Trying to save some tall, woody plants please help

Hello,

I have a few plants I inherited that I am trying to keep alive. A few of them are what look like ficuses, that I obtained over three months ago. After a couple weeks the leaves on these plants dried out completely and became crispy, but not all fell off. When I scratch the bark on these plants, the stem underneath is still green and seemingly alive. However there are no budding leaves at all.

They have been moved to a very bright southwest facing room with big windows and I have been watering them weekly so the soil is saturated. I want to know if there is any way to salvage these plants so that the leaves will come back.

I have a couple more plant related questions but I am not sure if this forum will allow me to post multiple thumbnails so that's all for right now. Thanks so much in advance.

attached to this post is an image of what I think may be a narrow leaf or willow leaf fig. It most of the leaves are OK and it's even blooming with these cottony seed pods, a new development. Of all these plants this one is doing the best but I am worried because the leaves are drying up and falling off from the bottom closest to the soil.

Here is another unidentified plant with the same problem of dry, dead leaves and no new ones sprouting.

Here is yet another dried out plant.

Finally, here is a dumb cane that is doing both well and poorly. When I inherited it, it was flopping all over the place. I staked it up and now the plant is so tall that direct sunlight coming in from the porch only hits the shorter stalks, which are shooting up, while the upper leaves are drooping and falling off.

I just weatherized this window in front of the dumb cane and put a mirror under it. We'll see if either of these fixes the problem. It would be helpful to know, though, what makes a plant like this floppy, because even this new growth is getting floppy and limp. The leaves that have gone brown and shriveled have done so because they got so limp they became bent.

Thank you so, so much in advance for any advice you might have about any of these plants. I am getting anxious that I will eventually ruin all these plants because I don't really know what I'm doing!

Thanks again,
Morgan

Whoops I forgot the photo for the last one. Here it is. Thanks!

If you're new to plants, the collapse of several in concert suggests an issue related to over or under-watering, or a high level of salts in the soil due to possible over-fertilizing - the later most likely in combination with dissolved solids accumulating from your tap water, but an accumulation of solubles can occur over time whether you fertilize or not.

Do all of these plants' pots have drain holes, and is your tap water treated/softened, by any chance?

Al

Al, thanks for the reply.

The first four plants were obtained from a nursery. They were surplus plants that the nursery was getting rid of in the fall. When I brought them home they weren't even in pots. They just had bare roots. My girlfriend potted them all the next day and we kept them in a room that I don't think got enough light. The plants never thrived there and after a few weeks all the leaves were dry and crispy, except for the narrow leaf ficus.

All the pots have drain holes and I'm only giving them room-temperature Brita filtered water. I should mention that I have a number of other plants that, while showing signs of over watering, are more-or-less thriving. It's mainly these ones from the nursery that are struggling.

Thanks,
Morgan

The first thing that jumps out at me is the common denominator - the soil. What exactly did you use? Do you understand the importance of your choice of soils to the o/a well being of the planting, and to its potentially limiting effects on your margin for error(s). particularly in the area of water-retention/aeration?

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1073399/

Brita filters only remove some of the larger organic molecules and have little (read almost no) effect on the dissolved solids that would chemically affect the planting. Repeat of question above: does your water system have a built-in chemical (ion exchange) softening system?

Getting the most out of your plants is directly related to your ability to provide the cultural conditions they prefer. If you could ask your plants for advice, they would tell you they want to be kept warm (around 65-75*), they want to be in good light, they want you to provide them with a good soil that holds the right amount of air and water - even immediately after you've watered thoroughly - which means the soil needs to be fast-draining and well-aerated, and they want you to learn to water and fertilize properly. If you can get those few things under your belt, there's really not many plants you couldn't do a stellar job of growing.

The soil is the foundation of every conventional container planting. If you're serious about learning how to keep your plants growing well & in good vitality, the link I left is an excellent place to start. Understanding the information in that post will provide the framework. Filling in the rest should be easy.

Al

Al

I also wonder if the treatment they got at the nursery contributed...when you say they were bare root, were they proper bare-root plants where the root balls were wrapped up and kept moist, or were they things they were planning to throw out that had been dumped out of their pots and left with their roots exposed, potentially baking in the sun, etc?

ecrane3, definately the latter. They might have been done for before I did anything for them. Is it even worth trying to bring them back? Is it possible they're just dormant?

If they were lying around for long enough before you got to them then they may be past saving but you really have nothing to lose by waiting a little bit to see if they'll come back. Be really careful on the watering though--a plant with damaged roots and dead leaves is not going to go through water very fast, and if you overwater them you'll ruin any chance they may have had of coming back.

Thanks, ecrane3. The dumb cane definately has stem rot disease. The base of the stems are a little soft and discolored which I found indicates stem rot. I would really like to preserve this plant if at all possible... I have weatherized the window and stopped watering it. Any other advice for saving it and and idea of its chances for survival would be appreciated thanks.

Hi everyone,

I have managed to stabilize most of these plants, except for the willow leaf fig. That one is still slowly losing its leaves.
Attached is how it looks after 2 months. It has new growth, and the leaves aren't droopy like before, but you can see that I've lost a number of lower branches entirely.

I am having trouble finding resources online for why a plant like this would get dried up leaves. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Here's a close up

that looks like an Oleander not a weeping fig - are you sure what it is?