My grandmother gave me a variegated ficus tree for my 8th birthday. That was 23 years ago. It's the most common type of houseplant ficus, and it's always been a healthy-looking plant... until now. It's started dropping leaves at an alarming rate (this is not a standard leaf-drop). Some of the dropped leaves are yellow, some look perfectly sound (and some of the dropped leaves appear to be brand new). Unlike previous leaf drops, there are also some leaves that are dying and not dropping- those are yellow, leathery, and almost a little translucent. The plant is making new leaves at an unusually rapid rate. Some of them look healthy, but many seem to drop or die before they are even full grown. When I got this plant, it had scale. It still has scale. As a child, I spent hours combing through the plant, removing them by hand. As an adult, I've tried neem oil sprays. Neither treatment seemed to bother the scale much, but the scale never seemed to bother the plant much, either. The plant has been in the same window for the last 8 years. I replaced the soil in the pot perhaps 2 years ago, but it's been in the same pot for a very long time. I'm lax in my fertilization habits, but I did add some Dr. Earth (4-4-4) about 2 weeks ago, after the plant had already started to look sickly. I'm considering re-potting, but am concerned about making drastic changes while the plant is ill. Any advice is much appreciated- this plant has great sentimental value, and I'd very much hate to lose it.
never fertilize when a plant is in distress - that will only aggravate the underlying problem. sounds like it needs repotting - probably into something larger, too. definitely needs, at a minimum, new soil. scale will, if the infestation is bad enough, kill the plant. you really need to get rid of it. is it mealy bugs or hard scale??
you said you already used neem? how did you apply?? coating the outer, protective, covering won't do much of anything to eradicate these bugs...that cover is protective gear and is pretty impervious to most everything! have you tried rubbing alcohol?? use moistened (straight r-a) q-tips and get the undersides of the scale cover to get to the bug itself...or you can do a mix of r-a and water (70/30) and spray it on. might be easier to get the stuff under the outer protective covering that way. if you go with the spraying the rubbing alcohol/water mix, make sure to cover the soil well with plastic - the rubbing alcohol won't hurt the plant (it'll evaporate before it can do any damage), it's just that, if it gets into the soil, it won't evaporate and that would cause damage to the roots, so, cover well to catch drips and then sop up with paper towels (if there's a lot) before removing the plastic. oh, just had a thought. if it's workable, you could tilt the plant over the tub and do the spraying that way...then, any excess will go into the tub rather than traveling down the trunk straight towards the soil... you can also just pry the buggers off - either with tweezers or a dull knife. once you get the adults off, you'll need to treat the whole thing to kill any eggs. the rubbing alcohol would be good for that and it's easy to use the q-tips, or even paper towels, and rub up/down along the branches and get in the crevices where the leaves meet the branches (likely spot for the eggs). you'll need to keep an eye out and treat again in about 10 days or so, too. the eggs are tiny and easy to miss. it's not the best time to repot, season-wise. and, since it's in distress, another reason to hold off repotting. it does sound like it's past due for a larger container though!! yellowing of leaves can indicate that the roots are not taking up enough water and that can happen when the roots are bound up - even with repotting and putting in fresh soil 2 years ago, if you didn't upsize the container, the roots are probably pretty bound up at this point. i'd try to get rid of the bugs for good on this go-round and then give it some time to recuperate a bit from being treated for the infestation and then deal with the repotting issue. in early september (if sure all the bugs are gone), i'd put the plant into a larger container - literally just pull up from old container with no disturbing of the roots or soil and install in new, larger, container and just put additional soil in it to fill in the empty space. that's just a quick fix for the moment since it's wrong time of year to repot and you've got the bug issues going which negates doing a repot now, which would be workable without the bugs. next spring, you can unpot it and properly deal with the bound rootball... and, yes, saving this plant is very, very important!!! such a lovely gift from your grandmother!!
Sounds like shock to me, can you think of any big changes in the plants environment recently? Otherwise I definitely think some new soil and a new pot would do it a lot of good. Joclyn is porbably right about the scale playing a big part....especially if its been a problem for such a long time. Good luck with getting rid of it, I don't envy you!
seconded!!! that IS a major accomplishment; especially considering that you originally received it as an 8-year old!!
Thanks again for the advice and kind words. I've launched an all-out war on the scale (carefully going over each leaf with an alcohol-dipped Q-tip). I also lifted it out of its old pot and placed it in a new, larger pot with minimum disturbance to the root ball. I'll post an update in several months when it becomes clear whether the treatments are working or not.
well, you've always given it the love and care it's needed to live for this long, i'm sure you'll get rid of all the buggers and the ficus will continue to thrive! will be looking forward to your update in a few months!
