"Sad ficus"
Hi
Since a few days ago (a week or a bit more), my ficus is starting to look "sad". The leaves were all green, thick and looking up. Now they are still green, but I feel them thinner and looking down. Not sure what's happening 🙁
The roots seem a bit dry and they are outside the soil...
Any suggestions, please?
Thanks!
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Thank you for contacting us! The Autograph plant ('Clusia rosea') is a very hardy plant that thrives in bright conditions with lots of indirect light.
What I think has happened here is that your plant might have been just a tad overwatered. Now during the cold winter months, there's a lot less natural light - this leads to our indoor plants taking up a lot less water. This means that overwatering becomes a bigger risk if its then watered "as usual" as in the summer.
I'd also suggest repotting your plant in spring - it looks like there might not be much soil left! Your plant will be very thankful, I'm sure :-)
But the last time I watered it was more than 1 month ago... How can it be over watered 😩? Can it be that I watered it "a lot" and it is now suffering? Before I had an answer from you, I put the moisture meter and it said it was dry, so I watered it again...😶
Aso, I have a growing lamp that I turn on every 2-3 days and the ficus receives direct light there, can this be affecting as well?
Do you think it will last until summer? What should I do to help her survive?
Thanks!
Then it could be a case of "uneven watering" - which just means that it goes from one extreme to the other. If a period of intense drought is replaced with an overcompensation of water to "make up" for the drought, it could damage the plant as well.
A moisture meter is great to have, but remember to check the soil once in a while either by poking a finger a bit into the soil or by checking the weight of it. In a while, you may even learn just what weight the plant needs to be when it should be watered!
Make sure to water your autograph plant only so that the soil gets moist, never wet. If you check in on your plant a minute or so after watering, there should be no water left in the bottom of the pot.
Regarding the grow light - any light is better than no light, but best would be to leave the light on every day between 14-16 hours a day if given no natural light. Grow light is not the same as "direct natural light" either, so it will be just fine.
Lastly, it's difficult to be completely sure how your plant will handle whatever have caused the leaves to droop. I'd suggest just keeping an eye on the watering as well as keeping it away from any draughty doorways.
Hope it gets better until summer, and that it enjoys some new soil then! ☀