healthy, growing outdoors in very bright light, and cut back quite to very hard in Dec or Jan (for those in the Southern Hemisphere). The farther you stray from those parameters, the weaker the back-budding will be.

Al

Thanks Al!

Hi Al

I have a small fig with droopy leaves,

It has been very hot here over 35 degrees a few days in a row.. I believe it's cause is maybe watering not enough?
Will they go back up? The local horticulturalist said put it under the shower for a big drink- I havedone that. Any more advice? I know your the master :)

Best regards,

Sarah

Hi, Sarah. The cultural issues most likely to cause wilting are over-watering, under-watering, high temps, and a high level of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil solution. The later is usually accompanied by necrosis of leaf margins on lyrata, unless the high level of salts was due to a very recent fertilizing.

If it wilted while the soil was still damp, your issue would probably be related to the effects of over-watering and/or the heat. Water and nutrient uptake is an energy driven process. It takes oxygen to burn (convert) the food (carbohydrates - from photosynthesis) into the energy that drives root metabolism. Too much water in the rhizosphere (root zone) means too little air means not enough O2 means the work of water uptake is compromised. The heat increases the rate of respiration increases water demand and exacerbates the issue.

I would:
Shade the pot to help keep roots cool if the plant has direct sun hitting it

Use a wood dowel or bamboo skewer to test the soil, waiting to water until the soil is nearly but not quite dry. When soil is at first dry to the touch, there is still 10-15% additional water left that the plant can access - so a built-in margin for error.

Flush the soil thoroughly the next time the plant needs watering by pouring a volume of water equal to the pot capacity up to 10 times, using room temp water; this, to rid the soil of accumulating salts. Then, fertilize the plant with a soluble fertilizer with a 3:1:2 NPK ratio. RATIO is different than NPK %s - ask if you'd like me to explain the difference.

After flushing the soil, water on an as needed basis. Don't let the soil remain saturated for extended periods. I can also help you learn how to deal with soils that hold too much water, if you think that's an issue.

I'll wait on your comments before I offer anything else.

Al

Thanks so much Al!

I woke up this morning to a much happier plant! The leaves were definitely sitting up more than yesterday :) it has been really hot here in Australia and I used to only have cacti as house plants- so not enough water was definitely the issue, thank you for the tips! I have saved them and will refer back to them! I hadn't fertilised recently and I wonder if you could tell me how frequently it sould be done? Thank you so much again :)

Best regards,

Sarah

Anything meaningful about fertilizing will take your soil choice and watering habits into account. Ideally, you would be able to water to well beyond the saturation point - so the soil is fully saturated and at least 15-20% of the total volume of water applied exits the drain (and never finds its way back into the soil); this, w/o you having to worry the soil will remain soggy so long it causes problems. If you CAN water this way, fertilizing is very easy, if you can't, it's not.

So, how do you water?

Al

Al,

I just purchased a 5 foot Fiddle Leaf fig bush with 2 stems. It has some curled/stiff leaves at the top, and some slightly curled leaves throughout. It is still in its nursery pot (which seems very small for such a tall tree) and the soil seems compacted. I'm nervous to repot since I just brought it home (and I've read that they tend to freak out) but didn't want to start on the wrong foot. I put it in the tub and soaked it and was going to put back in front of the window until next week's watering. Should I repot and if so, what type of soil? Thanks!

Alana

anyone can help about little holes and brown dots on my tree?