I’ve killed three ficus plants.
I just bought a new one this weekend and I don’t want to kill it!
The tag says moderate light, moderate water. What do you Dopers say?
Did you keep all 3 in the same place? Sometimes rooms have “dead spots” that certain plants don’t like.
Other than that I don’t know what to tell you, but I’ll see the Plant Lady (aka Gramma) tomorrow so I’ll ask her.
They don’t like drafts. And they don’t like to be moved.
So, when you finally find a place they like, leave them there.
I buy then all the time for $5 a tree, and then watch them grow! I’m not an expert, but FWIW: they hate to be moved around or bumped into. Mine like a quiet house, and never die no matter how many weeks I forget to water them. They do lose a few leaves in fall, (nothing to worry about) and they hate strong sunlight. I believe they also like to have cramped roots - not too big of a pot.
They need to be trimmed back regularly (at least mine do) and a while back someone here posted that they like egg shells. I haven’t done that but I did give mine some plant food with calcuim, thinking it might help. I didn’t really notice a difference.
I love ficus trees, and have 2 at work and 3 at home. Good luck with yours, I’ll be checking back here for any more tips!
Wow, do I have the same ficus trees as the rest of you?
I couldn’t kill one of mine with napalm. They will kill us before we kill them. Ours are outside, does that make a difference?
I know that lots of developers plant them as landscaping because they grow very fast, but you have to watch out for the roots. They have been known to lift concrete decks and even foundations! So don’t plant too close the house!
My ficus are not picky at all. In SoCal we don’t get much rain, and my watering is erratic at best, and they seem to be doing fine. But they are mature, so maybe that’s it.
Good luck! BTW, are you buying your trees from Home Depot? If you are, then you can take the dead ones back & trade them for a new tree for free!
For more plant information than you’ll know what to do with, check out this site:
Brand new, and the site for plant information on the web.
I’ve got a little ficus. I keep it indoors, near a window with mini-blinds. It gets indirect sun all day, and it’s watered whenever we remember to water. It’s never lost leaves, and I don’t want to prune it yet-- there’s no need at this stage.
Put the ficus somewhere, and watch it for a few days. Move it if it starts to look a little sad, but if it gets perky, leave it.
Talk to it, too… that would make anything feel welcome in a new home… 
I agree with dragonlady. Don’t move your ficus tree once you put it somewhere!
I had problems with ficus trees for awhile. I would buy one and repot it and put it by a window. Then it would start losing leaves so I would move it. It would lose more leaves so I would move it again. And finally I just had a dead stick in the dirt with no leaves at all.
Here is the trick. Ficus trees don’t like to be moved. They will almost always start losing leaves when you move them to a new spot. Find a spot that is indirectly sunny most of the day and away from a door where it will get drafts. Put your tree there and leave it. It will probably lose a few leaves but in a few weeks it will start growing new ones.
Also, don’t forget to give it a little fertilizer when you first move it to it’s new home. Mine are happy with Miracle Grow.
Reading all of this has made me realize that my last one probably died because it was getting too much sun. I have an idea of where I should put this one… up high in our loft. I think it will get some indirect sunlight there but I’ll keep an eye on it.
Thanks y’alluns!
I assume you are asking about a “weeping fig” better known as a ficus, as opposed to a “fiddle leaf fig” which is also a ficus. I haven’t had one in years. Bought one this winter at Lowes for 5.00. Repotted it because the water was draining through at the speed of light. Put it in front of my front window which is covered by a porch and faces North. It lost a few leaves but not very many. Now it’s been on the darkest side of my porch all Summer. Man has it grown! I’ve even trimmed it back a couple of times because I wanted it to look neat and compact. Not so my “parlor palm” that I bought this Winter. That one got a new pot too and was placed next but not directly in my Southern window. I has not done nearly as well on the sunny side of my North facing porch. It dries out way to quickly. They have very large roots systems. I’ve had to trim dead leaves and the dried out tips.
Anyway, I know that when the time comes to bring in my house plants for the Winter that my tree will shed. It’s only natural. They will do that quite often when you bring them home from the store or greenhouse too. It’s shocks them to change the environment, and the one at home is generally not as pleasant for them as where they came from. I’m extremely lucky with plants as a rule. I don’t bother them much. I water about once a week, regardless of the type. That means that my “jades” get watered as often as my “ferns”. I do water my African Violet from the bottom. It keeps the leaves pretty.
Put your tree where it will get light. It doesn’t have to be direct, but it will need light. Then water it once a week. Make sure that it is in a pot with good drainage. Try not to place any plant near a direct source of heat, like a duct.
Needs2know
OMG. I have killed so many ficus trees, I’m pretty sure there’s a “Wanted” poster of me at the local nursery. I have finally given up and resorted to silk. Come to think of it, my silk ficus is looking a little sickly these days. Martha Stewart I am not.
I put my ficus in a plastic pot in indirect sunlight. The plastic pot had holes in the bottom so the water could drain out into a tray or catch basin.
When I watered the plant, I gave it a real good soaking. That is, I watered it until full, waited a half hour while all the water soaked in, and then watered it some more. And I filled up the basin underneath with water too.
Then I didn’t water it again until the dirt was completely dry–two weeks during the humid season, what with the plastic pot. I checked the soil every day or two and waited until the soil on top of the pot became almost bone dry.
If I let it go too long (to the point where the soil had been bone dry for a few days or a week), then the plant started shedding leaves–up to a third or half of its leaves. But once I watered it properly again, the leaves grew right back.
I heard that you shouldn’t move ficuses around the house. I tended to move it about once a season, and it didn’t seem to hurt the tree.
This overall system worked great. That tree lasted ten years. It even worked when I deliberately kept it totally rootbound in a pot for the last five years, trying to restrain its growth. I finally had to chuck it out when it just got too big.
One of my old girlfriends owned a greenhouse. She said that the secret to a green thumb, for just about any potted plant you can imagine (with a very few exceptions), was to soak it thoroughly with water when you watered it, and then let it dry out until the soil is quite dry before watering it again. (Letting it dry thoroughly is your best protection against root diseases.) And add some plant fertilizer from time to time, and give the plant the appropriate lighting (direct sun, indirect sun, or shade).
That system worked great for me. For everything–african violets, creeping vines, potted trees, etc. Everyone always complimented my plants.
Oh yeah. And I kept my ficus on the south side of the house, near the window but off to the side enough that it didn’t get any direct sunlight.