Tried to speed up a transplant on my fiddle leaf and lost 3 big leaves in 2 days

Was repotting my fiddle leaf fig last Saturday in my kitchen. I was in a rush because my kid had a soccer game in 2 hours. So I just loosened the root ball a little and stuffed it into a bigger pot with fresh soil. Didn't water it right away cause I figured I'd come back. Well the leaves started drooping by Sunday morning and three big lower leaves just turned yellow and fell off by Monday. My wife called it the fiddle leaf massacre. Turns out I should have pruned the roots a bit and watered it slowly. Has anyone else killed a plant by being too impatient with transplanting?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery_stone9514d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain on this one. But here's my question: did you check if the new pot had proper drainage holes before you stuffed the plant in there? Cause that's something I always forget when I'm rushing. Also were you working with a root bound plant or just a regular root ball? That makes a big difference in how much you need to disturb the roots. I've definitely been in your shoes though, trying to squeeze a plant job in between other stuff and then paying for it later. The soccer game time crunch is the real enemy of careful repotting apparently.

noah_rivera5714d ago

Yeah so @avery_stone95 you're actually mixing up two different things there. Drainage holes are super important but you don't need to check for them every single time, like if you're using a nursery pot inside a decorative one that's totally fine. Root bound vs regular root ball is the real question here though, that changes everything about how you handle the repotting.