Friday, March 21, 2008

Save the ficus!

Before I met him, the ear doctor bought himself a ficus and a lucky bamboo. By the time we got married the lucky bamboo was a dried up stick in a mason jar. The ficus, however, must have been a serious trooper. It looked exactly the same every day of our 3 year courtship/engagment.

When we got married I adopted the little plant. I named him Fikey. I loved this little child like the best step-mom in the world. He was my little Fikey.


About a month ago I noticed that Fikey hadn't grown a single new leaf since we got married. He looked really cramped in his cheap plastic container. I was worried that the rocks shelacked to his roots were stifling his grown. I took it upon myself to transplant him into a cuter pot with more room for his roots to grow.


After speaking with a stranger at Home Depot I learned that this type of plant likes their roots to stay very tight, so you should very slowly increase the size of the pot. Armed with this information I performed the transplant. Everything seemed to be going well. Fikey was green and healthy. Everytime I did the dishes I would look up to him sitting on my window sill and smile. I was one proud mamma.

Last week things took a turn for the worse. Observe.
Yellow leaves? White junk accumulating around the outside of the pot!?! Droopy leaves! What has happened to my little Fikey?!?!
Anyone have any suggestions for me? How can I reverse this new developement?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ficus don't like to be over-watered - that's the only reason I can grow them. The white around the pot looks like an alkalai leach from the picture, so maybe less water & less fertilizer. These grow to tree size & they trim them with chain saws in CA, so Fikey should take to a little neglect. He just might be suffering from too much care!

chloe said...

I second dan's mom.

Courtney said...

yep... less water and less love. Ficus are sometime too easy to grow. Also, is he getting enough light?