Beginner Gardening: Help me save my Ficus binnendijkii!, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
I have found that leaf drop is very common with Ficus. Have you pruned any branches to see if there is soft wood? Maybe just snip a branch or two to see if the branch is dead. Now is the time plants are beginning to come out of dormancy and put on new growth. You could try giving it a little fertilizer to help the new growth along.

Ficus are not hard to grow at all but they seem to like to be located in one spot and not moved. At least that's what I've found over the years with growing Ficus 'benjamina' as well as a few other Ficus. I only have two Ficus trees now, one 'Alii' and one variegated 'benjamina' that stay out outside on our pool deck all year and get covered with old blankets if we have a cold night or two during the winter. I have had Ficus trees (especially benjamina) go totally bare in the winter with change of temperature, but also when I move them from one location to another, even if it's a few feet, they start raining leaves! They seem to hate being moved. I have also found that my Ficus love water, they can't seem to get enough down here in this heat of Florida.

My large Ficus 'Alii' (Synonym binnendijkii) is so rootbound, there's not much soil left in the pot at all, so I have to water it quite often to keep it from being stressed and dropping a lot of leaves.

Here's the link to Plant Files with info and photo's of Ficus 'Alii' (binnendijkii): http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62921/

Here's my Ficus 'Alii'