Ailing fiddle leaf fig... please help!

I recently purchased a fiddle leaf fig tree - it's actually two "trees" in one pot. Tree #1 is quite healthy - perky leaves, seems to have adapted to its new home well, and about 4" tall. The other tree, tree #2, was doing fine at first but is now not faring so well, sadly. It's slightly small than the other tree - about 3" - and its leaves have begun to droop considerably. The green branches holding the leaves are becoming soft to the touch and beginning to bend with the strain of the heavy, drooping leaves. In the attached photos you can see the healthy tree #1 on the left side and unhealthy tree #2 on the right.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here since tree #1 is so healthy, while tree #2 is ailing in the same exact pot. I've been extremely careful not to overwater... and if I was overwatering wouldn't both plants be exhibiting the same symptoms? I also think the trees get decent light as the pot is positioned near two large south-facing windows. When I purchased in January I also repotted into a larger pot.

I'm fearful that tree #2 is on the verge of death... any thoughts or help would be deeply appreciated.

Hi, Emily. This is the post I left on the other site you visited after someone suggested it might be related to one plant outcompeting the other. I sincerely doubt that. Here's why:

Unless Emily has confirmed there are actually 2 separate plants and not 2 branches masquerading as trunks, which are connected below the soil line, we probably shouldn't take for granted there are 2 plants. Even if there were 2 plants, it doesn't look at all like there would be the kind of competition between plants of the same species such that one would be genetically vigorous enough to hog resources to the point it would create deficiencies sufficient to manifest a steep decline in the other. I mean, there are no roots crawling over the surface of the soil, and there is no disparity in size that could suggest a larger, taller plant might be shading out its shorter, smaller counterpart - so what competition?

It's not unusual for one or 2 roots to be negatively affected by disease while other roots in the same pot or even on the same plant are better able to cope with less than ideal soil conditions. The result is often the death or decline of 1 plant in a group planting or one branch on a tree. Roots do have very specific connections to individual branches such that the death od a root can almost automatically mean the death of one branch. The 1 root to 1 branch connection is so strong in Thuja occidentalis (eastern white cedar) that when the center of old trees rot completely away, you can often observe several live veins growing from thick roots, each supporting only 1 branch. Most observers would think they were observing a ring of unusually shaped trees if they came upon this interesting occurrence in nature.

Given the volume of soil available for root colonization, I just can't see it being a case of one plant outcompeting another, if in fact there really are 2 different plants. I'm pretty close to certain the issue is related to root health issues.



Al

What I think is strange, is that the plant has degraded to such a point as softening the trunk (?) and has not lost all of those leaves. I would think the leaves would be the first to go, before the softening. How long did it take for you to notice there was a problem and to the point that you took those pictures?

That really puzzles me. That the leaves are still hanging on.

Also am wondering, if Emily repotted the plants after she got them, did she see a separation of the two under the soil? What makes you so sure Emily, that it is two distinctive plants? Did you pull them apart, one in each hand? You did not see the two were connected when you repotted them?

I don't know why it could not happen that one would be sick and the other not. Two people, husband and wife say, living in the same house, sleeping in the same bed, one can come down with something and the other not. It might depend on their metabolism? Their immunity to that particular bug? I would think a lot of things could cause that.

Actually, I think if they were connected, both would appear the same.

edited to add:

I had a Fiddleleaf Fig once, about 5 feet tall, and it died. I took it out of the pot, examined it, and the trunk was hollow. I thought at the time, that there must have been some kind of borer that killed the plant. However, it still had leaves on it too. Dead, but they were still there. I don't remember the trunk being soft tho. It has been a long time so don't remember all of that.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2015 10:42 AM