Hello UBC, I live in Krakow and I pulled this plant out of the garbage, pot and all, of my apartment building. What is it? I've been having a hard time identifying it online. I think it's some sort of palm? Photos are rotated to the side... not sure how to fix this. The plant stands about 7ft. tall and the stalk grows more or less straight up. It's got a little support stick, but it doesn't need it. The leaves are damaged -- to me, this looks like frost bite. I want to help this poor guy. Any suggestions on the type of plant and how to help it recover from it's affliction? Thank you! Melinda
The recovery will depend on the degree of injury the plant had suffered before you rescued it. My advice is treat it as you would an injured person. Give it tender care, don't expose it to any kind of extremes. Water it well, but infrequently. Give it some good food, but don't over-fertilize. Keep it in a well aerated room. Don't re-pot it now, it could put additional stress on the plant (do it in a half of a year or so, when re-potting remove and discard the old soil, trim the roots if needed and replace the soil, don't leave any air pockets in-between the roots). You can also do tip-pruning to induce back-budding. And be patient, don't throw out the plant if you will not see quick results, give it at least a month or so to show first signs of recovery. Good luck to you and your patient!
Ease the tree out of the pot, have a look at the root system, and repot if it's root-bound or if the soil is compacted. Provide the environment and care the plant prefers and hope for the best. Here are a couple of documents on this plant: Fiddle Leaf Fig ficus lyrata care (.pdf) Also consider air-layering the plant at some point to reduce the height, with the benefit of getting a new plant in the process.
Thanks everyone! I've got a nice corner for the fig tree now and have watered it once. We've already got 3 new budding leaves. Hurray!
