Hi Everyone,

I fell I love with a fiddle leaf and decided to take over someone else's fiddle leaf. When I got it, Sydney had just gone through a cold snap and the poor thing had suffered terrible windburn and cold, but I thought that it would get over it eventually.

As the weather got warmer I've been moving it into the sun to regain some vitality. It seemed to do ok, the older leaves had a lot of browning and spots, and I cut some of these off, but it pushed through some really nice new green leaves. About two months ago I added some slow release fertilizer. I've been watering every week or so to the point where water was running out the bottom (too much perhaps?) and washing down the leaves (hoping to increase humidity, but does it cause fungal infections?)

At first I was just using my finger to see if the soil 1 inch down was dry. Then some the leaves started to curl and the edges and felt very 'crispy' and developed some browning, so I thought maybe I wasn't watering it frequently enough but watering too much each time? Then the next lot of new leaves pushed through, and they are a pale green instead of nice glossy dark green, and one of them seems curled up on itself. I've then flushed the pot thinking that maybe the fertilizer salts were building up.. Or could it be deficient in something?

I've decided to do a complete repot into gritty mix and prune the roots as it looks root bound (the roots are growing out of the top and bottom) in the next few weeks (it's end of spring here now - is beginning of summer the best time to repot and root prune?). Do I fertilize immediately after repotting or wait? Is basalt ok to substitute for granite in the mix?

At the moment the plant is composed of 4 branches which emerge from the soil, but I think it's actually just 2 plants with 2 branches each. I was thinking of using grafting tape to fuse the two branches of each plant to get 2 plants with one trunk each and put then in separate pots? Would that work? Would you recommend a pruning at the same time as repotting or letting it get over the repotting and wait till next year to prune? I would like the trunk to grow thicker, do I do that by taking the top of the tree off? I don't really want it to start branching yet as it hasn't really gotten to the height that I would like. Ideas?

It's also miraculously grown a tiny shoot from the bottom.. And it's put out quite a few new leaves recently but it's shaded by all the other leaves at the moment, so I was wondering if I could propagate that separately as a cutting?

I can't find a foliage pro equivalent in Australia, can anyone suggest one? Or should I just import some?

Also any suggestions on what might be wrong now? Causing the pale green leaves and crispy/curling edges of leaves? Anything I can do to make it healthier before the big repot? Any suggestions on pesticide? I think I saw mites..?

Sorry for the long post. As you can probably tell I don't have a green thumb at all and no experience whatsoever with plants. I'm just determined to help my fiddle leaf survive and be the best that it can! I've been reading the blogs but I've not been able to figure out exactly how to go about this and what my fiddle leaf needs right now (maybe for me to leave it alone?).

Anyway, hope you kind people will take pity on my fiddle leaf and help its plight.

P.s I've attached some photos for demonstration purposes.

New deformed pale green leaf

New pale green leaf, one above it is the last new leaf which was nice and glossy.. But is getting those pale green dots on the leaf?

Crinkled edges with browning

Crinkly leaf edges with browning. I cut a chunk out of the right upper leaf because that part was all brown..

The roots - growing above soil and out the bottom

Two sets of two branches - hoping to fuse the two branches into one stronger trunk

The new shoot! Can I propagate it as a cutting? It's got more leaf buds coming out..

Overall plant.. Looks quite sad.. I have taken some chunks out of some leaves as they were so damaged - should I cut the damaged leaves off entirely? Thought the plant could still use the green parts for photosynthesis..