Ficus lyrata is growing new leaves- should I fertilize?

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NicholeLA Portland, OR Jan 25, 2015

Hi everyone! I live in Portland, OR and I've had my fiddle leaf for maybe 4 years now. I took horrible care of it the first few years (bad at watering, never fertilized, it lived in a milk jug full of water for six months... ), and it hung in there like a champ. I'm happy to report it's doing better than I've ever seen it now that I'm better about giving it the right light and watering schedule, and has sprouted 3 new leaves that have grown rapidly the last month, and two more I can see on the way. I re-potted it from a larger pot into an appropriately sized one with non-fertilized soil in November (another oops, although it survived... It's a hardy one!) and my question is, even though it's winter here, should I fertilize to support this new growth? Thank you in advance for any information. I haven't been able to find anything about this subject anywhere.

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Jan 26, 2015

If it is in soil that has not had any fertilizer, then it will need some nutrients to support the leaf growth, so yes, I would fertilize it.

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tapla Bay City, MI(Zone 6a) Jan 26, 2015

When you fertilize, there are a couple of things that should be taken into account. One is the ratio of the nutrients, each to the others, and what fertilizing will do to the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the soil solution. Since you just repotted in Nov, the TDS level will be low, but if your plant had been in the same soil for a long while and you had been watering with just enough water to dampen the soil, all the salts from tapwater and fertilizer solution would remain in the soil, so it would be advisable to flush the soil thoroughly (to rid it of accumulating salts) before you fertilize. A TDS level too high means the plant will struggle to take up water and nutrients.

The second consideration is what type of fertilizer to use. Most plants use very close to 1.5 parts of P and 6-7 parts of K for every 10 parts of N. When the calculations are completed for how the nutrients are reported on labels, fertilizers with 3:1:2 ratios make the most sense. RATIO is different than the NPK %s on the box. 24-8-16, 12-4-8, and 9-3-6 are all 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is an excellent fertilizer. It has ALL the essential nutrients plants take from the soil (including Ca and Mg, which are lacking in most soluble fertilizers), in a favorable ratio, and it gets most of its N from nitrate sources, which helps keep plants from stretching out in low-light conditions.

Al

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