Ficus Benjamina Problem

by Lue
(Fresno, California)

I have three ficus in indoor atrium, 30
years old. One looked bad so sprayed
with soapy water twice. No success.
Female cat may have relieved herself in
the container but don't know. All leaves
are dead and remaining on the tree.
Should we remove leaves and
see if it will come back in spring or replace?
The branches are not brittle. The other two
trees are fine.

Lue

Doug says - I don't normally do indoor plants but... spraying a plant without knowing what you're spraying for doesn't seem to help anything. Soap or not. If you weren't trying to kill a pest, then spraying with soap won't do a darn thing.

If it was the cat, and the soil was contaminated, then soaking and running copious amounts of water through the soil would have driven out the excess nitrogen or ?? there. Spraying the top to "solve" a problem with the soil isn't going to do much.

Will it come back? Ficus come back from amazing levels of abuse. If it were mine, I'd cut it some slack and give it a goodly amount of time to return (until the wood starts to obviously die). I'd soak that soil as well.

Replace it? Well, if you want the decorating to be consistent - a dead ficus isn't very scenic. And they're not overly expensive so... :-) You might wind up with 4 or 3 and a dead one.

Then I'd have a stiff drink - hang some tinsel on it and offer up a short prayer to the gardening gods. :-)