Hello, and welcome to the Forum!

Thanks for taking the time to read up, and especially for composing such a helpful Thread to present your questions. You've provided very useful information.

First thing: drainage. Yes, drill a hole (half inch) in the bottom of the container. I consider this to be essential to the future vitality of your plant.

Second thing: flush the current mix with water. All that 'watering in sips' in order to avoid root-rot has probably led to the accumulation of salts in the mix. This *could be* the cause (or part of the cause) of some of the affected leaves. Others can probably give you more detailed advice on the leaf issues....but I say consider those leaves lost and move ahead to get this tree nice and healthy for the re-pot.

Flushing the mix might be difficult at first, as it sounds as though the mix is hydrophobic. There could be 'dry pockets' in the mix....which could also mean that roots have died in the areas that are dry (which could be another aspect of the leaf damage).

And, of course, get this tree as much light as possible. I would also rotate it periodically to keep the foliage balanced.

Josh

Thank you so much for your response, Josh!

I will wait till the next time the plant is due for water, drill a hole, and give is a good flush. I would like to do this with filtered water, but I might only be able to manage water that has set out for 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate. Then I will try to let as much of the water as I can drain out by tilting the pot and/or employing a wick.

I've just purchased an arduino kit to create an automatic watering system. It's got a pump so it doesn't just drain water into the soil continuously like an Oasis system does. Hopefully I can rig up something that will make the plants happy while I'm away this year. I won't try it on the fig until I've tested it thoroughly on the other plants.

I think I will hold off on fertilizing until I get it in better soil.

I'm hoping I can flush some of the salt from the soil, and get this plant enough light to make it reasonably happy until I get it in better soil. I'll also try to rotate it to get the foliage balanced out (It was definitely growing towards the skylight in the previous owners home).

Would it be helpful to supplement with artificial light during the winter months, especially when it's very cloudy outside? Even though my window is huge, if it's cloudy outside there isn't as much light as I think the fig would like (it was overcast the day I took the pictures above, that's why it's not casting a shadow on the wall).

Thanks again for your help!

I bought a Hydrofarm FLCDG125D Fluorowing Compact Fluorescent System to supplement the light. I will go reading on the artificial light board, but if anyone has any advice for position and duration of using the light while the plant is in a slow growing period would be very much appreciated. I don't necessarily want to disrupt the plants yearly cycle or fool it into thinking this is spring or summer. I just want to make sure it can make plenty of food for itself.

I've got all the ingredients for gritty mix on the way. I'm not re-potting the fig yet as I said, but I desperately need to re-pot the yucca and two snake plants so they will be my first gritty mix experiments. I love feeling like a mad scientist.

I've got Zoo Med Reptile Bark Fir Bedding coming for the pine fines, will get a bag of napa floor-dry tomorrow, and have some #2 cherry stone coming in the mail. (Is this OK?) I read Al Tapla recommend either grani-grit or #2 cherrystone as 1 part of the gritty mix and I hope I ordered something that works.

I've also got some dyna-gro foliage pro on the way. Not going to fertilize the fig until I know that I can properly drain the soil, but will start using it on the plants that I re-pot this week.

The one very badly shriveled and browned leaf on the fig (the one with the burned looking edge pictured above) dropped today. It was much smaller than the rest of the leaves, a little yellow, and near the interior of the plant. I guess I won't be concerned unless the plant starts dropping more healthy looking leaves.

I turned it a full 90 degrees a few days ago. The foliage is very unbalanced. Looks like the previous owner never rotated it so the leaves on one side are noticeably smaller and paler than the other side. I think I will leave it like that for a couple of weeks and then start doing 1/4 turns every week or two. Should I be concerned about more leaf drop from turning it like this? I'm worried that the side that's used to getting more light will protest.

When I flush the soil, should I stuff a wick very deeply into the soil from the new drainage hole, or does it just need to be in contact with the soil at the bottom?

Thank you so much for your time if you've read this far!

You don't mention what zone you are in. I wouldn't do anything until Spring except to cut a few holes in the plastic pot.

Wait until spring unless you are in a warm zone!

Jane

@jane_ny -- I thought my zone was posted on each post next to my name. Sorry if I should have put that in the body of the post as well. I'm in zone 7. Does it matter what zone I'm in if this is an indoor plant? I don't plan on re-poting until spring as I've said before and I won't fertilize until the plant is draining better which may mean when it's in better soil. Do you think I shouldn't flush it?

Thought I should add that my large south/eastern facing window is about 9 feet tall and 10 or 12 feet across. The bottom of the window starts about 3 feet up from the floor, making the top of the window about 12 feet high. In other words, it's much bigger than a standard house window. Does that mean that the plant can get more light for more of the day through it?

It's a gray and dreary day here. It's raining which is good for the humidity levels in my apartment, but bad for light. I've put 4 daylight 100W (1600 lumen each) CFL bulbs in a 4 socket adapter (Like This) which is mounted on a light stand with a white photo umbrella behind it to "catch" any light leaking behind the bulbs and bounce it back toward the plant. For those familiar with photo lighting equipment, I do have the black fabric on the umbrella to make it bounce instead of shoot-through. I've positioned the lights about 2 feet from the plant so that the light washes over more of the leaves.

Sorry, didn't notice your zone. It does matter what zone or Country/State you live as the light and temps differ. Light/temps in Canada is quite different from Florida/Calif.

Your plant looks healthy and the leaves are light green and good size. I would guess it got good light from the previous owner.

If it were my plant, I'd probably move it gradually closer to the window. Lights are always a good idea and help. I wouldn't repot now but wait for spring.

Jane