Ficus carica losing leaves

Hello, I have a fig tree in a large pot and just this past month it has been losing it leaves. They turn yellow and fall. I give it plenty of water and it has been mulched with a good compost earlier this year. Does anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong ? Thanks in advance.

Re: Ficus carica losing leaves

Reply from Valerie Munro

Hi Steve

I does sound as if the plant has dried out in its pot. Alas, this can happen with alarming speed, especially when the weather is as hot as it has been recently. Dried out soil is extremely difficult to re-wet, and if you were to play the hose over the pot, all that would happen is that the water would scoot across the top of the soil, find the (inevitable) space between the side of the pot and the now-shrunken soil ball and pour out of the bottom of the pot. If you are not aware of what has happened, you will think that the plant has had sufficient water!

My trick to rehydrate the soil is to use a bucket of water to which you can add a few squirts of non-detergent washing up liquid. Then you can flush the 'bubbles away with two or three buckets of clean water.

Then I would follow this up with a de-stressing solution of 1 litre of water to which you have added (and dissolved) 6 teaspoons of normal household granulated sugar.

The yellow leaves will probably continue to drop, but you could stop other green leaves from following suit.

Good luck!
Auntie Planty
www.auntieplanty.co.uk