Spraying of leaves

[chrisdan]

I recently bought a ficus which I keep in my living room. Initially it seemed to be struggling and several leaves turned yellow and dropped off. When I started to spray it with tapwater 2 or 3 times a day it started to look much more healthy and to sprout new leaves. After about a month the leaves now seem to be coated with a layer of chalk from the water and it has stopped growing again and is showing signs of yellowing. How can I get the chalk of the leaves and should I use distilled (or boiled) water.

[morg_monster]

You could use boiled water to spray, it won't make a difference to the plant I wouldn't think but would avoid the white marks. To get the chalk off. Well it depends on the species. If it is a Ficus elastica (rubber tree plant) then you can buy 'leaf wipes' from homebase or a garden centre, they will clean the leaves and leave them looking lovely and shiny. If it is a small leafed species, then I'm not reallly sure what you could do. I guess you could wipe all the leaves with a tissue and some boiled or distilled water.

Ficus don't like overwatering, especially in winter (although spraying the leaves a couple of times a day is fine). You should only water it when the soil is dry. One way to make sure overwatering isn't a problem is to get a plant pot tray and put some gravel in it, and sit the pot on top. Then when you water, any excess goes into the gravel, and then evaporates up through the plant, humidifying it.

Make sure the plant gets bright light, but not all day or the leaves might scorch.

Finally, don't give up on it if leaves fall off, they'll probably grow again in spring. Remember it isn't really growing season yet. (when it is, give it some houseplant fertiliser like baby bio once a week).

[andyjevs]

I have a large, 8' tall weeping fig in the conservatory and it's constantly getting dusty.
So, on a sunday morning when i have nothing to do, i get a bowl of water with a squirt of fairy liquid in and a small piece of sponge and, with a nice relaxing classical CD playing, i spend about 4 hours cleaning every leaf by hand......very theraputic.

Distilled water is fine for spraying as mentioned or you could collect rain water and use that.

[sense4all]

Rubbing the leaves with an opened banana skin nourishes the leaves and leaves (no pun intended) a lovely glossy finish to the plant.

[lady_p_gold]

I am hopeless with plants but my Ficus is fine, I just totally ignore it and I find if it is ever moved it goes all yellow and weird and the leaves drop off but then it recovers. I hardly ever water it and if I do it is only when I remember and then I just give it not much.