Hi, I've inherited some plants from the previous tenants and some started to look really bad already. I'm not sure what happened to them before I moved here (about 1,5 month ago) but I write down everything I know about them: Ficus benjamina: All of the leaves became wavy, curled, lot of leaves are yellow and falling down. I water it thoroughly once a week and use fluid fertilizer every fortnight or even less frequently. It stands close to a South-East window, some direct sunlight in the morning and good light over the day. I think something has attacked it, as the pictures show, some leaves have brownish spots with orange, round, spots next to them - with a hard back if it is a pest. Almost all of the leaves have a wax-like spot on the reverse where the veins meet the petiole - but this seem to be the deposit of the plant - as I've just read it appears on healthy plants as well. I have another ficus with variegated leaves (in a separate room) and it also has these waxy spots. To be on the safe side I wiped the leaves carefully but the white spots appeared again very quickly, so I think it is not a pest. Ficus elastica-decora: Shading yellow leaves and some more colourful, the leaves fade into red and brown. I also water it once a week. Please help with these problems, I don't even know if it's the result of the new treatment or if it is a pest. Many thanks, Maria
Re: Ficus Benjamin losing leaves It looks like the ficus has a bad case of Scale by what looks like hard shells on the leaves. You can try something neem oil to get rid of it (covering every surface of the leaves including the backs) every week. But just so you know, scale can be really hard to get rid of, some people will try and fight it for years! Plus, scale can infest other healthy plants nearby. Can't really help on the ficus elastica. I had one years ago for about oh, 6 months and then gave it away (variegated) It was given good indirect light and only watered when the soil was pretty close to dry. You might want to ck for pest, especally scale if the two ficus trees are near one another. The little waxy glob between the stem and leaves is perfectly normal, could be were a certain kind of wasp pollenates the trees.
