MinnMonkey wrote:I did a search of this forum and found a lot of useful information, but still have some questions about my ficus tree.
I purchashed a 4 foot ficus tree a few months back at a local garden store, and it has been doing pretty good. But recently it has been dropping about 10-15 leaves a day. I have been watering it per the instructions (water when soil is dry about 1 inch below the surface, and mist daily), and it doesn't get any direct sunlight, but the room has windows on 2 sides, and is the brightest room in the house. Also, over the past few weeks days have been getting shorter, and we have had several overcast days in a row.
Should I be concerned about the falling leaves, or is this normal this time of year?
I am not sure why this is in the bonsai section...[:razz:

]
But here goes:
I am going to assume this is a Ficus benjamina, That's what most of the type you describe are.
Ficus being tropical trees are
not deciduous. Meaning they
do not drop their foliage and have a dormancy.
Yes, you should be concerned. No, It is not normal for this [or any] time of year. It's no catastrophy but obviously there is at least one problem you need to fix.
Despite it being in the brightest room in the house I feel I should tell you that ANY indoor situation is a relatively dark place as far as most plants are concerned.
Ficus do get a bit grumpy and shed their leaves at times, In the low light levels it lives in now I'd expect the new crop of growth to be fairly leggy w/ large leaves.
They are fairly tough and pretty tolerant of low light conditions though I would suggest getting it far closer to the window as the
intensity of light decreases to the square of the distance.
What this means is that if your plant is 10 feet from the window the available energy in the form of light is 64 times less than if it were 2 feet from the window. { 10-2=8, 8 squared=64}
You haven't mentioned it [But I will]... Are the leaves turning yellow before they fall off? This could be a sign of overwatering.
I am guessing it is in a fairly large pot and it occurs to me that you may want to let it dry out a bit more before watering it. There is after all alot of soil below that top one inch that has not been anything other than wet for a very long time.
Check out how dry they let the ficus get at the place you bought it, You might be surprised.
I think less water and more light will set your ficus right.
Good luck
ynot
