Small Black Spots on Ficus leaves

chkaplan

Hi,

I have one more potential issue. I recently purchased a small Ficus Benjamina. I have noticed that certain leaves have one, two, possibly three small black spots on the top side. Some leaves have 'curved' and 'shriveled' toward this spot. I have attached a pic. These are not everywhere on the plant, but on perhaps 5-10 leaves on one side of the plant. Can these be due to the shock on sending the plant via UPS for 1 day, or does it indicate a potentially more serious problem? Shold I remove the leaves that possess these spots to avoid any spread? I am watching this closely, and as of yet, has not appeared on any new leaves since I treated the plant with fertilizer, and artificial light.

Thank you for any help!
Best regards
Chris

Attached Images

	Ficus Spots.JPG (13.4 KB, 67 views)
	Ficus Spots2.JPG (19.5 KB, 68 views)

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zenwarrior

I am interested in hearing an answer for this also. I know you should definately pull those leaves off that have curled up and hardened, but I dont't know what the cause is. Maybe someone will chime in....

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chkaplan

I really think it is simply due to the stress the tree went through from shipping it. It was a short 1-2 day shipping, but then again, the problem does not seem widespread. I read some previous threads with not too dissimilar problems and this seems to be a major factor.

As a note, none of the leaves have dried out, as the rest of the leaf is nice and green!

ALDEVAUX

These spots don't look like any of the disease spots, caused by fungi or bacteria, that have been reported on Ficus species.
I think it could be some sort of damage caused by a very small sucking insect or something that pricked a vein when the leaf was very small. As the leaf continued to expand a small dead area remained and was outgrown by the rest of the leaf tissue, causing the distortion or curling of the leaf blade.
I would just remove the affected leaves and wait and see if other spots develop later.
If they do re-occur, let us know, unless someone else in this forum knows the exact cause.

TreeBay

Damage like that usually occurs at the bud stage and then becomes apparent when the leaf grows out and it's disfigured. I'm not sure what the cause is but you might ask Jerry Meislik. Maybe he can suggest if it's mites or cold damage or something.

<edit> Sorry I missed the post above by Aldevaux, who's suggesting something very similar. </edit>

Regards,

Matt

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