Often, leaves that are pointed straight up are doing so in order to seek out more sunshine. It could be time to move your FLF a bit closer to a window if a minor rotation of your plant does not appear to stop its leaves from growing upward.
Maintaining a weekly rotation after watering will maintain your plant growing straight and tall.
Why do my fiddle-leaf fig leaves keep appearing?
When you said, “I woke up this morning to see a couple leaves of one of my FLFs pointing straight up,” you gave one hint to the likely solution to your query. When you added, “I haven’t watered it in a couple days (I’m waiting for the soil to dry up),” you gave a second clue. Only a few factors have the greatest impact on the leaf’s disposition (the spatial position it occupies). Turgidity, or internal water pressure, is one; phototropism, or the plant’s response to light, is the other. We can rule out phototropism because, unless you were expressly performing an experiment to measure it, it wouldn’t happen frequently enough to be noticeable over the course of a day.
Here is my opinion. Because there was too much water in the soil, your plant started to wilt a little bit (too much water deprives the roots of oxygen, which inhibits their capacity to operate effectively/normally). The leaves began to behave differently as a result (hang down slightly/wilt). The leaf holes (stomata) that permit water to escape the plant close during the dark phase (or very nearly so). This indicates that even while a root system couldn’t keep up with transpirational water loss during the daytime when stomata are open, it COULD keep up with it at night when those openings are closed. You can see how the puzzle pieces come together when you combine this plant’s natural cycle with the fact that you were waiting for the soil to dry up, indicating that root function was likely recovering efficiency with each passing day. The leaves just returned to their pre-wilt positions, and the plant simply resumed its usual turgid state.
For the record, when FLF and rubber trees (F elastica) wilt severely, the leaves are frequently irreparably damaged and unable to regain their prior disposition.
My fiddle leaf fig won’t stand up straight. What should I do?
You can stake the trunk of a fiddle leaf fig to keep it upright if you need a quick fix to save it. By no means is this a long-term fix because staking will prevent your tree from developing the necessary strength to maintain itself.
While you do other things to strengthen the trunk, such fertilizing, correctly watering, offering lots of light, and regularly wiggling, staking can at least train your fiddle to grow straight.
To stake your tree, buy a stake the same length as the trunk of your tree and drive it into the ground near the trunk. Then use plant tape or ties to fasten the trunk to the stake.
Every few weeks or whenever you wriggle the trunk to test whether it can stand on its own, remove the stake. With regular maintenance, your trunk should begin to strengthen after a few months.
Why are the leaves on my fig tree curving up?
Lack of moisture or Taphrina deformans, a fungus that affects peach, nectarine, almond, fig, and other decorative fruit trees, are the two main causes of leaf curl in figs.
Why do the leaves on my fiddle leaf fig point down?
Now that you are aware that the sturdy, older bottom leaves are unimportant, what should you do if you see that the higher leaves are slouching?
A good query. Determine the situation first. Your limp tree is most likely the result of one of these five most typical causes.
Young, new growth.
The immature, weaker tissue that makes up your youngest leaves tops our list of the most frequent causes of drooping fiddle leaf fig leaves. You must be happy when a new bud appears, don’t you? Anxiety replaces excitement as the new leaf grows and changes. The likelihood that a young leaf will become a sad-looking, sluggish version of its surrounding leaves increases with leaf size.
Do not fret. Give it one or two days, occasionally three. Maintain your care routine so that the new leaf doesn’t harden at all.
Environmental change.
A change in routine or environment is another frequent reason for drooping fiddle fig leaves. The ficus lyrata tree does not respond well to relocation, but its trunk enjoys being bent and moved.
Similar to how plants communicate their unhappiness by slouching, plants may slouch in response to changes in feeding, watering, temperature, humidity, and especially light exposure.
Therefore, the tree could act up if you’ve relocated it to a new room or if your aunt Peggy is watching it while you’re in Vegas.
Again, the good news is that you can resume your previous activities when your violin has withered.
Thirst.
Thirst comes next. Many times, violin owners worry about overwatering. That’s because these plants are vulnerable to root rot when not provided with enough light and a substrate that drains well. Sadly, this causes many caretakers to go submerged, which causes those above leaves to respond in a sagging way.
If you believe that your plant is suffering from thirst, you should not only give it some water; you should also modify your watering schedule if your plant actually recovers after a soak.
Root shock.
Have you lately re-oiled or repotted your plant? Or maybe you checked for root rot? Perhaps, like me, you divided the trunks of two bushy plants so that they would eventually take the form of trees.
Anytime you disturb a fiddle leaf fig’s root system, you run the danger of putting it into root shock. Here are two plants that I recently split into two separate planters from one pot.
You can see that just one of the tiny trees survived, with the other wilting. Thank goodness I was prepared.
You should not notch, move, soap, prune, jiggle, or otherwise mess with it right now. For at least two months, do not anticipate any new foliar growth.
Water it appropriately for its size and habitat constantly while introducing it to full, direct sun exposure gradually.
Root shock will require considerably more time to recover from than, say, the drooping brought on by thirst or new growth. Be patient, then. Try not to lose heart. For a while, the plant’s entire energy will be directed on root development.
Chemical burn.
Chemical reactions to insecticide or detergent are the fifth and most important reason why leaves are drooping.
Your plant may be suffering if you recently used harsh detergents, fungicides, or miticides to combat an insect infestation. Caretakers of fiddle leaf fig trees are frequently shocked to learn that while these treatments were once safe and efficient, they are now unnecessary. especially when coupled with more exposure to light (something we usually encourage wholeheartedly).
