problem with ficus

mat

This ficus just has never thrived, unlike a few others I have. Lately almost all the leaves have been looking either curled, a little yellow, or like they are dusted with white. I have sprayed it with Neem oil a few times, and also washed the leaves with a soap solution. I've been trying to eradicate scale on a few other trees, but haven't seen scale on this one.

I don't over water. The plant was on a south facing windowsill for awhile, but just in case it's problem might spread to other plants in that spot, I recently moved it into an indoor location with artificial light.

One thing I noticed on repotting it in the spring (I had bought it from a nursery about a year ago) was that the soil was full of grubs. I thought I got them out, but didn't completely remove the old soil, just shook it out a bit and and put it in a bigger pot.

Can anyone recognize its problem from this picture of the leaves? Could it be the old soil? I'm afraid to repot it because it looks so sickly I worry I'll just kill it.

Attached Images

ficusleaves.jpg (30.1 KB, 40 views)

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jamie111

try more water, more sun and more air circulation if its inside that could be the problem, how deep is the pot and the size of the tree?

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queensland australia, in hervey bay. 21 years old junior bonsai artist, willing to learn anything

mat

Thanks for the response. The tree is around 7" tall and in a 5" terracotta pot.

I don't think the light and circulation are so bad as the windowsill that it spent the last year on is sunny and the window is at least cracked open for most of the year. Other ficus like this location and a cutting from this very plant seems happy enough. Since my last post, I've moved it back to this windowsill. It looked quite healthy when I bought it a little more than a year ago, and all I've done is put it into this larger pot and remove a few branches. The soil I used was a mixture of a commercial bonsai mix (pine bark and gravel) with some commercial potting soil. But as I said in the last post, I left quite a bit of the nursery's soil around the root ball when I repotted it.

Attached Images

sm-ficus.jpg (47.0 KB, 23 views)

ALDEVAUX

The symptoms on those leaves are somewhat typical to those of powdery mildew infections caused by a fungus that attacks a wide range of ornemental plants.
However, one of the leaves show symptoms that could also be due to red mites infestation. You can check if there is really such an infestation by shaking the leaves over a white paper to see if there are some minute reddish looking insectes moving on the paper. You should also see some webing on the leaves when there is a heavy infestation of such mites.
As for the powdery mldew, it is not easy to control this disease especialy when leaf surfaces are completely infected like those shown on your pics. Those leaves should be removed from the tree and you can spray the rest of the leaves with a fungicide for powdery mildew recommanded in your area. But don't expect the infected leaves to become normal after the sprays. It is only the non-infected leaves that can be protected from infection.
Here is a link that may help you treat for this disease :
http://www.ehow.com/how_3035_detect...nt-powdery.html