How to Care for Ficus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig)
At Flora Grubb Gardens, our nurseries in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Ficus lyrata is one of our most popular plants, and we almost always have it in stock. Come get yours today! And read on for tips about how to grow and care for these plants.
Ficus lyrata in many sizes at our San Francisco plant store
Ficus lyrata, commonly called the fiddle-leaf fig, is a perfect indoor specimen plant. The plant features very large, heavily veined, violin-shaped leaves that grow upright on a tall plant. We almost always have Ficus lyrata in stock at our retail plant stores in San Francisco and Marina del Rey.
Ficus lyrata (bottom left) is available at our specialty plant store, Flora Grubb Gardens, in San Francisco
These plants are native to the tropics, where they thrive in warm and humid conditions. This makes them a tiny bit more challenging for the home grower, who is likely to have trouble duplicating these steamy conditions. Still, they are relatively robust plants that can withstand less-than-perfect conditions for a reasonably long time. Finally, F. lyrata are really meant to be grown as larger specimen plants. They are perfect if you can situate them in a floor-standing container where the plant is allowed to grow to 6 feet or more. (The trees commonly reach heights of 40 feet or more outdoors in tropical landscapes.) Because of their large leaves, these are not natural plants to trim down to a manageable size, though they can take modest pruning to shape.
Ficus lyrata are not especially demanding plants. One of the most common complaints about these plants is spotting on the leaves, which is especially noticeable in such a large-leaved plant. This spotting is usually caused by injury to the leaf, either mechanical damage or an attack of mites. Sometimes brown spots are an indication that the room is too cold for your plant, since Ficus lyrata has mildly caustic sap that can cause these brown spots when exposed to cold air. These plants are also susceptible to various leaf-spotting and fungal diseases, which are typically caused by lack of air-flow and too much moisture sitting on the leaves.
You can help prevent the above issues and keep your plant healthy by trimming it well, removing dead leaves and twigs as you see them.
If your fiddle-leaf fig plant is losing leaves, it’s likely a sign of too little moisture at the roots, or low humidity and cold, dry air. Try misting the plant regularly to increase the ambient humidity. Finally, these plants are also more sensitive to high salt levels, so make sure to flush your potting soil very thoroughly, preferably monthly, to prevent the build-up of fertilizer salts.
You can find Ficus lyrata (background center) in our Sun Room at Flora Grubb Gardens nursery in San Francisco, or in our lovely building at the Marina del Rey store.
Ficus lyrata are vulnerable to pests, including aphids, mealy bugs, mites, scale, and whitefly. If possible, identify the infestation as early as possible and treat it with the least toxic option.
In our stores we often get questions about these red spots on Ficus lyrata leaves. The issue is called edema, and it happens when the roots of plants take in more water than the leaves can transpire, so the cells rupture—usually on the underside of the leaf. Usually this happens when plants get over-watered when there are fresh leaves growing. These spots look like "rust" fungus, but is different in that you can’t brush them off.
Edema is nothing to be worried about! It’s just a little unsightly. The affected leaves won’t recover, but eventually they will drop off.
Growing Conditions
Tips: This plant does not like to be turned or moved frequently. Position the plant permanently and keep it clean by dusting with an old T-shirt. Stake and prune as needed. Ficus lyrata will only keep leaves that face the light; leaves facing a darker wall or corner will not last. Expect your ficus to loose leaves if you move or reposition the plant.
Light: Ficus lyrata require bright, filtered light. They can even tolerate some sun, especially if placed in an eastern-facing window. Plants that are kept too dark will fail to grow rapidly.
Water: Keep moist, but don’t allow it to sit in water, or it will likely drop leaves and suffer from root rot. Just the surface of the soil should be drying out between waterings; when you feel the top inch of soil is dry, it's time to give the plant more water.
Soil: A good, fast-draining potting soil will do nicely.
Fertilizer: Apply Maxsea All-Purpose fertilizer seasonally and up to monthly for plants not in perfect conditions, or recovering from stress.
Repotting
Healthy specimens are fast-growing plants with aggressive root systems (which is pretty typical for any ficus). Try to repot the plant annually, stepping up the pot size 2” to 4” until the plant reaches the desired size or until you can’t manage the container anymore. Once plants are in large containers, scrape off the top few inches of soil and replace with fresh potting soil annually.
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