To prevent this, thoroughly clean the plant after applying any treatments, and wait to expose it to direct sunlight until you are sure the application went well. Investigate natural, organic solutions to the fiddle leaf fig’s most frequent issues in order to completely prevent chemical burn. Yes, using natural therapies may involve more work on your part, but the reduced risk to your plant usually makes it worthwhile.
So there you have it: weak tissue, environmental changes, thirst, root shock, and chemical burn are the most typical reasons of drooping fiddle leaf fig tree leaves.
You can help your plant grow again now that you know what’s making it droop.
How can you determine the health of a fiddle leaf fig?
Akin developed the website and published the book to share how to grow strong fiddle leaf fig plants. Although many indoor gardeners wish to grow the plant, she discovered that there is very little reliable and comprehensive information on cultivating them.
You will find all the information you require in this comprehensive, simple-to-read guide to succeed with fiddle leaf fig plants. This involves determining whether your plant is healthy or whether it needs some additional special care and attention.
Akin lists numerous symptoms of fiddle leaf fig plant illness along with their causes. Brown stains on leaves, which may indicate over- or under-watering, are one of these. Fungal disease, which develops when leaves are overwatered, is what causes brown blotches in the middle of leaves. Browning on the leaf edges is a sign of dry, drafty air and inadequate irrigation.
Your fiddle leaf fig plant may be suffering from a lack of sunlight or inadequate nourishment if it is dropping leaves all over the plant and the leaves are yellow.
If your fiddle leaf fig has new growth and the new leaves are bigger than the old ones, your plant is likely healthy. Additionally, the plant will have glossy, brilliant green leaves and a beautiful overall appearance.
1. Ensure adequate drainage.
Plants of the fiddle leaf fig don’t respond well to wet soil. The plant roots’ ability to breathe and maintain good health depends on adequate drainage.
2. Prevent overwetting.
Every time you water, give the soil a little time to dry out. The plant will die from root rot if the soil is kept wet. The book contains details on how much water was used to water fiddle leaf figs.
What is the ideal frequency of misting my fiddle leaf fig?
Our preferred approach for giving your violin humidity isn’t misting, but fresh leaf buds are the one exception.
The emergence of new baby leaves from their leaf sheaths can result in tearing since they are thin, sensitive, and have a tendency to stay together (see, that almost rhymes!).
New leaf buds should be misted, but only the lead buds, and not so much that the water runs off onto the surrounding leaves.
Give your new baby buds a nice sprinkling a few times each week, and if you’d like, gently dab up any surplus water with a clean, soft towel.
In a dry climate, you can still grow a healthy fiddle leaf fig. It requires a few additional tools, but it is entirely possible! Even if you reside in the middle of the desert, follow these recommendations for a beautiful, healthy tree.
Do shaken fiddle leaf figs like it?
The majority of tall houseplants don’t need to be shaken in order to keep themselves upright as they grow, and there really is no need unless you are putting them outdoors, according to Richard Cheshire, plant doctor at Patch Plants (opens in new tab). In all honesty, if you place your plants outside for the summer, you won’t need to worry about shaking them because there will be some actual wind to do it for you.
There is scientific proof (opens in new tab) that plants benefit from thigmomorphogenesis, a process that describes how plants react to the many types of “mechanical disturbances” they encounter in the field. Wind is one among them, but there are also raindrops and animal brushes and nibbles as they go through the forest. Plants have developed to react to even light touch over millions of years, which triggers several survival mechanisms in the plant leaves.
Therefore, if you wish to do this, occasionally touching your house plants will undoubtedly benefit them, even if they presumably receive enough stimulation from the water droplets if you regularly spritz them with water.
The ever-popular fiddle leaf fig is one plant that actually benefits from being shook rather than just touched. As a result of the lack of breeze indoors, fiddle leaf figs in particular can become rather frail and struggle to maintain themselves, according to Richard. Giving them a firm shake now and then is always a good idea.
So shake away if you do have a fiddle leaf fig at home. All other indoor plants will thrive with just a light touch or spritz every so often.
How is a fig tree fan trained?
Although figs can produce multiple phases of harvest at once, in the UK climate just one crop typically ripens in September or October. The fig crop for the following year will be produced by the small, pea-sized embryo fruitlets that were developed in the autumn. In the UK climate, figs that were planted in the spring and early summer but hadn’t ripened by October would still grow but won’t ripen. Remove them in the late fall.
Every few weeks after the fruits begin to form, feed with a liquid tomato feed.
Fig trees may need to be protected in some regions during the winter, particularly if the tree is young. Cover your tree with horticultural fleece once the leaves have fallen, or if your tree is fan-trained, pack straw around the branches. Fig trees in pots should be moved into a cool shed or other covered space, such as a greenhouse.
Remove the cover in the spring, feed the tree well, and mulch with well-rotted manure, or replant potted figs outside.
Every two to three years, repot fig plants cultivated in containers. When the tree grows too big to be replanted, scrape off as much compost as you can from the surface and refill it with fresh.
Training and pruning fig trees
In order to control growth and provide room and light for the fruit to ripen, outdoor figs can be fan-trained.
Train against the wall using horizontal wires while tying the stems together to form a fan-shaped formation. To promote development lower down, pinch out half of the developing points on the fan’s primary frame in the early summer. As the fresh shoots emerge, tuck them in. To retain the tree’s open framework, remove any dead or crooked stems in the late winter.
Similar pruning techniques can be used on fig trees planted in containers, such as cutting weak and dead branches in late winter and fresh shoot tips in summer.
They must be regularly pruned each year to keep them under control because they are also very vigorous. You can cut your tree back hard if it is getting too big for its place, but keep in mind that you will temporarily lose fruit in the process.
Pruning fig trees in the spring can make them bleed sap, which can make the tree weak or even kill it. Wear gloves because the sap from figs irritates the hands.