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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66208

  • Ed_Inc
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Hello,

I repot my Ficus Retusa on Saturday (20th), going from a pretty decent nursary soil to an Akadama/lava rock mix. Soil choice where I live (Switzerland) is pretty limited, so I went for this house blend from a good shop. I went for the Akadama mix in the end as also an experiment, just to play around with different substrates as I'm still a newbie with bonsai. Roots were poking out the old soil quite a bit and I wanted it to have some room for growth for the next year.

The ficus has been very healthy but I was surprised at how few fine roots there were, mostly just long roots circling the old pot, that ended in feeder roots. Because of that I thought it would be best to leave most of the roots as they were even though they are somewhat circling. I think the open nature of the Akadama will at least help with creating some nice feeder roots, and then next repot I can remove some long roots.

Since repotting however, the tree has consistently been losing leaves, both new and old. Most of them have come off without really yellowing too, however some are starting to yellow now before dropping. I have heard this is common with ficus in response to stress, but I am still nervous! I am trying not to overwater it, I watered thoroughly on Saturday after potting, and again on monday a moderate amount.

The tree position hasn't changed since potting, its in a north east facing window that gets a lot of light but no direct sun. It has been here since December when I moved here and it responded really well, with a surprising amount of growth through the winter.

The tree has also had a mild scale infestation, which I've kept under control with manual removal and a soap/oil spray, but I think they had an impact too.

I've attached some photos of before and after repotting, and how many leaves it has currently dropped, and how the leaves are looking.

Is this normal? What do I need to watch out for? When should I begin to give it some fertiliser? Advice would be greatly appreciated!

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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66211

  • m5eaygeoff
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Does not help having wire on it. Not surprising that it has lost a few leaves.

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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66213

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Does not help having wire on it. Not surprising that it has lost a few leaves.


To be fair I've been wiring it pretty much since I got it last year, and it never seemed to mind.

The attached photo is from April 2020 when I got it! So far I've managed to pull down a whole new lower pad that I'm forming by trying to fuse 2 branches, and it's doing well.

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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66219

  • Albas
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Well, just have in mind that for a Ficus, roots popping up doesn't necessarily mean they're out of room to grow them in the soil, Ficus like to put some roots on the edge as you can see in the nature..., but yes, too much can be a sign...

About loosing leaves, doesn't seem to be a problem, looks like a stress reaction.
Did you prunned or removed the soil from it's root mass? Because then it would be even more expected/normal...
When water supply reduces (doesn't mean you not watering enough, just that the plan is absorbing less) the plant itself drop some leaves (even green ones) not to dehydrate... So as it is showing new ones coming, and it's close to growing season again, shouldn't be any problem...

Don't water it moderately, water it normally, a lot of water when it's slightly dry above...
You can start to fertilize when the tree shows a nice growth so it won't lack nutrients in the process, and when it's ready to take direct sunlight, so it can grow healthly as possible... Just make sure not to do it all at once...

Here's my ficus after a drastic pruneing and after a repot in mid Jan. (early summer for me)...
After a weak or two it started backbudding as you can see in the picture, so I started to fertilize it (with organic! Castor Cake, which is really high on nitrogen and slow releasing fertilizer, I made it myself, I already used NPK too, but I feel more comfortable with organic, and the tree likes it as much)...


And this is almost a month after, I'm not even prunning, just letting it grow wild for now... It takes full sun the whole day after 10 am. on this spot...

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Last edit: Post by Albas. Reason: add more info

Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66220

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Well, just have in mind that for a Ficus, roots popping up doesn't necessarily mean they're out of room to grow them in the soil, Ficus like to put some roots on the edge as you can see in the nature..., but yes, too much can be a sign...

About loosing leaves, doesn't seem to be a problem, looks like a stress reaction.
Did you prunned or removed the soil from it's root mass? Because then it would be even more expected/normal...
When water supply reduces (doesn't mean you not watering enough, just that the plan is absorbing less) the plant itself drop some leaves (even green ones) not to dehydrate... So as it is showing new ones coming, and it's close to growing season again, shouldn't be any problem...


Interesting about the roots showing. I also wanted to upsize the pot because I want this one to get a bit bigger first before I really work on refining it.

Yeah I removed all the old soil (didn't hose off the roots though), carefully teased the old soil off, mainly because I'm going into a completely different substrate, and just wanted to see how it handles it really.

That has put my mind at ease though, thank you!

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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66222

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Yes, Ficus are very tolerant to root work, so rarely it will pass from a few leaves dropping, and they are not very demanding on the soil type, any well aerated soil do fine generally...

I've added some of my experience about fertilizing it after you replied.
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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66223

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Yes, Ficus are very tolerant to root work, so rarely it will pass from a few leaves dropping, and they are not very demanding on the soil type, any well aerated soil do fine generally...

I've added some of my experience about fertilizing it after you replied.


Yours looks great! It seems very counter intuitive to me to repot during the summer, but it's definitely something I'll do now on with Ficus.

In your opinion, should I repot and root prune properly this summer (say in 4 months time ish), or wait until summer the following year?

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Ficus Akadama Repot Leaf Drop 3 years 1 month ago #66225

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Thanks Ed.
Yeah, early summer is a bit late for repotting it, but still ok for a Ficus (at least here), it is when it has it's second boost of growth, the problem with it can be dehydration, for that I think spring would be better, it would have more time to grow before it gets colder, I just couldn't by the time, but where I live summer is really humid reaching almost 80%, with some regular rains, but I let it a few days on the shade just in case, and didn't mess much with the inner root clod...

As you just repoted, I would fertilize and watch it grow during this spring/summer, and wait until next year to repot... I really don't know much about the akadama, but I heard it crumbles with the time, so that's when you should think about repotting it. For that reason many people preffer not to use it, as they want to repot when the plant needs, not when the soil needs.
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Last edit: Post by Albas.
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