My poor braided ficus has suddenly (over the last month) lost all of its leaves, and I'm hoping someone can help me revive it. - I scratched a small spot on the trunk and it appears to be green, so I assume the tree isn't dead - we moved into a new apartment with slightly less light 3 month ago - the tree was repotted after I first noticed the leaves dropping, but lost even more leaves after repotting - the temperature hasn't changed in my new apartment compared to my old It looks more like something out of a Tim Burton film than a lively tree, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.
It was likely the move that did it: the light change would have been enough to cause a defoliation by itself, but if it was cold at all on the day in question (below 60F/16C), that would have made it worse. And then the repotting wouldn't have helped either, unless it was really, really in desperate need of more soil. Do you have any way to supplement the light in the new location? The danger at this point is that the plant may go ahead and resprout, but only do it on the part closest to the light source, which won't look any better than the Tim Burtony thing you've got going now. We're talking cleaning the windows, removing obstructions from outside the window, adding mirrors, adding additional light fixtures on timers near the plant, repainting dark walls near the plant white, etc.
these trees are very sensitive to lack of light, and cold temp's. the best way to supplement the light,is to buy $5.99 grow bulbs from a home hardware type store. the bulbs come in multiple strengths, fit into reg lamps and last for 6 weeks at 18 hrs a day. my bonsai tree collection is much happier and i noticed new growth in 3 days. once new growth is present be sure to feed plant.
Youtoo. You committed the ultimate affront to a Ficus. You moved it! They hate change of any kind and are worse than crabby old people when it happens. Take cagreenes advice and just suffer thru it's sulk. barb
Thanks all. I'll give the lights a go and see how it does. Poor thing just looks like a wilted stick mess.
