Hello,

I'm hoping to get some help with this LMF I got on July 3 from a local nursery. I noticed the leaves seemed thick and sort of hard and dry when I bought the tree, but they were nice and dark green, so I assumed it was healthy. It also had about 6 dime-sized fruit that I promptly put baggies on. Most of my fig trees are in fabric grow bags and after a week, I transplanted the LMF from its 3-gallon nursery pot to a 5-gallon bag as well. I did the same exact thing with a 3-gallon air-layered green ischia that I got off Craigslist just one day later.

The LMF had just a couple of thick roots starting to circle, but otherwise did not seem root-bound. I was able to pull it out with everything intact and put it in the fabric pot and added fresh potting mix (Ecoscraps) The green ischia actually had much more root damage from transplant but is doing great now. Because the LMF seemed to be doing fine, I pretty much left it in almost full sun the very next day and it seemed fine for several days.

However, I noticed a couple of leaves get brown edges and start to curl soon after, then some black spots. Leaves started to turn yellow and fall off. I was hoping it was just delayed transplant shock and would bounce back, but it's gotten successively worse with more dying, yellow, black-spotted leaves than green. I have rust on another tree, but these black spots seem different.

Any ideas?

About me: I'm in Central Texas and became infected with the fig bug earlier this year and now have 10 different varieties from different sources. I also successfully rooted a few cuttings, so overall, seem to have decent success and would hate for this LMF to be my first loss. (I did just take a cutting from it that I hope to root!)

It's 90s to 100s degrees every day here so I water daily unless it's rained (which has only happened in the past couple of days). I water at the base and not all over the leaves. Some of my fabric pots are in plastic planters on top of bricks to elevate them from about a couple inches of water and I use a sponge for wicking up to the fabric. I do this with the LMF and the soil seems moist but not wet. I overpot to account for the extra drying factor from using fabric pots in the heat.

Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to make sure I got the details that most everyone seems to ask for once a question is asked.

Attached are pictures from when I first got the plant and today with one close-up of the leaves :(

My two cents is that it's a combination of transplant shock and the central Texas heat.  

The leaves will fall off but come back when it's a bit cooler.  

Get it into a bigger ceramic (not plastic pot) and out of the direct sunlight.  

You could also just throw an old piece of window screen over it, see if the part-shade helps it adjust to full sun.

Thanks Lewi and sobelri!  I appreciate your suggestions.

sobelri: Can you define "bigger" in terms of gallons or pot dimensions?  Also, can you explain why ceramic would perform better than the fabric it's in?

In retrospect, it does seem I should have pampered it a bit more post-transplant :(

http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/2002/typeofpots.shtml

Clay vs. Plastic :)

Mine are doing the same, and when all the leaves fall off, new ones come up.  I think it's a combination of the fact that it's been hot here so far this summer, and my trees are in black plastic 5-gallon pots.  I potted up in late spring, and they seemed to take the transplanting fine.  A few 100 degree days in a row in June, and they started to get the curled, yellow leaves.  My Peter's Honey is in a wine barrel half, and it was the first to lose leaves.  Leaves are coming back.

sobelri: Can you define "bigger" in terms of gallons or pot dimensions?  Also, can you explain why ceramic would perform better than the fabric it's in?

In the second picture, it appears that you have the fabric bag inside a plastic pot.  I would suggest replacing the plastic pot w/ a larger ceramic pot. Right now, it looks like there isn’t much space between the exterior of the fabric bag and the interior of the plastic pot.  If that’s the case, the heat retained from the plastic pot could still be transferred to the fabric bag. I would go for a larger pot that provides at least three or four inches between the bag and the pot for more air circulation.  I prefer ceramic because plastic heats up quickly and doesn’t breathe like ceramic. 

Hope that makes sense and welcome to the forum.  

Ah, I was starting to wonder if my description made it sound like I was essentially planting directly into plastic.  To (hopefully) be more clear, here is what it looks like at the bottom of the pot with the water, bricks for elevation, and sponge wick.   My much happier LSU Purple is modeling the gap of at least one inch all the way around.  There's good airflow and the temperature does not seem elevated using the plastic.  I really think of it more as a self-watering reservoir and I was actually hoping the white would help reflect some of the heat.

All that being said, I realized my sponge wicks are not up to snuff as I was taking these pictures!  So, I will be abandoning this specific system for now until I find a better wicking method, though I'm not sure I really need it.  I don't have enough plastic pots for all the figs anyway and the ones sitting out have been fine.

Last picture is of a few of them sitting out.  In case anyone is wondering, the little guy up front is a cutting I rooted last month and is in a one-gallon fabric pot.  Second from the left in the back is a Panache from Hirt's I got June 15 (5 weeks ago) and the rest are all tissue culture from Wellspring Gardens that I got June 2 (7 weeks ago).  It's hard to compare a TC with rooted cuttings, but they were more or less comparable in size.  The TC now appear 4-5 times bigger than when they started whereas the cutting from Hirt's has grown just a few leaves, maybe doubling in size at most.  I know I was wondering how the TC would do before I got them, so just sharing my experience with them.  Oh, also, they are all in 5-gallon pots that I didn't fill up all the way thinking it would be plenty of room for growth, but now I wish I'd filled them up. 

joann1536: thanks for the reassurance!  Glad yours are showing new growth.  My LMF is now hiding away close by the house until it hopefully recovers. 

Thanks for the welcome sobelri :)