I have my fig trees on my balcony that are getting blasted with sun. I water them well before work but when I get back they are wilted. I didn't want to over water so I moved them in the storage closet with the door so some sun still reach them. They perk back up later in the day after the heat cools, but the leaves fall off at the slightest touch. Is there anyway to keep the leave feom falling off? A bug touch the leaf and boom its gone. I figure that this is some form of stress from the leaves wilting and perking back everyday.

Also why is it only my older trees and that this is happening to? My younger cuttings outside have smaller thinner leaves and they never show signs of heat stress. I figured that my negronne trees have biggwr leaves so they are losing more water, however the leaves are thicker so they should resist heat more. Also they have a bigger root system to counter balance the bigger leaves.


Unless there is some nutrient that give the leaves the ability to hold on to the stem more. Im using worming casting tea, bone and blood meal as fertilizers. Iron maybe?

I think your soil is too fast draining so in heat the plant doesnt have enough water.
regarding heat stress watch this picture-the fig pot is reaching 110 farenieht (43 celsius ) and the plant is alive and kicking.
these figs can live on a lava mountain

btw u can try to get a shade clot and either shade the pot like some members or shade the whole place were your plants grow..
me i am waiting till the plants grow and shade themself and the soil beneath them (especially if i crowd few pots together).

I'm at work so if there are photos I can't see them.  knowing pot and plant size will help.  Is the soil dry when you come home?  What soil mix are you using?  Shade cloth will help, bigger pots with a more water retentive mix will help if the soil is drying out.  If the soil is drying out adding vermiculite to the mix when you pot up will also help.

First of all, once the leaves are yellow and fall off easily, it doesn't matter whether you brush them off or not.  The damage is done, and the leaf is a goner already.  You need to address the issue first.  I'm not sure how big your pots are, but I'd suggest up-potting.  I had a number of plants showing the same symptoms as you describe, and I was watering them quite a bit.  Seemed like it was hard to keep up with water loss due to evaporation and transpiration.  I put them in bigger pots, still with well draining soil, and it seemed to correct the issue. 

I have this theory that if you have roots circling the pot, even if the pot is huge, a large proportion of the root mass can be in the outer inch or two of the pot.  This part heats up and dries out quickly, so even in a very large pot you can have issues with not enough water if it's a hot day, particularly in a black pot. 

Sounds like not enough water. Perhaps the soil drains too much and doesn't hold enough water. Perhaps the soil never really gets thoroughly wet. You might need to soak them in a large bucket to get the soil ball thoroughly wet.

older trees... how long have they been in the pot? basically what everyone said. too much root, not enough soil, or soil mix draining too fast without retaining water. up pot to larger pot for now. root work in winter.

Tree root feeder can save it for the season if indeed it needs rootwork come winter as its rod can be messaged slowly into heart of rootball with water already on.
Has 4 holes on the end .

The leaves aren't yellow and the soil is still wet when I get home. The older trees are about 3-4 feet tall. the soil mixture is miracle grow organic potting mix. I will go home and check the roots. I just pitted them into their current pots two months ago.

S9 once the leaves have been streesed from the heatnthey will just fall off with being able to reverse the process.

hmm.. that sounds strange.. maybe your tree hasn't been hardened enough.. or they are not handling the heat too well. my RdB that's been moved into 3 gal in march tend to droop by the time i get back from work. i water it right after i get home and by next day, it will droop again. but the pot is heavy and wet. i don't water too much. just enough to cool it down. but the soil mix drains very well. Col de Dame Noir does the same thing. but Col de Dame Blanche, Black Madeira and Figo Preto has no problem. 

also.. there used to be lot of talk about MG soils. they then to hold lot of water and that can cause root issue. and if you water them everyday.. that might be too much water. yeah.. check the root.

edit: better yet, keep them in the shade and don't water for awhile until the soil is dried out. 

Here is a current ongoing discussion that is appropriate to your question regarding heat stress.

I noticed that you are mixing your own fertilizer, here is a simple tutorial on required plant nutrients and their interactions.  nutrientdeficiency.pdf
A balanced fertilizer which includes macro and micro nutrients, and a regular feeding schedule is required for maintaining healthy plants.

 
I have several cultivars that wilt or fold their leaves in the heat of the sun and bounce right back as soon as the sun is below the horizon, but I have not had any plants drop their leaves. IMO The trees in question may have issues with their roots (or potting mix) and or nutrient deficiencies.

Good Luck.

Jarrett,

I have two Lattarulas in 3 gallon nursery pots and are close to 3 feet tall.  The cuttings were started exactly the same way this winter and up potted using the same potting mix.  One constantly shows heat stress when I get home from work, the other couldn't care less.  The only difference is one was a terminal cutting the other a mid section cutting.  The tree from the terminal cutting never shows heat stress, go figure.

Well I figured it out. The heat combined with the watering and slow drainage of the miracle grow soil started to kill the roots. The explained why the leaves started to droop out of nowhere. Then lead me to think they needed more water only adding to the problem. When I checked I noticed that all the nice white roots I saw the week before were all but dead. There was still a bunch alive so I will change the soil today to promix hp if I can find it.


Thank for all the help.