Hello everybody.
One of my fig cuttings is losing leaves. It was rooted 5 weeks ago, and I thought everything was OK. Any ideas? Thank you.
1 Like
It looks ok to me, it this container free draining? You could try removing this bottom stems and repotting deeper soil up to the top growth to increase your root to leaf ratio
Dennis
Kent wa
1 Like
Maybe too wet?
2 Likes
I have this happen occasionally, particularly when there are several growth points going at once. While it can mean something bad is happening, mine usually recover and do fine, so I chalk it up to the shoots getting ahead of what the new roots can provide, plus possibly warmer/drier air taking more moisture from the new growth.
If it is something I’m particularly worried about keeping and only have one cutting, I sometimes put a bag loosely over the top (sometimes cutting the top corners off to let it vent a bit), to increase the humidity around it for a while.
Sometimes a cutting will leaf out early with no roots and may not make it if it doesn’t root in time, But it seems unlikely that it would be in leaf at 5 weeks old, but have no roots. So I think it may bounce back for you after taking a “breather”, unless you have been keeping it too wet, letting it dry out completely or some other thing that may have damaged the delicate early roots.
3 Likes
Thank you DennisD.
1 Like
Do you have a good set of roots? Cuttings are still vulnerable to too much water at this stage and dropping leaves can be a sign of root rot.
A lot of cuttings will push leaves before they have any roots. In my experience, small leaves are a sign of the plant producing leaves from stored internal energy.
1 Like
Not my experience, you need to see if the whole cutting is thriving or not. People who root fig cuttings inside with heat mat will have bigger roots, for people who don’t have heat meat, the cuttings are going to grow slowly. This is why I don’t check my cuttings frequently for root growth, I just leave them alone.
But one of the benefits of rooting them outside is that they don’t get temperature shock, they might grow slowly, but they are growing is the key sign.
1 Like
Speaking of shock, I guess I got a little overzealous and didn’t acclimate my figs long enough to the sun. I left them out several days here and there for a couple hours each. I thought it might be time to leave them for a full day but I was wrong. They leaves are turning sort of whiteish. Not sure if theyll recover but I guess I’ll find out.
1 Like