Ficus from Home Depot in Trouble

Zigor

Well... I'm not exactly sure how severe this is, which is why I'm doing this post I guess... But I just bought a Ficus tree from Home Depot on Sat. and when I bought it atleast a 1/3 of the leaves were either yellow or turning yellow, now its steadly increasing to atleast half of the leaves are yellow (not inluding the many that have fallen off)
When I bought it the soil was extremely dried out, like nearly no moisture, so the first thing I did was water it until water drained out the bottom, then I took off the crappy glued down rocks that were on it. And worried it was very malnourised I gave it 4 of those fertalizer stick thingys (which I'm worried was a bad idea now...). It has also been moved very many times from home depot, to my home, then up to my college dorm room.
I water it every time I press the soil and there are no small drops of water on my finger. So I'm worried I might be watering it too much. And I mist it whenever its starting to look dry.

But the thing that has really got me worried is this brown ring that is growing around the trunk that just appeared yesterday.

Please let me know any advice you have for me... thanks

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Zigor

Crap. And I was just now examining it and I found a whole bunch of (I guess this is what they are) spider mites, crawling along one branch. What the heck do I do about those, and could they be part of the reason for the yellowing leaves?

Joanie

Heres a good place to start.

Ficus are pretty tough, hang in there. If you don't see answers in that specific thread, search this forum for "spider mites". They can be treated effectively. Make sure the treatment is okay for ficus though.

Joanie

xmacro

before anyone else says it, fill out your heat zone or USDA zone so everyone knows what heating conditions you've got

P.S. I started bonsai about a month ago, so take what I say with a grain of salt for what its worth, I got a Ficus Nerifolia from an outside bonsai dealer (it was in prime health at the time), put in in a hot atrium for a week, and then moved it in my dorm room with a little tray of shallow water beneath it for humidity; it adjusted in a few weeks to being a foot from a closed window where it gets 4 or 5 hours of sun everyday (hell, it was throwing out red shoots after a week or two of being relocated) and now it's looking fine being water every so often (when it needs it, according to my whims); I dunno what the soil is, something the dealer was using. I've heard using a 50/50 mix of lava rock and fir or pine bark is good for ficus so I'm gonna try it in a few weeks.

Red shoots/leaves growing on your ficus = vigorous growth; its a good thing.

sauce

Spray the tree with a spray bottle filled with water and a couple of drops of dish soap. I've always used Dawn. Be sure to spray the under sides of the branches and leaves. In other words soak it thoroughly. That is very important. If you truly have mites this should get rid of them. But they leave eggs that will hatch in a week or so, so after six or seven days spray again to kill the new hatchlings. You need to get a handle on spider mites ASAP because they multiply fast and can decimate your tree in no time at all. If that is the problem? As always pictures speak a thousand words.

Will_Heath

Stop trying to save this tree and let it recover. Spray for bugs as sauce recommended, stop moving it around like it has wheels, put a chopstick in the soil and only water when the stick is just slightly damp when you remove it, pull those fert sticks out and throw the whole box away, use miracle grow each time you water at 1/4 the manufacters recommendation, and read all you can on ficus care.

Many trees are lost because of people trying to baby them, let the tree be a tree.

Good luck,


Will

Zigor

Ok thanks every one for the advice I think I blasted off the first wave of spider mites, just have to wait for the eggs to hatch, and blast off the second wave. I hope my tree makes it. I took out the fert. sticks as well... leaves are still falling off, but I'm going to just water and mist it whenever, and not worry about it.

But there is still the brown ring around the trunk that I'm worried about, does anyone know anything about that?

Little_John

Can't really speak about the ring...could be anything. Alot of the mallsai have been wired and left too long, that'll leave a mark for sure.

My ficus is fairly tempremental. Do like Will said, quit moving it, and stick a chopstick in the soil. You may also want to look at the soil threads...Will has compiled a ton of them in the "All there is to know about..." threads. Check those out and just let it be for a while. Ficus take a bit to adjust to being moved around within a room let alone what you've done with it.

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthread.php?t=13803

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Spatch

Hi, I'm new here, is there a forum that has this info. Or is it in Articles?