ficus dying fast

rightleft

If anyone can give me a hand with this....Basically the tree looked as healthy as could be (for all I knew) and then developed a ton of little berries, next day or the day after....I forget...but I went upstairs to find that it looked terrible and when I went to check out the leaves, half of them fell off. hopefully the pictures out will be good enough for a possible list of things I can do to keep it from dying on me. I know it's not the prettiest tree in the world, but I'm kind of attached to it. I don't think I did anything wrong with it that I can think of but I'm not very skilled with the ol' bonsai trees.
Since it happened I dug some of the dirt back and checked out the roots and they seemed to be pretty terrible in all honesty. So I dusted them with a bit of rooting hormone and put the rest of the dirt back. Since then I've been misting the remaining leaves with a bit of water and keeping the soil much much drier. But I'm not sure the roots looked "root rotted", just um.....not so much there?
I guess "Help" is about all I can say.

Attached Images

	dying ficus.jpg (63.2 KB, 51 views)
	dyingficus2.jpg (69.9 KB, 53 views)
	dyingficusleaves.jpg (33.1 KB, 25 views)
	dyingficusleaves2.jpg (34.2 KB, 28 views)

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pootsie

Well, rightleft, if they looked rotten ... it doesn't sound good.
I've nver been able to revive a ficus after the roots started to go mushy.
Sorry

pootsie

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p.s. My cat is a bonsaiTALK Master.
Columbus Bonsai Society

rightleft

the roots didn't seem mushy so much as they weren't there.....
and the leaves are a bit more of just dried up.

jloeschner

rightleft,

This tree look very much like one I bought from a local grocery store just a couple of weeks ago...lack of leaves and all. They had it on sale for 99 cents, since they knew that it was on its last leg. I bought it and placed it in my large, south-facing window, to recover. Its soil was, and still is, regular potting soil, which is not the best in the world. But since it was in such poor shape, I didn't want to stress it further with a repot. Also, when I bought it, the soil was very wet. I have only watered it once since then, allowing the soil to get quite dry to about 1/2" before watering.

About two days after I brought it home, it finished dropping all of its leaves. I wasn't sure that it would make it, and was quite aware that I may have just wasted my dollar. But after about a week, it started to push new buds, and is now beginning to show signs of life. If it pulls through, I will be repotting it into a good draining bonsai soil.

This ficus is not the first that I have had to seemingly come back from the dead. It has been my experience that ficus are very hardy little trees and are capable of recovering from a variety of insults, if given the proper care. They tend to be prolific rooters and their cuttings are some of the easiest to propagate. They tend to like lots of light, a warm environment, and they like to get a little dry between heavy waterings. If you provide these things for your tree, it might just recover.

One more note about ficus...some of them dislike change so much so that they drop their leaves just from being moved from one room to the next. Has anything changed in the room that it is in? For example, have you opened a window near it, or has the temperature or lighting changed significantly inthe past few days? If any of these things has occurred, it may be your problem and the tree will spring back once it becomes accustomed to the changes.

A last note...I am not a ficus expert by any means. I have simply stated my experiences with them. If you hold out for a few days, Jerry Meislik might come around and give you better advice than I ever could.

Good luck, and I hope your story ends on a positive note.

Regards,
John

__________________
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

QUI ME AMAT, AMAT ET CANEM MEAM

rightleft

alright everyone.....seems like, at least from what I know, I've been doing somewhat of the right thing......

if anyone out there has more advice....something that we may have over looked?

Gary Biggs

Check for scale on the branches and undersides of the leaves. The stipling effect on the leaves hints at scale. They will show up as little bumps on the wood. If you find bumps and they can be easily scraped off with your thumbnail, then it is scale. Otherwise, you may wish to treat with a mild fungicide and cut back those leggy branches. This will encourage budding. If the bark on the tree is still firm and not rippling, it should be ok. Keep tree on the dry side if you suspicion a root problem. If it rebuds, let it grow at will this summer so it can regain its strength, and then repot in a fast draining soil next year.

Good luck.

Gary

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Como gastamos nuestros dias es como gastamos nuestras vidas.

rightleft

You know......a tree next to that one had scale, but I thought I managed to get rid of it, and haven't seen any on this one......but it could have slipped by me. I'll check again. Otherwise I think I see a few little buds here and there. So hopefully it will pull through a bit..............

Elm237

If the roots are rotting they will be Black at the tips instead of white.

rightleft

Scale! so I finally spotted some scale on this poor tree. How could I have missed it in the first place....?
And so today I'm going over the tree and carefully scraping anything that looks like it could be scale off. But I've heard that scrapping it off isn't always a cure that you shoud touch those spots where you have scrapped off the scale with a touch of rubbing alcohol......Is this true? or necessary? I guess from what I've been told it's because they may survive a bit under the bark even if you do scrape off the little protective coating....
And what are the chances of the scale being in the roots at this point?