Hi my name is Keith Salmeri i recently bought a tree for my dorm and i was wondering if someone could help me figure out why the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. I am not sure what species it is so i included a picture of it. Also, the woman i bought it from advised me to submerge it once every 3 months and just spray the leaves with water in the interim but that doesnt seem right to me. Any help would be appreciated thanks!!

Hi Keith, welcome to the forums. Your tree is a Ficus Retusa, it can also be found by the name Ficus Microcarpa, it is commonly called Tigerbark Ficus...if you look at the trunk I'm sure you can see why. Ficus make great indoor trees, I have two of this particular species myself. Ficus can get fussy when moved around and that could be causing the leaf drop if you recently got this. Unless you are unable to water this much, I would remove most if not all of that moss. The moss will lock moisture into the pot causing it to be overwatered, a sign of overwatering is yellow leaves, but what she reccomended doesn't sound like enough water. If you don't have a chopstick or toothpick, try to pick one up next time you eat out. Take the chopstick or toothpick and stick it into the soil for 3mins, pull it out and if it is damp don't water it, when it's dry, water it.

Ficus make great indoor bonsai because they can tolerate low light levels and low humidity levels. The more light and humidity you can provide it the healthier it will be. Light is the most important, you could probably get away with keeping it in a south or west facing window if you have one. Or get a desk top lamp and put a compact florescent light in it, go for the 60W equivilent at least. Keep the light between 2 and 6 inches from the top of the tree, too close and it will burn the leaves, too far and you lose light intensity.

Don't submerge it in water every time you water, use a watering can most of the time. A good dunking every now and then is good, but all the time is bad. She probably just forgot to mention to water it normally between the 3 month dunkings.

I hope this has been of some help to you, you can check out this site: www.bonsaihunk.us this has lots of great ficus information on it. If you are serious about bonsai, and ficus, the book he sells is great (ficus: the exotic bonsai), I have it and reccomend it if you are serious about ficus bonsai.

Hi Keith, welcome to the forums. Your tree is a Ficus Retusa, it can also be found by the name Ficus Microcarpa, it is commonly called Tigerbark Ficus...if you look at the trunk I'm sure you can see why. Ficus make great indoor trees, I have two of this particular species myself. Ficus can get fussy when moved around and that could be causing the leaf drop if you recently got this. Unless you are unable to water this much, I would remove most if not all of that moss. The moss will lock moisture into the pot causing it to be overwatered, a sign of overwatering is yellow leaves, but what she reccomended doesn't sound like enough water. If you don't have a chopstick or toothpick, try to pick one up next time you eat out. Take the chopstick or toothpick and stick it into the soil for 3mins, pull it out and if it is damp don't water it, when it's dry, water it.

Ficus make great indoor bonsai because they can tolerate low light levels and low humidity levels. The more light and humidity you can provide it the healthier it will be. Light is the most important, you could probably get away with keeping it in a south or west facing window if you have one. Or get a desk top lamp and put a compact florescent light in it, go for the 60W equivilent at least. Keep the light between 2 and 6 inches from the top of the tree, too close and it will burn the leaves, too far and you lose light intensity.

Don't submerge it in water every time you water, use a watering can most of the time. A good dunking every now and then is good, but all the time is bad. She probably just forgot to mention to water it normally between the 3 month dunkings.

I hope this has been of some help to you, you can check out this site: this has lots of great ficus information on it. If you are serious about bonsai, and ficus, the book he sells is great (ficus: the exotic bonsai), I have it and reccomend it if you are serious about ficus bonsai.

Hey thanks alot would a dual 20 Watt Florescent overhead work also? because i have one at my house i used for other plants but i don't need it for those plants anymore

Ya that will work, the more light you can provide the better it will grow, but any light is better than no light.

So i have set up the lights about a foot above the tree and now the leaves are starting to roll up and fall off whats wrong now?

This sounds like it has been drying out, make sure to keep it watered. I told you above how to check to see if it needs watered. Also check to make sure there isn't noticable heat at the trees level, put your hand palm up just above the top of the leaves. If you feel an increase in heat you need to space it a little more, the heat will also cause dried up leaves.

I had a tigar bark ficus and we moved...soon all the leaves dropped off and went into shock and died. I tried to save it. Paying close attention to it's needs but to no avail. They can be fussy as stated in the first post.

Move your lights to just an inch or two above the foliage, a foot is too far away. Lums decrease substantially the further the source is from the plant. I use florescent lighting on my tropical in the winter months and the lights are never more than three inches above the foliage. I have never had a problem with heat from florescent lighting.


Will Heath