Ficus leaves curling

randyburtis

I have a ficus that i did some trimming on amonth ago, presently it is starting to get curly and curvy leaves. It needs to be repotted and have its roots trimmed. The soil has gotten a few areas whhere a thin line of white ?mold? is appearing

my question is, i assume the curving leaves is not a good sign, but I am in winter where i live(even though i have kept the tree indoors in a well lit area), adn suspect a repot and root trim is not a great idea at this time of year, event hough it has shown some new growth. BUT i feel soemthing needs to be done to help it. Do i just increase plant food to it, or just change the soil and leave the roots, or give it a major overhaul?

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dracothered

Post some picture of your Ficus and then it can be better evaled.

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Corbin
Draco the Red

pootsie

Randy:

The mold is a sign of over-watering. Ease up on the h2o and let the soil dry a bit twixt waterings.

As to the curvy bit, some ficci varieties have a natural curve to the young leaves (like "too little") and they straighten out as the leaves mature. Could be that.

pootsie

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zenwarrior

I might have had the same experience with the curled leaves. Do they become harder than the others and have small pin size burn spots? NOt sure what it is but I just pull those leaves off. Seems to be fine for me.

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agraham

Not sure what your particular problem is,but thrips often cause curling of ficus leaves.

andy

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randyburtis

thrips? what is that? I just need to fight with my computer a bit more to install my camera loder program then i will post pics, but the curving leaves aren't the new ones....

agraham

Thrips are small winged insects which can cause curled leaves.

http://ipmofalaska.homestead.com/files/thrips.html

andy

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Fletch

Randy;

The 'white mold' you are seeing could be either from overwatering (as pootsie suggested above) or could just be mineral build-up from our lovely Calgary water. If the white mold appears to be dry and crumbly it's just a build up of minerals and nothing too serious to worry about.

In any event be careful of the amount of watering you do. Not only does too much cause root rot and other nasty problems, it also encourages 'carrots', ugly swelling of roots, to develop on ficus (one of the many reasons I no longer grow ficus as bonsai).

As for the curling leaves, is this happening on new growth or older established leaves? If it's new growth it could just be the way the leaves sometimes grow when young. If it's happening to older leaves that used to be straight then look closely to see if you have some pests making themselves a free meal out of your tree. If you spot any obvious signs of pests then describe what you see and maybe we can help you identify them and provide a course of action to get rid of them.

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Regards
Fletch

randyburtis

well it seems overwatering was the issue, it has dropped a few leaves, but the rest are slowly starting to straighten out. My hope now is that my sweet plum won't die, i had to repot it, the soil was not absorbing water, but it is certianly not happy with me now a number of leaves turning sickly brown... but i am gonna hit it with some plant food now(it has been 10 days since the repot and hope that perks her up...such delicate trees, but makes this hooby fun and challenging at the same time