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| I have this lonely little ficus retusa that was always a "charlie brown christmas tree" as it was kinda ugly, but it had leaves and branches and I thought was rather unique. Over time it's lost a lot of it's leaves, the branches have died, and it keeps getting worse. I water it when the soil is dry and it was getting better for a while, but I didn't do it much good last year when I thought I should repot it into a bigger pot, which caused it to lose a lot of it's roots, because I'm an idiot and broke up the big clump of dirt and roots when I removed it from the original pot and most of the roots broke off. It didn't seem to be getting any better, maybe a little worse in the new pot. So this spring I put it back in it's original pot and mixed potting soil with some bonsai stuff (sorry don't remember the name) which helped keep the soil loose. Unfortunately about a week ago I had a fan in the window it was sitting next to and the fan jumped out of the window and knocked it over, knocking it out of the pot. The tree has little to no roots now, and is probably destine to finally die if I don't do anything about it. It has a grand total of three leaves and about two live branches left.
So I'm wondering if I can take it out of the pot, put it in a clear container with some water and try to root it like any other plant, maybe with a tiny amount of fertilizer? I live in an apartment so I can't put it in a window that gets a lot of sun, but I do have a window that gets a good 4-5 hours of direct sunlight throughout the day. I'd be willing to put up some kind of grow lights to help it a long. Much to my surprise I do have at least two (out of five) Japanese pine trees that have started to sprout in a bigger pot, and I'm thinking of trying to move them to proper starting containers. I should have done that originally when I planted them but to be honest I didn't think they'd sprout. The pot isn't the best environment for them. I didn't fill it up with a lot of soil and when I water them it's splashing around and moving the soil, making craters and burying the little fellas. The others might be sprouting too but they may have been covered up. I'm so new at this it's almost sad, so excuse my newbieness! But I do have a small lucky bamboo display on my desk at work and that thing is doing great! At least there's something I haven't killed yet. :) I'll post some pictures later of my sad little tree later. Any help would be appreciated! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by tropicofcancer 6b (My Page) on Fri, May 25, 12 at 7:48
| A picture would help. Instead of potting mix a gritty mix will be helpful for it to root again. Ficus root easily. I would first wash of the soil from whatever roots it has and see if there is any rotting roots. If so, just cut of the roots that are rotting. Put it in a clean moist soil mix. If you do not have any access to gritty/bonsai mix, half peat and half perlite will be OK. If the plant is small enough make a humidity dome with a big plastic coke bottle. Cut the bottom off the bottle and place on the pot without the cap. Place it out of direct sunlight and let it root. Keep it humid but not soggy. If there are no roots now it would not watering for quite a while. I am sure others will pipe in with more ideas. Keep your hopes up. Ficus are generally very easy plants. |
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| If you're serious about wanting to save the plant: I think your best bet is to get the plant into a highly aerated soil and hope it recovers. Cuttings from a plant that is circling the drain have little chance of striking because they are almost certainly lacking in any energy reserves, probably the most significant factor in determining the likelihood that a cutting will strike. I would carefully bare root the plant, making sure the roots stay moist while you're working on them. Then, pot the tree in a 50/50 mix of perlite and chopped sphagnum moss (not peat moss) While waiting for the verdict, you can get over one of the major hurdles faced by those of us with an affinity for growing trees in small containers. Understanding the importance of getting your soil to work FOR, instead of against you, is a requirement if you're to be successful. See below for more. Al |
Here is a link that might be useful: Help with understanding soils here.
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