Floriculture is one of the most common hobbies in our country. People want to feel closer to nature by creating a small corner in the apartment. Live greenery allows you to escape from everyday problems and worries, relax and rest.
Of course, like in any hobby, there are subtleties here. For example, even many hardy plants suffer without timely nutrition. Oddly enough, but troubles happen even with ficuses. It is generally accepted that they generally do not need any special care, doing only occasional watering.
Alas, this is not so. In particular, many novice plant growers often have a question about why leaves fall on ficus. Let's try to analyze all possible causes in more detail within the framework of this article.
Physiological reasons
If several leaves suddenly fell off in your ficus in the autumn or winter, you should not panic: most likely, this is a completely physiological phenomenon that poses no danger to the plant's health. This is especially true when the ficus is corny lacking lighting, which can happen very easily in the northern regions.
But if such leaf fall occurs more than once a year, then this is a serious cause for concern.
When to worry
When wondering why ficus leaves fall, one should not lose sight of the main symptoms that clearly indicate the poor physiological state of the long-suffering plant. Everything is simple here: if you didn’t count about 20-25 leaves on an average-sized flower, then this indicates some serious problems.
Reasons for leaf fall
We are used to believing that plants are a kind of housing decor that can be changed and rearranged from place to place as you wish. Alas, this is not so. The concept of "stress" is characteristic not only for people or animals, but also for plants.
If you have recently moved to new housing, especially if it is located in a completely different region, then fall foliage should not be surprised. So the plant manifests stress. This phenomenon is not fatal, but for the period of acclimatization of the ficus, it is desirable to provide top dressing and normal illumination.
In addition, do not forget about drafts and the general temperature of the housing. When the leaves turn yellow at the ficus and fall, forming bizarre heaps on the floor, check the temperature regime: if the plant is in the corner blown by all the winds, then this phenomenon is quite expected.
In the case when all this is combined with poor watering and insufficient lighting, falling leaves can take on a disastrous scale.
Prevention
The best treatment is known to be prevention. This statement is quite true also for this case.
First things first, pay attention to the watering mode. Ficuses love moisture, but this does not mean at all that they can be poured from a water hose. In general, experts advise moistening the soil in the pot only when it is completely dry. Please note: if water accumulated in the pan the day after watering, reduce the amount of one-time watering liquid used.
Fertilizers
If the leaves of the ficus turn yellow and fall, even under the condition of a normal humidity regime, feeding is probably to blame. More precisely, its complete absence. It is often necessary to see how these plants grow in huge trees in humans, while being in the same pot in which the earth never changes.
From this it seemed that the ficus is incredibly hardy and does not need any care. Believe me, this is not at all true. If for a couple of years you did not bother to feed the plant with special mineral fertilizers, then over time the leaves will begin to fall from it, and this process may very well begin suddenly.
Temperature mode
In the case when everything is in order with top dressing, you should pay attention to the temperature regime. The fact is that the ficus to it is generally not too demanding, it can grow perfectly at a temperature of even 20-22 degrees Celsius.
But it absolutely does not tolerate sharp temperature jumps and drafts (as we mentioned above). Ficus ginseng is especially capricious in this regard. Leaves fall often and for much less serious reasons.
If it grows in a pot, which stands on a rotten and leaky window sill, from which the wind blows in all directions, then the falling of all leaves will not take long. In the case when you simply do not have another option, at least lay a felt or other heat-insulating material on the windowsill.
And further. Banal pests not so rarely affect flowers. Ficus (leaves fall off him, in this case) suffer as a result of the activity of aphids, spider mites and other “evil spirits”. Pests enter houses on fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural products. More often, they “come” on flowers bought in questionable stores that do not monitor their product quality too closely.
What to do?
First off, hurry up. If you start the process, then the plant will not be able to recover. In the case when it comes to commonplace pests, it is worth immediately treating the leaves with special compounds, which are sold in many ordinary garden shops. By the way, spider mites often infect Benjamin's ficus. Why do the leaves fall? Yes, simply because the parasites simply suck out all the juices from the leaf.
But after that it will be necessary to deal with the restoration of the crown. In order to grow new leaves faster, it can be treated with the wonderful Epin preparation. It is specifically designed for the "resuscitation" of indoor flowers.
Used as an aerosol. Before spraying, the composition is prepared: a couple of drops of the substance in a glass of water. You can spray from an ordinary home spray gun, which probably is in every apartment. At first, processing should be carried out once a week.
If this does not help?
And why do ficus leaves fall if all of the above problems have already been eliminated? Well, it happens, but you should not despair. In this case, you should try to completely replace the earth. Often in the old soil a whole colony of nematodes is started. In addition, if you took the soil in your garden, a harmful earthworm can safely live there .
All these "guests" are engaged in eating the root system with appetite. Of course, asking about why the ficus leaves fall is stupid in this case. Thoroughly clean the roots of the earth, wash them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, and then plant the flower in fresh soil.