why is the plant leaning?? .. has it always been in this window ... is it lacking light on one side ... turn it a little more frequently when you water it ....

it is not uncommon to lose the oldest leaves ... sometimes annually.. and the lowest are the oldest ... so on some level.. this is normal .... but lack of proper light.. can increase and or speed the process ...

ken

Agreed. Getting too dry can also accelerate leaf loss. It's normal for the older leaves to be faded and the newer leaves to have more bright, beautiful colors.

Leaves on lower part of Ficus tinke are yellowing, browning, and/or falling off. What have you been doing about nutritional supplementation? ..... fertilizing regularly? Nutrients are not food; rather, they represent the building blocks plants use to increase their mass. Plants make their own food, sugar/ glucose, during photosynthesis. Some nutrients are considered to be 'mobile' in the plant. This means the plant can borrow nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and magnesium from its (usually older) parts and use these nutrients to fuel new extension growth. Part of this equation includes the shedding of leaves and sometimes entire branches after the plant has reclaimed what it can from the leaves being shed, if the scarcity of nutrients is severe enough. The shedding/ chlorosis could also be the result of a decrease in photo load (light level) or under/over-watering. So, make sure you're watering correctly (so you're completely saturating the soil and flushing it as you water), and use a "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water. See 'Using a Tell' below. Also, make sure you're fertilizing regularly, every 3-5 times you water (depending on the season) is about right. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 works very well for ficus, and provides complete nutrition from a single source. The top of plant looks great. That's because the plant is genetically programmed to spend about 2/3 of the food/energy it creates during photosynthesis, on the top 1/3 of the plant. Is there anything I can do to protect the plant from losing more leaves and looking too leggy? That's actually 2 questions. Stop leaf loss by making sure all cultural conditions are in the plant's sweet spot. Some contributors blame everything on stress, but have no idea what is causing the stress. Stress in itself is no big deal. EVERY single plant growing in a pot is stressed to some degree, I guarantee it. Stress is caused by cultural conditions not being in the sweet spot, but it's reversible. Strain is different. It is caused by the plant operating at or beyond the limitations it's genetically programmed to tolerate. Damage caused by strain is not reversible, but in most cases the cause of strain can be eliminated and the plant can return t o normal growth, within the limits of the damage caused by previous strain. Appropriate light levels and fertility, proper watering and fertilizing, an appropriate soil, favorable temperatures, ......, all these influences collectively provided in the sweet spot, will stop leaf shedding except that which is caused by natural senescence (aging).

"Leggy", is either a function of the plant's genetic coding (in this case, not) or being subjected to light levels much lower than the plant wants or will tolerate. Long internodes (space between leaves), thin stems, and large leaves are marks which serve as witness to t he fact the plant is not getting enough light.

Al