One of many first areas individuals enhance with crops is the lounge. Just a few living room plants can add life and heat to your house, assist purify the air, and naturally offer you one thing engaging and enjoyable to take a look at.
One of the vital fashionable front room crops for many years has been the swish ficus or fig tree, with its shiny leaves and light-weight grey trunk. It is tall for a houseplant, however well-suited to a large pot or container the place it’ll undoubtedly appeal to the attention.
There are greater than 800 species of ficus crops, together with fruiting fig bushes, shrubs, vines, and extra. Just a few are used as houseplants. The most well-liked of those are Ficus benjamina, although Ficus lyrata and Ficus elastica are additionally fairly fashionable.
Although they sometimes develop to at most 10 toes tall indoors, within the wild, sure species can attain heights of fifty toes tall or extra! Typically the trunks of Ficus benjamina bushes are twisted or braided or skilled as a bonsai.
“In case you give [a ficus] what it wants, it’s the closest you come to having a tree indoors,” says Barbara Nice, writer of The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual. “With the appropriate care, a ficus tree can stay for about 20 years.”
Right here’s every little thing you should know to look after a ficus tree, plus every little thing else you should find out about this fashionable (however considerably finicky!) houseplant.
Ficus Tree Plant Highlights
- Botanical Names: Ficus benjamina
- Plant Household: Moraceae
- Frequent Names: Benjamin Fig, Chinese language Banyan, Indian Rubber Plant, Weeping Fig, Fig, Small-leaved Rubber Plant
- Sort of Plant: perennial
- Native Origin: Asia and Australia
- Solar Publicity: full solar to partial shade
- Most popular Soil Sort: well-drained and ethereal
- Fertilizing Interval: April to September
- Maturity Measurement: 40-50 ft tall and 25-30 ft broad outdoor / 2-10 ft tall and three ft broad indoors
- Flower Shade: White and Yellow (out of doors crops bloom in spring/Indoor crops don’t bloom)
- Associated Varieties: Ficus Pumila (Creeping Fig), Ficus Microcarpa (Inexperienced Island Ficus), Ficus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig), Ficus Alii (Banana Leaf Fig), Ficus Elastica (Rubber Tree Plant), Ficus Benghalensis (Ficus Audrey)
- Hardiness Zones: 10-12 (USDA)
- Useful Tidbits: They’re delicate to environmental adjustments associated drafty air circumstances, poor daylight publicity, over or underneath watering. Keep away from shifting the plant when you establish a spot the place it thrives.
How a lot mild does my ficus tree want?
As a tropical plant, a ficus tree, additionally known as “weeping fig,” wants numerous shiny oblique mild. Place it close to your brightest home windows, sometimes south- or west-facing, or give it supplemental mild with a develop mild. (These are our favorite grow lights.) As soon as it’s located, go away it’s. It’s somewhat fussy and doesn’t reply properly to adjustments. Ficus bushes will sulk by dropping leaves anytime mild ranges or temperatures change. It additionally drops leaves seasonally, so be ready with a very good dustpan.
How do I look after a ficus tree?
Usually, a brand new ficus will are available a black plastic pot with drain holes. Merely place it into a fairly, ornamental clay planter. The plant should not want repotting for a number of years.
To water your ficus, merely give it a very good soaking and let it dry out earlier than watering once more. In case you overwater, the leaves will flip yellow and drop. In case you underwater, the inexperienced leaves will start to drop. A method to decide whether or not it’s time to water is to tip the pot and really feel its weight; if it’s actually mild, it’s in all probability time to provide it a drink, says Nice. You’ll get the hold of it after a number of weeks. After watering, at all times dump out any water that gathers within the tray beneath the pot; no plant likes soggy toes.
To feed your ficus tree give it a liquid all-purpose fertilizer throughout its rising season from April to September. (Here’s what the three main numbers on fertilizer mean.)
In accordance with the ASCPA the sticky sap may irritate tummies, so preserve this plant away from curious pets who wish to nibble on houseplants. Often, mud or spray its leaves with a moist material or a mild spray from the bathe head.
Can I take my ficus plant outdoor in summer season?
You’ll be able to, however it’s not the most effective concept, says Nice. For starters, it’ll seemingly drop leaves, being the diva that it’s! It can also prepare dinner in scorching solar, so that you would want to discover a shady spot.
Lastly, you’ll should deliver it indoors earlier than the evening temperatures drop into the 50s within the fall. Take it apart, and spray it with neem oil a few week earlier than you deliver it in to kill any hitchhikers equivalent to aphids, scale, mealy bugs, or spider mites, that probably might infest your different indoor crops.
Additionally, count on it to drop leaves once more when it comes inside till it readjusts to the sunshine ranges indoors.
Does the ficus tree have any explicit issues?
Maintain a watch out for an infestation of scale insects. These bugs have a waxy exterior look, and also you may see them connected to leaf surfaces.
Learn extra: How to Get Rid of Indoor Houseplant Bugs
There’s additionally a sticky substance known as honeydew, which you’ll discover in your desk or ground, that’s excreted by the dimensions when feeding. Attempt controlling a minor infestation by utilizing a smooth material dipped in heat, soapy water to wipe these bugs away, says Nice. If that’s an excessive amount of work, deal with it with an insecticidal cleaning soap or neem oil. Retreat in 10 days.
Ficus Timber for Your House
Mini Fiddle Leaf Ficus
Fiddle Leaf Fig Home Plant in 10-in Pot
California Tropicals Ficus Benjamina Variegated – 6″
Costa Farms Costa Farms Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree
Chris is the Senior Meals & Backyard Editor at Nation Dwelling, the place he covers all issues edible or growable. He has two youngsters and lives in Birmingham, AL.
Arricca Elin SanSone has written about well being and life-style subjects for Prevention, Nation Dwelling, Lady’s Day, and extra. She’s keen about gardening, baking, studying, and spending time with the individuals and canines she loves.
