Hello! I was gifted this 9 foot tall fiddle leaf and I don’t think it’s very happy. I had a look at the root situation and there are 4 plants intertwined. There is also a 6 foot stake holding the fig up as it’s too thin and weak to support itself. What can I do to make the fig healthier/happier and independently standing? Appreciate any help!
by jiminycrikket
3 Comments
It’s too far from a window. It needs to be in a window, those big leaves need a lot of bright indirect light—about 6hrs a day
It’s common for fig leaf plants to have numerous plants in same pot, they seem to thrive regardless.
This plant probably will need a decent amount of sun to stay alive, they are actually trees.
In the wild – the wind blowing the plants around will stimulate growth into thicker trunks, indoor plants miss out on this so to get thicker trunks we shake the stems, YouTube shake FLF and something should match to show how this works.
The soil loves to dry out between watering, when you water you drench the soil but let all the excess water drain away, these plants aren’t a cup of water at a time type to water.
When you find a better spot- it’s best to move it to the new position slowly- sudden changes to lighting conditions will cause the plant to drop leaves and It might already have done this since getting it home. Direct sunlight might also burn the leaves so be mindful of that too, but they will tolerate partial sun conditions, I keep mine all outside on an east facing balcony.
Depending on how long you’ve had it, (less than 3 months for example) it might be ok just to move, especially if you find a spot that matches the light conditions of where you bought it from, as you will be restoring conditions rather than changing them (if that makes sense)
Personally I would do a chop / notch & prop to this one. If you have a large window on a South Facing wall that usually is great for bright indirect light. I would do a pretty aggressive chop at about the mid point of the open window case. Remove the stake. And add a small individual fan next to it perhaps on a window ledge. This will provide constant movement for the tree allowing the trunk to get the stimulation needs to thicken up. You most certainly can manually provide this stimulation daily but personally I would forget 🤦🏻♀️ so a small fan on low has been enough constant movement to thicken the trunk. They like to be snug in their pots so if you upsize dont go too much bigger. When I got mine 4yrs ago the were 1-2 ft tall in a gallon pot. I got a 13×12 inch pot and moved it into that then back filled with Miracle Grow indoor potting soil. From then I water mine 1x a month, in my sink until the water runs through and I know everything is wet. I then use a liquid fertilizer and pour into pot then just let it sit until all excess runs through then I put it back to its spot and leave it alone till next month on the 1st. There are a lot better soils and a ton of fertilizers out there, at the time thats what I was told to do, and its what Ive done. Its worked very well for my babies and Ive not had any issues, no yellow leaves/ brown spots/ loss of leaves/ deformed leaves/ downturned leaves. Just rich green growth.
https://preview.redd.it/0uf2a2ioph9g1.jpeg?width=5077&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6671907adabeccd843c60ba7897a9afcbf084d10
The 2 in the middle were considerably taller and fuller, but I want to see if I could propagate. So I removed about 2 feet and removed several leave to see if I could propagate from leaves. They all have multiple trunks. Also if you find you dont have a bright indirect light source look into a Barrina or Sansi grow light they are 100% worth it. In any case I hope this helps.