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Help! Ficus Leaves Turning Black!

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Old 20-Sep-2007   #1
fatalexception
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Join Date: Sep-2007
Location: Suburbs of Philly, PA
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Help! Ficus Leaves Turning Black!

I have been into bonsai for about a year now, and have about 5 plants total. I recently repotted a few of my plants, and my ficus in particular is taking is really badly.

The tree itself is just under a foot tall, and i water it whenever the soil about a inch down seems to head towards the dry end of things. It was fine, healthy, and growing well untill i repotted it. About 4 days after the repot, some of the leaves started turning from green strait to black, and a day or so later those affected leaves curled up and dried out. It seems to be making a slow recovery, but I am still alarmed as to why this happened, and i need to know if there anything I can do to stop whats going on.

First off, why did this happen? Second, is there anything I can do to help it along, get it healthy again? I keep this tree indoors, and for the most part have not moved it much. I live in philly, pa most of the year, however this all is taking place when i have moved back to my parents house for a two week break in my school schedule, so they are in a new atmostphere. I waited a week before performing the repots, in hopes that the trees would not be too shocked by a change in location and in soil, but i fear that i may have damaged them by rushing things too much.

Any help would be much appriciated!

-Ryan

PS: there are tiny white fly lookin insects in the soil of my double white snow rose serissa, also freshly repotted. Should this be something to worry about? The serissa is doing fine, shedding only a few leaves a day, as i found is normal for the plant.
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Old 20-Sep-2007   #2
weeble
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I'll admit right off I dont have tons of experience, but I HAVE learned that some ficus will drop leaves on ANY excuse- repotting, too dry, too wet, new location, a cold breeze, someone sneezed at them, the cat ran by and took an extra long look at those temptingly wiggly leaves, you name it. If your tree looks like its recovering, I'd just let it be, because anything else you do to it will just set it off again.

Not sure what to tell you about white flies on the serissa, mine croaked before I figured out how to keep it happy. Might need to use some sort of systemic insecticide, but I dont know what would be best.

Maryjane
aka Weeble
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Old 20-Sep-2007   #3
ericN
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imo, its kinda late in the season to re-pot a ficus. i usually repot in the midle of summer, heat helps the root grows faster and bounce back from re-potting. they never react to pruning roots and repotting when done at the right time.

that said, i would say that your tree is dropping leaves from repotting stress. just water it a bit lightly and hopefully it will bud back in a few weeks.

hope that helps
eric
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